SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

On page 17 of the Yorkshire Evening Post today (June 1 2013) there is a fascinating photo dated February 25 1976 of the Royal Mail House (huts!) at what seems to be the junction of King Street and Quebec Street. In the caption to the photo it states "The hutments were built as a temporary recruiting office for the First World War". Does anyone know when they were demolished, as if that is given in a SL thread I cannot readily find it.Now 1976 is not long ago at all yet (once again!) I have no recollection of even not so old bits of Leeds! Thank goodness that other SL folk have far better memories of Leeds. Anyone asking for my recollections if I turn 100 will be very disappointed!

Well, I'd be interested to see that photo if it becomes available online, as I have no memory of the huts either, despite living on East Parade during the 1960s and having a summer job at Adair, Davy & Mosley on King Street in the mid-1970s, so was working almost opposite the site.Perhaps seeing the photo would jog my memory, as I can't remember what was there before the new buildings on either side of Quebec Street at the junction with King Street were built, but I really don't remember "huts"!Hasn't there been some discussion on Secret Leeds about a WWI recruiting office on the site where the (former) Majestic Cinema was later built? I wonder if it's another misunderstanding on the part of the YEP....

I remember the wooden buildings well (they were a bit large to call "huts"). They stretched from Quebec Street right down to a side-street's width from the Metropole, and there was a row of bus stops beside them. King Street was two-way in those days, and if I remember correctly, the bus stops were the teminal/starting points for a variety of non-LCC services. I can't recall most of the companies and routes, but feel fairly certain that Ledgard's Pudsey/Bradford buses used the site. I am sure that Blakey will be along shortly to tell us all about it.

jim wrote: King Street was two-way in those days, and if I remember correctly, the bus stops were the teminal/starting points for a variety of non-LCC services. I can't recall most of the companies and routes, but feel fairly certain that Ledgard's Pudsey/Bradford buses used the site. I am sure that Blakey will be along shortly to tell us all about it. I agree - this sounds like a job for Blakey!

Steve Jones explains:http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... OMMENT=YES

Ta LeoI don't recall those. I would have been 'in town' by then but retail/Briggate/New B/Kirkgate.That corner plot was/is developed now as Kings House (I think) to house what was Walker, Morris, Scott, Turnbull the Leeds&Holbeck Albion St Lawyers.Not sure what year it was built or what was there before it, ie was there an interim or these huts.[edit - psfound on the net "........ Quite right Dave, routes 15 and 28 ran from King Street Leeds, stand by the GPO ..."

I vaguely remember these huts.Does anyone remember the taxi rank in Quebec St.The cabbies had a hut/shelter where they waited for jobs over the landline phone,long before radios in cabs and heck of along time before mobiles.

dogduke wrote: I vaguely remember these huts.Does anyone remember the taxi rank in Quebec St.The cabbies had a hut/shelter where they waited for jobs over the landline phone,long before radios in cabs and heck of along time before mobiles. I don't know if any images survive of the Leeds huts but if you Google cabman's shelters you'll find some in and around London. The one on Quebec Street looked similar.

dogduke wrote: I vaguely remember these huts.Does anyone remember the taxi rank in Quebec St.The cabbies had a hut/shelter where they waited for jobs over the landline phone,long before radios in cabs and heck of along time before mobiles. L o Dog duke, I remember the Hackney Carriage taxi office(hut )on Quebeck St! I don't remember the other huts though.

raveydavey wrote: jim wrote: I can't recall most of the companies and routes, but feel fairly certain that Ledgard's Pudsey/Bradford buses used the site. I am sure that Blakey will be along shortly to tell us all about it. I agree - this sounds like a job for Blakey Always a pleasure folks. The stop nearest Quebec Street was for the Hebble numbers 15 and 28 to Burnley / Rochdale. Lower down the GPO parcel office huts the stop nearest the Metropole was for Samuel Ledgard's services to Ilkley via Guiseley, and to Horsforth (Old Ball and Stanhope Drive) via Hawksworth Road. The Ledgard service to Bradford via Wortley and Pudsey ran from the opposite side of King Street, facing up beyond Park Place and near Atlas Chambers (the office block still there). The congestion at peak times on the "GPO" stops was a healthy indication of the well patronised bus services of the time. At 5.20 pm two Hebble buses departed from their top stop, at 5.15 pm a Ledgard bus left for Horsforth, and after that there were no less than four Ledgard buses on one departure - all well loaded in King Street and full along Kirkstall Road - 5.27pm to Rawdon Co-op, 5.28pm to Guiseley White Cross, 5.29pm to Ilkley and 5.30pm to Ilkley. Oh what happy days - I wish I could go back now and do a few more trips for the good old firm !!    In later years, when King Street became one way northbound, all the Ledgard services were removed to Park Place eastbound.