SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

It is a very depressing sight to see the forlorn and neglected condition of the buildings bounded by the area between Vicar Lane, Lady Lane, Templar Place and Templar Street. Many have been vacant for a long time now and some, such as Templar House, are externally at least in a poor condition. I know the area is said to be going to be developed but it just seems to be a forgotten area.

Was I the only one expecting to see some more of Leo's excellent photography here

tyke bhoy wrote:Was I the only one expecting to see some more of Leo's excellent photography here

Cheers for that nice compliment tyke bhoy .

I've taken few photos recently in the area but this is one of the site of the old Red Bus Station/West Yorkshire Bus Station that I took on September 30 2014. The car parking area was not in use then but recently has had newly painted parking bays, so it will presumably soon be back in use (if it is not already). The rear area of several businesses are seen but I think some (possibly all) of them are vacant.

To my surprise there seems to be very few photos of the bus station in the Leodis archive. This is a link to one of them dated October 27 1980 that shows part of the bus station:- http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

I recall the bus station (it closed in 1990) but I don't recall the large area of the car park, so if I am right in it not being part of the bus station I wonder what used to be there? Perhaps it has been a car park a long time. The old clock is still there but it is not working and is defaced and/or vandalised.

Hi Leodian.
The area that you see was indeed entirely taken by the WYRCC bus station. The orginal prewar station occupied only the flat section to the left of the brown fencing. It was of course hopelessly inadequate and the area starting with the fencing (fencing not there at that time of course) was flat and was several feet higher than the bus station and was used for parking buses by WYRCC, being accessed by a different entrance.. In the `1950s it was excavated to give the gentle level in your picture and was used for many further departure stands right up to the boundary wall that you see here. It was a difficult and dangerous place involving buses reversing (nominally supervised by a conductor with the legendary "Acme Thunderer" whistle but often solo) - the problem becoming worse with every increase in the legal dimensions of the length and width of buses. For a childish prank (guilty as charged Mi 'Lud) once it was closed I parked my car on more than one of the stands, ready to reverse off and took photos. Other operators to use the station were United and East Yorkshire on services, joint with WYRCC, to Ripon, Brid, Scarborough, Whitby and Hull - and Samuel Ledgard to Horsforth and Rawdon via West Park. One of my finest memories was in the evening peak periods Monday to Friday, when the incoming East Yorkshire bus (one man operated) used to duplicate the busy 1715 to Ripon as far as the Leeds city boundary bearing, in the windscreen, a carboard notice declaring "ALWOODLEY + ROADS and with a spare West Yorkshire conductor - and, yes, whoever the wag was who'd assembled the card did use a religious cross between the two words. Such happy days.

Thanks Blakey for your help. I always look forward to your excellent and informative posts.

I have an "Acme Thunderer" whustle on my keyring Blakey.I got it years ago when working at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.It still works well enough to scare people when I decide to use it