SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Tasa wrote: keyholekate wrote: My sister -in -law lived in a back to back on Nellie View.This was somewhere near the Prospect pub ,Richmond Hill and I remember some other streets were called the Berthas.It was 1977 ,she used to hange her washing across the road.I would love to know the exact location and why they all seemed to be called after old ladies names.I haven't come across any photos on the internet of these back to backs Here they are on a map from the early 1900s (click on the cross - or paperclip, depending on your browser - to view it) - just to the right of centre. I've included the area around it so that you can locate it on a current map. There are streets named Ada and Elsie to add to the Berthas and Nellies!     Thank you for the map Tasa. . . . very interesting to look at and I have been on Leodis too looking up all them streets.How times have changed.

I was born in Armley and lived on St Ives Mount which is a full street of blind back to backs and I now own an even rarer property on the street behind on Edinburgh Road which is actually a detached blind back to back, if such a thing exists. Strangely the house numbers go in the usual sequence but mine is 17 then it jumps to 21 so there is no number 19. I have always wondered if mine came first or last as it is of a totally different, somewhat more elaborate style, to the other houses with stonework and a bay window etc... I have thought it may have been the Landowners grand house and then he built the rest of the street or that there may have been two houses there and they may have been the victim of a disaster/bombing/fire etc as part of the original terrace and then rebuilt as one property and given the number 17. Any light that anyone may be able to shed on this house or the local area would be very welcome.

I lived in a back-to-back for 5 years from 1957 to around 1962. Belmont Mount, Thwaite Gate. It had a share outside toilet (between 2 at the front), a kitchen with a bath, living room, narrow winding staircase up to a medium (mam & dad) and smaller (bunk-beds for us 2 boys) bedroom. Another staircase up to the attic (Hornby train set & Scalextric), and a stairwell down from the kitchen (and access from the front of the house) to the cellar. Walls of the cellar covered in some white stuff.My recollections from age 2 to 7.

DazB - as far as I know that plot was never built on.

zip55 wrote: the kitchen (and access from the front of the house) to the cellar. Walls of the cellar covered in some white stuff.My recollections from age 2 to 7. I imagine the white stuff would be the once ubiquitous "distemper" zip55. I suppose it was the forerunner of the now familiar "emulsion."

Misc wrote: Does anybody know what's going to replace the back to backs in Holbeck? Just by the park, loads of them earmarked for demolition. A friend of mine now lives in a back to back in Holbeck, on Runswick Street (or Place??), he's not mentioned any plans to me for demolitionHe seems happy there, & has no plans to move on.There are patches of land where a few rows have been demolished along Top Moorside (between Domestic Street & M621)

BLAKEY wrote: zip55 wrote: the kitchen (and access from the front of the house) to the cellar. Walls of the cellar covered in some white stuff.My recollections from age 2 to 7. I imagine the white stuff would be the once ubiquitous "distemper" zip55. I suppose it was the forerunner of the now familiar "emulsion." Ah yes the whitewashed walls. There was a small coal storage room at the top of a flight of steps into the council flat that I used to live in and mum used to whitewash that room! White also on the edges of the outdoor steps to and from the flat.

drapesy wrote: I believe that "through by light" means that the houses are a terrace where the houses are in pairs - and in effect are interlocking 'l-shapes'. This means that you have a front door, window and main part of the house on one side of the row but thhen one side(interior) is narrow and goes right through the block to a window on the other side of the row. the interlocking house is vice-versa. This means that the two houses occupy the same floor space area as a normal back-to-back, but you have the advantage of a through-flow of air if you open the windows. Hope this makes sense. I believe there are still some through-by lights in Armley, at the top of Town street. Armley also has at least one row of "blind" back -to-backs - that is a single row with a blank wall at the back rather than another row of houses. My thought s on through by light are not quite the same as yours, there are some terraced houses driving out of Leeds up Dewsbury Road just past the Fire Station which have half an apexed roof, and then the back of the house which is a solid wall. Only one or two houses have windows on this side, which appear to have been added after the original build.

wsmith wrote: All be it a pale imititation of Leeds Town Hall, but that's nothing for Morleyonians to be ashamed of. Leeds does have the best town hall in Europe, after all! Morley Town Hall may be a pale imitation, but not of Leeds Town Hall.https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bolto ... l&tbm=isch

Leodian wrote: BLAKEY wrote: zip55 wrote: the kitchen (and access from the front of the house) to the cellar. Walls of the cellar covered in some white stuff.My recollections from age 2 to 7. I imagine the white stuff would be the once ubiquitous "distemper" zip55. I suppose it was the forerunner of the now familiar "emulsion." Ah yes the whitewashed walls. There was a small coal storage room at the top of a flight of steps into the council flat that I used to live in and mum used to whitewash that room! White also on the edges of the outdoor steps to and from the flat. I can remember getting sent up to my nan's to paint the outdoor step edges white. No PIR halogen floodlights to light your way back then....