Leeds the new Westminster

[tim r armitage]

My reference is to the video "Leeds at War" and in particular to the section called "Leeds the New Westminster".1. First of all my intention is to share the information I have with you. 2. The second is to find out if anyone has any more information and the3. third is to give you all the research I have done, as I feel that I have reached a dead end. Preamble. I have in my collection a video, Leeds at War and in the section called "Leeds the new Westminster" the interviewer talks to a lady called Sybil Bishop, who gives the following information. If you could view this video its quite useful. Sybil Bishop was an au pair in France and returned to England just prior to the war and upon her return was directed by the Leeds University Careers Office to a building where she began to work for the Ministry of HOme Security. Sybil Bishop describes the building in detail. "It was vaguely under City Square, it housed a Rear Admiral, a Major General an Air Commodore and was to be the New Westminster if London had been taken over." There are a series of photographs of the interior, being a plotting room and control room. Sybil Bishop went on "the building was gas proof and was in charge of the control of emergency services."I decided to take this further and began to investigate. I spoke to my father who was in Leeds at this time and he gave me the following information which is probably and almost certainly the only eye witness account. My father was an office boy in the period 1937-38 working for Morrish, a Leeds solicitors and part of his job was to take post and legal documents, letters etc to other solicitors around Leeds on a daily basis. He had business to the extreme rear of Croft's Court as there were solicitors offices there and the stair case gave a high view over the area below. In the period 1937-38 the following happened. At the back of the Post Office in Leeds a very high fence of wood was constructed around the area. The square is the old Post Office to the front with City Square behind it. The road Quebec Street to the left and Infirmary Street to the left with Croft's Court to the rear. Thus a square at the back of the Post Office. There were gates into Quebec Street. In the middle of the square digging machine began to excavate a large hole and the spoil went out into Quebec Street, the gates being opened only to allow the trucks out. It was impossible to see what was going on from the ground due to the height of the fencing. The hole got deeper and deeper till eventually they began to construct a concrete building of a semi sunk variety. The building had ventilators on it but still had the wood fences around it making it impossible to be seen. My father joined the RAF and eventually went to Normandy. He was perhaps the most unlucky as he was torpedoed off Utah beach Normandy. See "fighter direction tender 216 D-day diary". However he was a survivor and is still in Leeds. Conclusion.I have attempted to research the building through the Leeds City Council Planning and there is no record of it. I have been informed that as it was an emergency wartime building for the Ministry of Home Security then planning permission was not needed and also the whole construction would have been handled from London. I contacted the oldest member of staff at the Post Office who remembers the building which was built on the site of the emergency headquarters and he just remembers " a large hole in the ground nothing more, no concrete building."There is nothing on the Ordnance Survey after the war, in Leeds Reference Library. On the ground there is no indication at all, apart from a deep slope into a car park within the new office building at the rear of the Post Office. I sent an article to "Down your way" but no replies. Logically the building, taken from other emergency structures would have the following. A filter room, as the struture was gas proof.Its on power supply, thus a generator room and probably a back up to this.Its own water supply, toilets and probably emergency bunks for sleeping. A plotting room, this is known from photographs.At least three offices for the senior staff but many more as it was a regional centre. Well that are all the facts. Any comments. Tim R Armitage

[Si]

Very interesting. Has this been mentioned on here before?Here's the area today.

[Si]

And in 1908...

[Si]

...and circa 1850.

[chameleon]

Si wrote: Very interesting. Has this been mentioned on here before?Here's the area today. I don't think this specifically has been Si, may possibly have been mentioned as something else without knowing these details.Someone must know something - MUNKI has talked about some of the official war-roomsin the centre if I recall correctly.

[raveydavey]

Interesting isn't it, that we had the British government planning on setting up just off City Square whilst Hitler was looking at Quarry Hill for his headquarters.

[dogduke]

Have done a little bt of research.Nothing onLeodis etc,people taking photos in the build up to war might arouse suspicions..Mi Mam now aged 90 commuted Harehlls - kirkstall Road iva City Square and has no recollection of seeing any such work as described.The policy of leaving central London during the war yearsis featured on SubBrit website.no mention of moving to anywhere 'North of Watford' PADDOCK was built at the start of the 2nd World War on the site of the Post Office Research and Development Station in Dollis Hill. Its purpose was to act as an alternative underground control and command centre for Central Government should a devastating air attack on Whitehall force Government to evacuate central London. PADDOCK would provide protected accommodation for the War Cabinet and the Chief of Staff of the air, naval and land forces, acting as a stand-by to the Cabinet War Room that was, from 1938, located in the adapted basement of the Office of Works building in Storey's Gate, opposite St. James's Park.As early as 1937 plans were drawn up to move Central Government out of London to the North West suburbs and if that became unusable a further withdrawal should be made to protected accommodation in the western counties.After the Munich crisis, the suburban scheme received further consideration in the autumn of 1938 and despite some misgivings from the Committee of Imperial Defence who favoured a relocation to the western counties, construction of four underground citadels was authorised, one for each of the armed services and an Emergency War Headquarters at Dollis Hill on the site of the Post Office Research Station. The Admiralty Citadel (Oxgate) would be located at Oxgate Lane, Cricklewood beneath the Admiralty Chart Store with the Air Ministry Citadel (Station Z) at Harrow, beneath the Stationery Office annexe and the Army Citadel at Kneller Hall in Twickenham, the home of the Royal Military School of Music; the latter was never built.If Sub Brit don'tknow about it I doubt that it happened