SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?reso ... Y=FULLDoes that look like a shelter covering a set of steps down?There's no manhole covers in the recently repaved path.

Cardiarms wrote: http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?reso ... Y=FULLDoes that look like a shelter covering a set of steps down?There's no manhole covers in the recently repaved path. Don't you jut love how Leodis pics are always so precise in noting the location to help those less familiar?

Phil mentions it on his page about air-raid shelters suggesting a surface shelter but my guess this was on top of a set of steps that went to the reinforced cellar of the shop? Perhaps?

As a little aside: this bookshop owned by the father of Robert F. Mack well known author of books about Leeds City TramwaysSee the shop sign.

If it was a cover for steps into a cellar or an air raid shelter why was it built so strangeley. It has two roofs the one facing the shop entrance is a really steap pitch and if it took a hit from a bomb it would be deflected straight into the shop. There is also a what looks like a lintel in the wall at a strange angle, mybe an earlier roof line?

Looks a bit bodged. A direct hit would be fairly final I don't think deflection would be an issue. Could just be an arp shelter.

Brunel wrote: As a little aside: this bookshop owned by the father of Robert F. Mack well known author of books about Leeds City TramwaysSee the shop sign. Well how amazing - I was a good friend of Robert F (Bob) Mack for half a century but never knew he had any connection with the Brudenell area. I lived my first three years 1936-9 at the top of Chestnut Avenue within a couple of hundred yards of the shop.The western end shop (just off the left of the picture) in that parade was Mr. Dockray's grocery store - isn't it a VERY small world ??    

BLAKEY wrote: Brunel wrote: As a little aside: this bookshop owned by the father of Robert F. Mack well known author of books about Leeds City TramwaysSee the shop sign. Well how amazing - I was a good friend of Robert F (Bob) Mack for half a century but never knew he had any connection with the Brudenell area. I lived my first three years 1936-9 at the top of Chestnut Avenue within a couple of hundred yards of the shop.The western end shop (just off the left of the picture) in that parade was Mr. Dockray's grocery store - isn't it a VERY small world ??     If it's such a small world, how come I don't bump into Penelope Cruz much?A fascinating structure. I'd love to know why it's built like that. (The shelter, I mean...)    

Si wrote: [If it's such a small world, how come I don't bump into Penelope Cruz much?A fascinating structure. I'd love to know why it's built like that. (The shelter, I mean...)     We can't help with the first query Si, and in the second comment we knew, of course, that you meant the shelter -what else ??

BLAKEY wrote: Si wrote: [If it's such a small world, how come I don't bump into Penelope Cruz much?A fascinating structure. I'd love to know why it's built like that. (The shelter, I mean...)     We can't help with the first query Si, and in the second comment we knew, of course, that you meant the shelter -what else ?? Having studied the pic of the structure, I think it's almost certainly an entrance to an air-raid shelter in Mack's cellar. If it was a warden's above-ground shelter, why put it right in front of the shop? A bit inconvenient, to say the least. I think the entrance is just around the right hand corner. The concrete roof line follows the line of the steps underneath, as they turn 90 degrees toward the shop. However, I'm baffled as to why that extra bit is added to the roof, unless they raised the roof because people kept banging their heads?PS A 500kg bomb dropped from 15000' isn't going to bounce off 3" of concrete and be deflected into the shop!