SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I've been hoping to take photos of this nice plaque but there has been scaffolding round it for what seems like forever (it certainly has been very many months so far) though no work ever seems to be going on! I finally gave up waiting for the scaffold to be removed and so I took these photos today (April 5 2016). The building is at the very end of the nice row of old buildings on the right of Eastgate when looking up from the Eastgate roundabout (the row on the other side of Eastgate was demolished for the Victoria Gate centre).

The first photo is a close up of the plaque, which I had to photograph at an odd angle to try to get it all in and be readable. The second shows the doorway (and some scaffolding) that the plaque is over. The third photo shows the end of the building with Eastgate on the left (along with part of the Victoria Gate work) and Lady Lane to the right. I think the nice new leaf growth of the tree also adds a certain charm to that photo.

Does anyone know of the history of this building and the Oddfellows?

Along with my brothers, I'm still a member of the Kingston Unity [and also the She*****d Druids] and my old man was the Secretary of one of the KU Lodges. Each Lodge held a bi-monthly meeting and in the days leading up to it, there would be a flurry of post arriving with members contributions and the occasional one turning up to pay in person. I only ever went to two of the meetings [about ten years apart] and it bored me rigid. Every two years the various Lodges held a weekend conference and booked out a whole hotel somewhere - Scarborough, Southport and Sunderland [!]. They must have had some clout as on one occasion the Scarborough conference merited a civic reception.
Friendly Societies are still alive and well, the She*****d Druids have the pest performing tax free savings plan other than this Panama scam.

Nice photos Leo. Your contribution to SL is really appreciated by those of us who rarely get into Leeds centre.

Now that I'm looking after my dad's financial affairs, I can tell you that my dad (a former chartered accountant) is a member of the Kingston Unity Friendly Society, holding a life policy with them. I didn't realise it was a "funny handshake" organisation though!

Its far from a funny handshake outfit. Some fifteen or so years ago there was a reorganization / amalgamation of the lodges and the one of which my old man had been the secretary and a couple of others were merged. The new secretary being a woman. The Free Masons certainly wouldn't have stood for that! I guess that they were called lodges and had posts such as Grand Master, Immediate Past Grant Master, Past Grand Master etc shows that they founded their structure on the FM's but I think that that is where the similarity ended.
The KU owned a lot of land and property at that end of the Headrow. The site of part of that building [Eastgate Chambers?], the freehold of the late Marquis of Granby pub, an freehold of the land encompassing the previous MoG pub and some of its surrounds, the land encompassed by Bridge Street / Lady Lane / Templar Place & Lydia Street along with other parcels of land around the town.

I know its not Leeds but I have always loved this particular building which I see when visiting relatives in the North East.

There is nothing hidden about this hall it's on the main High Street for all to see

The Potato Marketing Board used to have offices,
on the Eastgate side,used to look in as a kid waiting for the 42 bus

dogduke wrote:The Potato Marketing Board used to have offices,
on the Eastgate side,used to look in as a kid waiting for the 42 bus

The Motor taxation Office (later D.V.L.A.) had their offices upstairs just behind the pictures shown , I have spent lots of time queuing up in along with lines of motorists trying to get their road fund licence. everything took so long to process over the counter.

Thanks all for your help and input .

PS. I've just now done a slight edit to the text with the third photo where I had originally put Eastagte not Eastgate!

The motor tax office was on the opposite
side of East gate,entrance from Union Street and u the stairs for a !long wait.
The Inland Revenue were in the same area.

dogduke wrote:The motor tax office was on the opposite
side of East gate,entrance from Union Street and u the stairs for a !long wait.
The Inland Revenue were in the same area.

Well Dogduke I stand corrected but I was certain it was on the other side, my memory must be playing tricks.