Cottingley, Leeds
Cottingley is a residential area in the south-west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of Beeston and Holbeck ward and is considered an area of Beeston. The area includes Cottingley Hall Cemetery and Crematorium run by the council.
The exact origin of the name Cottingley is not clear. The name appears in records from 1226 and 1538 and might come from Old English words or from a person named Cotta, with a suffix meaning a group and a word meaning a clearing in a wood. In the past, Cottingley was known for farming land and later for housing estates.
Most of Cottingley is a council estate. Cottingley Hall estate was built in the 1970s on land where temporary prefabricated housing stood. It was built with many cul-de-sacs to separate traffic from homes, following the “New Town Principles.” Some has called such layouts a “rabbit warren,” but the impact on Cottingley has been limited.
Two tall blocks, Cottingley Towers and Cottingley Heights, stand on a hill in the centre of the estate. They were built in 1972 and refurbished in 1989, and they were Leeds’s tallest flats at the time.
Cottingley railway station serves the area on the Leeds to Huddersfield line; it opened in 1988. The local church is a Methodist church that is part of a community centre. The main school in the area is Cottingley Primary Academy.
Next to the cemetery is Junction 1 Retail Park, which opened in 2019 and includes a B&Q, Burger King, B&M, The Food Warehouse, and Paw Prints pet shop. Aldi and Maplins closed in June 2018. There is a small shopping precinct on the estate that used to have the Cottingley Arms pub, but it has been closed for several years. The White Rose Shopping Centre is nearby for other shopping needs.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 09:24 (CET).