SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Does anyone remember this when shopping was kept local?http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Lidgett ... =20Friends used to live on Jackson Avenue late 1950's early 1960s. The building (now a house) corner 7 Lidgett Grove (corner of ) Gledhow Wood Grve was 'Kilburns Grocers'. Corner door still visible. It stocked most of the essentials with a bacon slicer, bread, ice-creams etc.To the left of image (what looks like and problably now is the garage) was a Cobblers. Fully equipped and with all the kit.Higher up on Gledhow Avenue were more shops, butchers etc and 'Uncle Joe's Post Office' at it's corner Roper Grove.http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Lidgett ... -9.68Still more shops Roper Grove identified by what are now odd side angled walls/doors to the road.The newbuild formula mid/late 1950's parade of shops corner Chandos Gdns/Lidgett Ln provided Bakers (Turnbulls, which lasted until 1990), Chemist, Woods Greengrocers, Newsagent etc.Adjoining Gledhow School fields was Gledhow Grange, then a Children's Home.Any info anyone?

Jogon wrote: Does anyone remember this when shopping was kept local? I do.No supermarkets when I was a kid.My mam and dad took me to Grandways in Harehills Road about 1967 and that was amazing just how much they had on sale.Today I go to Asda, Morrisons, Tescos and Sainsbury's and feel that these supermarkets provide choice and value......but are they local and does it matter???????

There used to be a Grandways that was demolished to make way for the building of the new 'New York Road'. If I recall correctly is was on the old 'New York Road' at about where Bridge Street is, but I may be out of position. I also recall that during the construction at or near Grandways they came across an air raid shelter that seemed to have been forgotten about (it was I believe then filled in).

Yes it was at the bottom below the Gas Board tower block

In Morley as far as grocers we had Gallons, Thrift and various local grocers - one at the end of the arcade (long gone) had a coffee mill in the window and smelled of fresh coffee. The supermarkets saw them all off.The first supermarket was Coopers (later Fine Fare) it occupied what had been the Picture House on Queen Street - about 1960. They used to give Pink Stamps.It remained unchallenged as the only supermarket until the late sixties when there came what can only be described as a plethora. Queens (Asda) in what had been Ebeneezer chapel (I was christened there - the chapel not the supermarket) Tesco on Queen Street in the former Queen Street Methodist Sunday School, the Co-op became a supermarket, and opposite in what had also been co-op premises came Grandways.The advent in the early seventies of Asda on Britannia Road, and Morrisons in the new precinct saw the lot gone within 2/3 years leaving only the two giants, plus Sainsbury's in the White Rose to vie for Morley's business.I believe Grandways became Jacksons (Hull?) and later Safeway(not in Morley) Safeway of course became Morrisons, but not in central Leeds where its a Waitrose I believe.The one we didn't have in Morley was Hillards, based in Cleckheaton and taken over by Tesco - were there any Hillards anywhere else in Leeds? Or were they mainly in Spenborough and the Heavy Woollen district? There was one in Ossett and one in Wakey. I used to love their chocolate digestive biscuits - I wonder who made them.

Hillards in Headingley Arndale. Now a wilkinsons but the red plastic cover on the handrails for the stairs is still there. Tesco bought Hillards, not for the sites or the shops but just to kill the opposition.Hillards still exists as a charitable trust:http://www.hillards-trust.co.uk/4612.html

Cardiarms wrote: Hillards in Headingley Arndale. Now a wilkinsons but the red plastic cover on the handrails for the stairs is still there. Tesco bought Hillards, not for the sites or the shops but just to kill the opposition.Hillards still exists as a charitable trust:http://www.hillards-trust.co.uk/4612.html That's really interesting. Although I'd agree that they took over Hillards to get rid of them they did carry on operating the Wakefield branch for some time. Tesco then had two branches in the town and shut them both down.    

Someone mentioned Grandways, one of the first Leeds Supermarketshttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... AY=FULLand there was about to be one at Chapel Allerton.Then 'Gem' (now Mecca) a purpose new build on the roundabout Cross Gates Road.

Hi everyone,I was brought up in Woodhouse, in the 1940’s/50’s and there was a Gallons on Woodhouse Street. It wasn’t anything like a supermarket of today, but it was a shop that sold a lot more items than the local ‘corner shops’, which tended to sell less items but were more specialised, e.g. butcher, baker, grocer, etc. I suppose that Gallons was a primitive form of ‘supermarket’.With regard to Grandways, the one in Harrogate Road was on the opposite side of the road from Chapeltown Police Station. It fronted on to Harrogate Road and was also infront of the Chapeltown Police Station Garage, which was known as ‘Normandy Villas’ (I have no idea why, and I have not researched it).I can also remember a Grandways in Dewsbury Road. I used to be a detective sergeant, in the early 1970's, at Dewsbury Road Police Station and Grandways had a particular lady store detective who was as keen as mustard and hardly ever missed a trick in her store. I think that she had more ‘prisoners’ than the rest of the Grandways store detectives, in Leeds, put together. Her detection rate was amazing but I sometimes wondered if she had fabricated some of her evidence or whether she was just lucky. Perhaps she was on ‘piece work’ or commission. I do know her full name but she was known as ‘Jeanie’, for short.Whenever we charged any shoplifters, from Grandways, the charge always read “That you did ---------------------, the property of William Jackson & Son (Hull) Ltd’, and not Grandways. Jackson’s was obviously the parent company.Ian    

Jogon wrote: Does anyone remember this when shopping was kept local?...Any info anyone? Yes, we moved to the Royal Park area (Burley) in 1969, so just outside your timeframe, Jogon, but still in the era of pre-supermarket shopping. We had previously lived in the centre of town so my mother did most of her shopping in the market. Saturday morning was our main shopping trip - we bought butter, milk and ham off the bone from Brown's grocer on the corner of Thornville Road and Harold Street (no longer there), meat from Harry Hudson on the corner of Cardigan Road and Ashville View (now a property letting agent), bread and cakes from Murton's bakery on Cardigan Road (still there) or a bakery on Brudenell Road (still there), stamps and stationery at the Post Office on Brudenell Road (still there), fruit and veg from a greengrocer on Cardigan Road (now a property letting agent), medicine from the Cardigan Road Chemist (still there) and newspapers/comics/magazines from the shop at the corner of Royal Park Road and Queen's Road (still there). We had fish and chips for lunch from the Up-Steps Fish Bar on Brudenell Road (now a property letting agency) and I spent my Saturday afternoons at the matinee at the Hyde Park Picture House (still there). All these were within five minutes' walk of where we lived but our shopping seemed to occupy about two hours (mainly my mam socialising)!The Co-op supermarket existed on its current site on Cardigan Road, but was a lot smaller. We only went in there for Sodap Cyprus Sherry, which they decanted from a barrel if you brought your own bottle!Having written this, I'm surprised how many of the local shops are still in existence, despite the fact that the area is now mainly a student population and the Co-op is open 24 hours per day during the week.