SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Talking to a chap at the 42 bus stop last week and we got talking about the building being rebuilt and he said he had heard that workmen had been complaining of taps on the shoulder foot steps etc in the basement is this a leg pull or has anyone heard of this before.

Not heard of that Fest, but I've been in the basement since the store closed, and I can quite believe it. It's probably the one area of the store that has changed the least since it opened. It was full of maintenance workshops, racks of tools and that sort of stuff. Didn't look to have been modernised since the store was built.The upper floors existed in a "shell" within the outer building. Between that and the exterior walls were a lot of older remnants.Paranormal, no. Atmospheric, yes.

Hi, i knew a lady who worked their for some years she always said it was haunted... apparently no one would want to go to the staff rooms on their own and if you did she said she always felt like she was not alone, when she was...spooky cannot remember her saying she had actually been touch cannot imagine that she would have stayed for a few years if she was...It wouldn't be right though for an old building in the centre of Leeds not to be haunted though would it...

i always knew it was haunted...i used to get the fright of my life when i got to the tills!

Must admit I know very little of the history of the place date of build, what was on the site previously etc. Any info anyone???

Hi Festerfer,I think it was built in the 30s(?) when the Headrow was substantially widened. According to my Godfrey 1840s map, it is on the site of houses and workshops with yards between, a little like Briggate. There was also a couple of pubs - The Nag's Head Inn and The Wheat Sheaf Inn.Si

There was also the 'Anchor' and the 'Corn Exchange Hotel' during the Georgian and Victorian erasJimbo

I think a trip to the Library is on the cards here its got me hooked now.

There is a story and photo here:http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/w ... 3751539.jp Quote: Labourer Michael Scheres says he and a pal unwittingly snapped the spook while working on the old Lewis's building, in The Headrow.Michael, of Belle Isle, Leeds, said: "I could feel it had gone really cold, I was shivering and this feeling was shooting up and down my spine. Liam, the lad I was working with, took the picture. When he saved it came up with the ghost on. He nearly dropped the phone. I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first."

Croggy wrote: There is a story and photo here:http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/w ... 3751539.jp Quote: Labourer Michael Scheres says he and a pal unwittingly snapped the spook while working on the old Lewis's building, in The Headrow.Michael, of Belle Isle, Leeds, said: "I could feel it had gone really cold, I was shivering and this feeling was shooting up and down my spine. Liam, the lad I was working with, took the picture. When he saved it came up with the ghost on. He nearly dropped the phone. I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first." .....anyone notice phill down there with his torch???