SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Page 22 of the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) today (November 14 2014) is taken up by an excellent feature headed 'Nostalgia Leeds On The Buses'. It has great photos, including one dated 1944 taken from Quarry Hill Flats showing a "monstrous queue" at the bus station. I wonder what they were waiting for as the queue is massive!

This link will bring up the YEP online version that has the same photos (you may have to wait for an advert before the photos come up):- http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-6950990

PS. I don't recall the clock on the pole in the 1967 photo.

Here are the bus station shot and the one with clock

I imagine that the collossal queue in the bus station, who all appear to be men, re possibly waiting to get to a rugby or football match - somewhere in West Riding Automobile Co territory, as they are on the West Riding platform.
Notice too the dreadful and sinister abbatoir on th right - an awful feature for a city centre in modern times !! On the extreme right the curved building was Morley's cafe and newsagents.
I believe, but may be wrong, that the square clock at the Corn Exchange was an LCT feature to assist with bus and tram timekeeping.

BLAKEY wrote:I imagine that the collossal queue in the bus station, who all appear to be men, re possibly waiting to get to a rugby or football match - somewhere in West Riding Automobile Co territory, as they are on the West Riding platform.
Notice too the dreadful and sinister abbatoir on th right - an awful feature for a city centre in modern times !! On the extreme right the curved building was Morley's cafe and newsagents.
I believe, but may be wrong, that the square clock at the Corn Exchange was an LCT feature to assist with bus and tram timekeeping.

Cheers Blakey . I thought you would be interested in the photos. I bet First Bus and others would like to get bus users in those numbers!

In the rear of the photo of the bus station reproduced by chemimike there are what I think will be old gravestone/slabs that were removed (? where to) a long while back. They do though look very prominent in the photo, so were likely much larger than I recall (well after 1944 though ).

Could this queue be workers for a works special bus , Yorkshire Imperial Metals or Copper Works at Stourton I remember they had a large parking area for works specials at Stourton .

scrabblerz wrote:Could this queue be workers for a works special bus , Yorkshire Imperial Metals or Copper Works at Stourton I remember they had a large parking area for works specials at Stourton .

Interesting. My first thought was along the lines of Blakey's that it was a football special. But then I thought hang on that would make it Saturday afternoon or a weekday evening when I would have expected the rest of the bus station to be busier than it appears. I suppose it could still be a Rugby League match (Leeds or possibly Hunslet at Wakefield, Castleford?) which could make it Sunday afternoon. I suppose the Smog was pretty much year round at the time and wouldn't necessarily indicate autumn as it does now. However if it were to be early morning in the autumn for a works special, I think its too light. All conjecture of course as I haven't reached any real conclusions just some discussion points on the theories offered so far

scrabblerz wrote:Could this queue be workers for a works special bus , Yorkshire Imperial Metals or Copper Works at Stourton I remember they had a large parking area for works specials at Stourton .

Yes, that is indeed another possibility as Skelton Grange and the Copper Works were both served, on the main road at least, by West Riding, South Yorkshire, and Burrows.

BLAKEY wrote:

scrabblerz wrote:Could this queue be workers for a works special bus , Yorkshire Imperial Metals or Copper Works at Stourton I remember they had a large parking area for works specials at Stourton .

Yes, that is indeed another possibility as Skelton Grange and the Copper Works were both served, on the main road at least, by West Riding, South Yorkshire, and Burrows.

LCT went into the Copper Works and had a dedicated turn round there.

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I rmember the bus station used to be controlled by Inspector P Bonner & co and was painted green and cream.
The corn exchange clock was LCT and Vallances was on the other side of the road.
It's interesting to note that these days there is a distinct lack of Inspectors in the city centre.