SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I walk down black bull street on my way to work (heading into town) and the mill style frontages begged me to have a look behind and its a terrible mess but a lot of it is concrete or a car park type thing with painted bays and when id given up hope of finding anything of intrest I see a hole in the ground. It looks like the surface has subsided revealing a cellar. I was wondering what these cellars belonged to? I know yorkshire chemicals was on the other side of the road. I wish I could show u the photos but im on my mobile an I dont know how to. The hole is big enough to fit both my arms in and take a photo. There may be more but it was getting dark and had to go but any info would be appreciated many thanks

On a similar vein, years ago (20+) I worked in Leeds, & sometimes waited for my bus home (443) on Black Bull Street.Near the bus-stop (below it, on the WASS side) there was a doorway into what I presume was part of Yorkshire Chemicals.Through the partially open letter-box could be seen a hall-way & staircase, would this have been a receptionOr, is my memory playing tricks on me?

RichT wrote: On a similar vein, years ago (20+) I worked in Leeds, & sometimes waited for my bus home (443) on Black Bull Street.Near the bus-stop (below it, on the WASS side) there was a doorway into what I presume was part of Yorkshire Chemicals.Through the partially open letter-box could be seen a hall-way & staircase, would this have been a receptionOr, is my memory playing tricks on me? Not sure RichT.....i do remember visiting some YCL offices on Cudbear St however and that was up an old staircase in some delapidated offices.I suspect the whole area was not a very healthy place to work,unless of course,you liked the whiff of Tetley's brewing up on a regular basis or the horse stables which were very close by to the area mentioned in this thread !

This undated Leodis pic shows 11 to 19 Black Bull Street. They have cellars - perhaps what you saw were the remains of these?Note the damaged end of the terrace with filled-in cellar. Possible bomb damage or slum clearance?    

Black Bull Street area on Godfrey 1908 OS map. Whereabouts is your cellar, Polo?    

1996 aerial view of the same area. (From Leodis.)

ive looked at all the black bull street but It does not look like the frontages are still there it does look like an old mill frontage with the tall windows bricked up. The fact that this cellar is clearly under a modern car park makes me wonder how many there are and if there are many more openings to get down there. On a similar note I was talking to my uncle a while back and (now in his 70s) said about 30or so years back they were doing building work on black bull street and theyd uncovered stabling for 200 plus horses and it was very very old anyone know about this? also im sure ive read some where about a black bull field. any info on all this muchly appreciated

The cellar is just behind the advertising boards next to the obvious gap in the fence just through through the bushes. you can see where the hole has opened up.

Hi Polo. According to this 1847 map, apart from Chadwick Lodge and a foundry, there was sod-all on Black Bull Street then. On the northern part, anyway.    

polo wrote: The cellar is just behind the advertising boards next to the obvious gap in the fence just through through the bushes. you can see where the hole has opened up. Where is that on the 1908 map, Polo?