SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

A couple of years ago Flickr member Dizzy Atmosphere added a few nice photos of Leeds from around 1970 to the Flickr site, which were mentioned on here and prompted some discussion.At the time most of the locations could be identified and in some cases equivalent Google Streetview images were posted, but this one escaped identification:http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveglass/303273415/The photographer has now updated the image with an uncropped version of the same shot, which has provided some more detail in the background (more shown to the left). I'm still stumped however, but then I've only lived here since 1989. The location is believed to be within a few miles of Hyde Park, where the photographer lived.The foreground location may not exist anymore as large-scale terrace clearances continued up until the early 80s, but there might be someone on here who can identify it from the shop or background detail.Previous suggestions included the Cedars behind Armley Sports centre, but the buildings and topography don't match. The tower blocks in the background are possibly the ones by Armley Moor, and the tower slightly in front of them (which appears to have some lettering) might be the water tower of Winker Green Mills. The tower blocks are probably still there as Leeds hasn't pulled down any highrises that I know of (until the recent demolitions in Holbeck).The camera lens may have brought forward the background, so the foreground location could actually be some distance from the background features. This could be somewhere on the side of Kirkstall Valley looking towards Armley (including the Rosebanks area), or could be somewhere completely different (Meanwood, Harehills). The tower blocks could be Little London, or Cottingley. Several hours poring over Google Earth hasn't helped me!If anyone can positively identify this place I'll buy them a pint as it's been bothering me for some time!Cheers, John.

I had two thoughts. First that it was somewhere in lower Chapeltown looking across the lower Meanwood valley towards the east of Hyde Park. My second is even close to home in that is in the Woodhouse Moor/Burley area looking across the Aire Valley towards Wortley with the Church Spire being St Bartholomews. It would be nice to see what was behind the first two rows of houses as my first theory is missing the “Parkinson building” while the Castle like structure at the join of the straight top of the roofs of houses in row 3 and the downslope of the roof of the 2nd row could be part of Armley Jail.If it is Burley its in ‘arry ‘awks neck of the woods so hes more likely to be able to confirm or rubbish that theory

My gut feel is from the Rosebank area (now the consorts?) across to Wortley but that church spire isn't St Barts and doesn't match anything I know. Wouldn't the gas holder be creeping in at the left?

Yup I had a feeling St Barts would be more prominent.This is from Bell Vue Roadhttp://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ls4&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=Leeds+LS4,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.803675,-1.565125&spn=0.001106,0.002411&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.803604,-1.565015&panoid=sfgI-42ZRwhrZWZqkrY1-g&cbp=12,206.76,,0,7.32It shows what I now think are the 4 blocks in the original. The castle like tower on Armley Jail and St Barts. Unfortunately views from streetview across the aire valley from further east on Belle Vue road (which the photo would have to have been) are blocked by houses and/or the several storey buildings that have gone up on Burley Road and Kirkstall Road

I think the 'castle structure' is probably a chimney, looking at the others.The industrial buildings in the middle distance could be Kirkstall Valley, but we could also be looking at Meanwood (though I don't think the tower blocks correspond).It's the structure at the end of the houses that may offer the biggest clue - it looks like a water tower or possibly a fire station training tower.

Somewhere about herehttp://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ls4&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=Leeds+LS4,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.803904,-1.563712&spn=0.002132,0.004823&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.803762,-1.563851&panoid=NFS1sIBc-6P1UR9tW2eYDg&cbp=12,209.13,,0,5

Amazing, I think you have it. The tower block positions look nearly identical. I suspect the actual location is a bit to the left, but the streets would have been remodelled after clearance.I was expecting the terraced housing to still be there somehow, since it doesn't look run down and boarded up so could have survived the clearance.Does anyone have an old OS map for this area which might show the streets as they were?

I think it was also a bit nearer but given what I said earlier about "high rise" developments at the east end of Burley Road I had to a bit further back and right for those not to block the view

I agree with Tyke Bhoy that this is probably from Belle Vue Road, in between the years of building of the third and fourth of the New Wortley tower blocks. ( EDIT 08/10, sorry, my eyes! all four tower blocks are present and correct ) The church spire would be that of the now gone St. Mary's on Tong Road, opposite Fourteenth and Fifteenth Avenues. I believe a small section of the prison's tower is to be be seen between the rooflines of the second and third blocks of foreground houses from the right as Tyke Bhoy points out.        

Looking at the Godfrey NW Leeds 1908 map, my best guess is that the streets shown are, reading from the right, Belle Vue Grove, Avenue, Lawn, and Crescent, with Belle Vue Road just apparent at the bottom of the hill. What appears to be a road running along the street ends was a ginnel extension of Kendal Terrace which was opened out by demolition.Kendal Terrace itself ends at the "Turog" shop, and the road running left to right behind the lads is Hanover Mount.