SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Brandy wrote: il have a pop at bk arthington place/norwich avenue! ps/do i win a cigar     Bullseye !!!! I'll email a virtual cigar forthwith...

drapesy wrote: Brandy wrote: il have a pop at bk arthington place/norwich avenue! ps/do i win a cigar     Bullseye !!!! I'll email a virtual cigar forthwith... YES i have finally got one!

Well done, Brandy! Enjoy the virtual cigar.

Si wrote: Well done, Brandy! Enjoy the virtual cigar. I virtually smoked it this morning

drapesy wrote: Brandy wrote: il have a pop at bk arthington place/norwich avenue! ps/do i win a cigar     Bullseye !!!! I'll email a virtual cigar forthwith... Hi drapesy how about another if you have got the time i would not mind a virtual cigar.

Samson wrote: To add to the 'difficulties' of back to backs were the outside shared toilets.Experiences I have no doubt that we will keep to ourselves!!Does anyone know if they still hang the washing out across the streets like they used to do in the 50's? I remember seeing this in a couple of streets in The Charltons near East End park about 20 years ago, but I do not know if it goes on now? In addition to the previous mention of Harehills I have seen this on the Recreations in Holbeck and the Aviaries in Armley in thepast few days.

Samson wrote: I spent 11 years in back to backs and it was all I knew then.As regards the area I lived in - The St Hilda's area - I remember two types of back to back.1. Had a minute front garden with an outside toilet shared by two houses, steps led down to it. ( My mother made me go and collect the droppings from the milkman's horse to put on her two roses!!)2. The other ones nearby had a front door that opened onto the street. They, I think shared a toilet with next door. I remember as a child seeing men in work clothes and reading newspapers, leaning against the wall in the street as they waited to go in for their morning ablutions.I may be wrong, but it was the quality of the people that I grew up with that I remember most. There was little crime that I can remember and a community spirit. I remember my mother in the early morning scraping out the coal fire ashes, doing breakfast and then washing using a posser etc. Hanging the washing in the street. Like all mothers at that time she worked so hard. Houses with no back windows or doors! Two up - two down, shared lavatories. Nothing to write home about these days perhaps, but the smiles, the trust, the 'get on with life' and 'I must get to work' are lost in some areas todayI suppose it fair to say it was a hard life for some, if not most - I was lucky as I was in one of the better back to backs.To those who lived in one, would you go back? I most certainly would not. But it would be interesting to hear your views.And I also wonder if there is a long term future in back to backs today in Leeds??Even with a whiff of reality I can still remember the community bonfires on the cobbled streets in the mid fifties and the women bringing out Bonfire toffee and Parkin and everyone getting on. The milkman and the veg and fruit man with their horse and carts I think it is the people I remember with the most affection, rather than the housing. Wow I must have had it rough then, bath night once a week in a tin bath hung on the cellar head, 2 toilets were shared between 4 houses, bonfire night on the cobbles brings back memories espescially with the parkin and toffee.This house is still there (Gledhow Place) minus the cobbles and shared toilet yards.By the way im 42 and it seems like yesterday!     

drapesy wrote: sundowner wrote: drapesy wrote: "blind-back backs" if you know what I mean. (starter for 10 - location please!) Hi drapesy no one come up with the location yet? Looking at the seats at the back there must be a bit of spare land at the rear.Its not a place i know but i thought i would bring it back to the top of the thread. Picture of site on page three of this thread.     thanks for that When Martyn said 'Holbeck' he was close - but no cigar     There's another row of blind back-to-backs just off Dewsbury Road in Beeston. I'm working at O2 at the moment so I see them from the bus. What I vaguely wonder is if they were built blind, or if there was a road that has since gone there, which suggests an awful lot of work to replace the back wall, or an odd way of building houses in the first place.

Yes, they almost certainly were built that way. Each builder had their standard set of plans for back-to-backs, and just used half for blind-backs when there was limited space/no street.

I was born in one in Hunslet, they were knocked down to make way for those council houses oopposite where The Red Lion was on Hunslet Road.