SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

The latest additions to Leodis photos include about 20 photos of the Queen's visit to Leeds -Oct 17 & 18 1958.
http://www.leodis.net/searchResults.asp ... CURRPAGE=1

Thanks to Leodis I now know exactly where I was on the afternoon of Friday the 17th Oct 1958 because I lived in Harehills near the Burton's factory. The buzz went round and all the local kids lined the road to see the Queen visit Burtons factory on Hudson Rd. I joined the throng standing on a wall near the junction of Compton Rd and Hudson Rd . We seemed to wait for hours and all I got was a fleeting view of a white gloved hand waving through the rear door window of the black car. The car slowed to take the corner so I suppose I saw the spectacle for about 30 sec, but like all the other loyal subjects I cheered and waved a union jack. Even then, aged 10, I thought it was a bit of an anti-climax.
Forty years later I had a colleague & friend from Sri Lanka and he recalled waiting in the sun with all his classmates for hours on end to be rewarded with a very brief glimpse of HRH as she flashed past in a car during a royal visit to Ceylon in the 50's. We had a laugh about our similar impressions of royal visits at opposite sides of the globe.

Anyway it is interesting to see on Leodis the other places in Leeds worthy of a royal visit back then

I do remember when She and the Duke came to Leeds in 1949, They attended Chidrens Day in Roundhay Park where
100,000 People would gather. We had just moved to Beeston and i recall us running down to Dewsbury Road to see them pass by. We were all there for what seemed like hours and then as the flags waved and we all cheered a black car went by with the back open and the couple waving. It was all over in a few seconds. They were heading out of Leeds so don't know where they were bound for.

I know that in later years when she was Queen she arrived and opened Seacroft Shopping Centre (bet she still has nightmares about that)

Those are interesting photos of the visit. I wonder if the tree is still there and now well grown in Harewood Park (presumably what I call Harewood Estate)?

I also wonder if the Queen popped into Queens Hall to see the trams that I think still used that site in 1958, though I doubt she did!

I was there, along Water Lane, when she visited Crabtree's. So that must have been 17th Oct 1958.