Shops still on the same site in Central Leeds

[chemimike]

Thanks. Did not realise that. Was going by walking by the top entrance a few months ago

[Jann]

The place that used to be Nash’s upstairs is a Indian restaurant now

[tyke bhoy]

Thanks Jann. Does that mean the back entrance is no longer Nash's or that it is now just Nash's takeaway from that ground floor entrance. As mentioned I haven't been on foot in the local vicinity since 2020 and only within about 400 yards 2 or 3 times.

[Jann]

Hi tyke buoy ! Sorry but I don’t know if Nash’s still has a takeaway at back entrance, only know about the upstairs as a friend of mine went a few years ago, as for myself due to very poor mobility issues I have with walking I not been in Leeds city centre for about five years now, looking on google maps there seems to be plenty of bars , pubs , restaurants, coffee shops etc and students flats, do most of my shopping online now, was near the town centre ( in a car ) last week but only near Merrion Centre, doesn’t seem to be many roads in town that cars can go now, only parts I did see looked more or less the same ,

[Leodian]

According to https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/blog/2021/6/samuel-taylor Samuel Taylor started at 30 Central Road after WWII and then moved to 10a Central Road in 1961. H Samuel the jewellers used to be at 39 Briggate and moved to 54 possibly in the early 60s when Burton next door redeveloped.

Passing today I noticed that H Samuel's has moved to larger premises next door that had been the Zara Home store on Briggate. The move must have been quite recent.

[chemimike]

According to google the downstairs place was still there sept 2020, when the upstairs was a (different) restaurant

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[tyke bhoy]

Yep those streetviews were what I was basing my "is it still there?" on. If you nudge up the back street a little further on streetview and spin to face the shop there is what appears to be a staircase visble through the glass door to the left of the drinks refrigerator and separate from the entrance steps.

[jim]

Took a look at Nash's fish and chip shop this evening, and yes, it is still open seven days a week, mid day to midnight. so now can anyone tell us when it first started operating from that site. It would also be good if anyone can say when Marks and Spencer's began operating on or within its current Briggate site. Any further candidates for the longest shop presence on its current central Leeds site? I regard Central Leeds as being North of the river and inside the course of the Inner Ring Road from Wellington Bridge
to Regent Street, then St Peter's Street to Crown Point Bridge.

Pedantic Jim.

[iansmithofotley]

I looked at this topic when it was first posted and I thought of three possibilities, all within a short distance of each other.

The first one was the Jewellers Shop of Myer Waterman (B. 9/7/1892, M. 17/10/1915, D.15/1/1984) at 49 New Briggate, Leeds 2. The shop is shown in the 1940 Leeds Telephone Directory (Leeds 25188) and the 1984 Directory (Leeds 455188). The Leeds Telephone Directories on Ancestry only go from 1940 - 1984. I remember meeting Mr Waterman after a robbery at his shop around 1969. I think that the shop was still a jewellers trading under the name of Waterman until very recently, albeit I think that another firm took over the shop but still used the Waterman name. Myer Waterman (Wasserman) came to Leeds some time during the first world war (he lived in London in 1915). He married at New Briggate Synagogue in 1915 and his daughter, Fanny Waterman, a well known and famous concert pianist, was born in Leeds in 1920 (M. 1944, D. 2020). I suspect that Myer opened his shop around 1930. I rarely visit Leeds, nowadays, so I don’t know what the shop is now. I looked on Google Street View and the shop is still there but it looks to possibly be a phone shop or pawnbroker/money lending shop, I am not sure about the street numbers due to a bus blocking the view. I searched on Google, Companies House, etc., and last week I actually phoned a couple of the phone numbers shown for the premises but without any success (numbers unobtainable), so I gave up.

The second one was the newsagents shop at 23 New Briggate, next to St John’s Church. I remember, as a child in the early 1950’s, seeing lots of French, German, Italian and other foreign newspapers in racks outside the shop and it was the only one that I can remember, in Leeds, who sold them. I think that the shop still trades as a newsagents and vape shop in the same premises. It was a newsagents shop as far back as 1937. It has had various names such as Rhodes (1940’s), Groves (1944), Barry’s (1980’s), Williams (1985) and Sid’s (2023).

The third one was the Pet Shop in the Grand Arcade. It was there as far back as I can remember (late 1940’s). There is a photograph on Leodis when, in the 1960’s, it was known as Pets & Aquaria Ltd. As a young child, I remember looking at puppies, rabbits, goldfish and tropical fish displayed in the shop window. I don’t know if the pet shop is still there or if it has now changed to trade as something else (shop, bar, restaurant, etc.).

I didn’t make this post earlier as I had given up on it as I didn’t have current and accurate information without visiting Leeds.

[chemimike]

Took a look at Nash's fish and chip shop this evening, and yes, it is still open seven days a week, mid day to midnight. so now can anyone tell us when it first started operating from that site. It would also be good if anyone can say when Marks and Spencer's began operating on or within its current Briggate site. Any further candidates for the longest shop presence on its current central Leeds site? I regard Central Leeds as being North of the river and inside the course of the Inner Ring Road from Wellington Bridge
to Regent Street, then St Peter's Street to Crown Point Bridge.

Pedantic Jim.

The 1936 Kellys shows only Nash's at 42 Park lane