SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

barnie wrote: [Where's the abandoned shop please Blakey? Perhaps this can be my new fascination now the Kirkstall Road one has gone. Hi barnie - the abandoned shop - well, derelict and rather sinister actually - is on the east side of Scotland Lane right opposite the T junction with Whitehouse Lane. Incidentally I've just discovered that Scotland Lane, without any alteration in direction, changes to Dean Road at the same spot.

BLAKEY wrote: barnie wrote: [Where's the abandoned shop please Blakey? Perhaps this can be my new fascination now the Kirkstall Road one has gone. Hi barnie - the abandoned shop - well, derelict and rather sinister actually - is on the east side of Scotland Lane right opposite the T junction with Whitehouse Lane. Incidentally I've just discovered that Scotland Lane, without any alteration in direction, changes to Dean Road at the same spot. Wasn't it the old Teapot Cafe tearooms in the dim and distant ?

BLAKEY wrote: barnie wrote: [Where's the abandoned shop please Blakey? Perhaps this can be my new fascination now the Kirkstall Road one has gone. Hi barnie - the abandoned shop - well, derelict and rather sinister actually - is on the east side of Scotland Lane right opposite the T junction with Whitehouse Lane. Incidentally I've just discovered that Scotland Lane, without any alteration in direction, changes to Dean Road at the same spot. Ooh, sounds good. Thanks Blakey. I think I will have to go and have an explore over the weekend. Also thanks jdbythesea for the tearooms input.

There's some stuff about Dean Lane on the Terror on the Road thread from way back (page 2.)

jdbythesea wrote: [Wasn't it the old Teapot Cafe tearooms in the dim and distant ? A friend who travelled on the route as a child, when his mother worked at Springfield House, seems to think that was almost certainly correct, and it was a teashop with a fair amount of confectionery for sale as well.    

https://www.flickr.com/photos/viewfromt ... 3765924759 picture of the tea rooms ?

When I was a youngster around the mid 1940s our family, like so many from Leeds, used to go to Blackpool for summer holidays. we always went by coach which I seem to remember departed from Aire Street or The Calls. the coaches were lovely and comfortable but one of the highlights for me and my brother was the stop at Gisburn. There would be lots of coaches parked outside and though the café was primitive by modern standards we though just having tea and sandwiches (brought from home due to food rationing) was a real treat. I can't quite remember if all the coaches were Ledgards but as all Leeds workers had their holidays at the same time there was a stream of these lovely big buses winding their way through Otley and Ilkley. As very few people owned cars in those days this certainly was luxury travel.

Hope no one minds we putting this on, although I realise its not fully on topic.

j.c.d - The Gisburn Cafe was "The Commercial" which was also a Tetley's pub. The coaches from The Calls would be Wallace Arnold. I don't recall any starting from Aire Street and Ledgard's departed from the main depot frontage in Armley Road, of if on frequent hire to West Yorkshire from Wellington Street coach station or the surrounding "overflow" streets.
At the Commercial, drivers had our our own little room and were provided free with tea, sandwich and a packet of cigarettes - if with a full coach load of passengers. If running empty to or from Blackpool just a tea and a sandwich, still generous and fair enough. As always with human nature some spoilt it by claiming that they had a full coach when they had no-one and so the cafe quite understandably started a book which you had to sign if the coach was loaded. I believe they then checked with the operator (spot check perhaps) to ensure that the coach had indeed been loaded, so any fiddler was like to be in bother and rightly so. The cafe even remained open until after Midnight when the Illuminations specials were running in September and October, leaving Blackpool at 11.00pm for an awful misty/foggy drive home on the A 59 (no M62 in those days of course.)

As a child long ago (early to midish 1950s) I still recall the half-way halts of the day out bus trips to and back from Blackpool .

BLAKEY wrote:j.c.d - The Gisburn Cafe was "The Commercial" which was also a Tetley's pub. The coaches from The Calls would be Wallace Arnold. I don't recall any starting from Aire Street and Ledgard's departed from the main depot frontage in Armley Road, of if on frequent hire to West Yorkshire from Wellington Street coach station or the surrounding "overflow" streets.
At the Commercial, drivers had our our own little room and were provided free with tea, sandwich and a packet of cigarettes - if with a full coach load of passengers. If running empty to or from Blackpool just a tea and a sandwich, still generous and fair enough. As always with human nature some spoilt it by claiming that they had a full coach when they had no-one and so the cafe quite understandably started a book which you had to sign if the coach was loaded. I believe they then checked with the operator (spot check perhaps) to ensure that the coach had indeed been loaded, so any fiddler was like to be in bother and rightly so. The cafe even remained open until after Midnight when the Illuminations specials were running in September and October, leaving Blackpool at 11.00pm for an awful misty/foggy drive home on the A 59 (no M62 in those days of course.)

Sometimes these days my recollections of events / places etc. get a bit hazy but as regards departing from Aire St. that is a definite as I remember our parents would take us into the City Station to use the toilet before a long journey, also if the Tram / Bus got us to town early we would wait in the Station as there was no cover on Aire St.

It has occurred to me that maybe the destination from there was not to Blackpool but another Seaside town though I don't really think so.

Thank you for the reply Blakey.