SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Having a look through Google maps I spotted the area that hopefully will be brought up through the following link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en-GB& ... vpsrc=6The obvious circular road seems very odd and I would guess there used to be some building(s) there. A closer look at the area shows several other circular features, so perhaps there used to be more extensive buildings. I would be grateful if anyone could please let me know what used to be there that may account for the circular features. Thanks.

A friend from the area said it was a turning circle for bus's? EDITJust looking again I remember sometimes (always?) there can be horses tethered in the area, could the other circles be from them exercising themselves?

WiggyDiggy wrote: A friend from the area said it was a turning circle for bus's? EDITJust looking again I remember sometimes (always?) there can be horses tethered in the area, could the other circles be from them exercising themselves? Cheers WiggyDiggy. The suggestion about tethered horses does seem a possibilty for some, if not all, of the less obvious circles.

Zoom in on Streetview - backs up th bus turning theory.The entry to the circle is blocked off

Streetview clearly shows the circle to be blocked off to exclude traffic however Leodian, a quick look at recent OS maps shows that your assumption is correct and indeed there were buildings extending half way round the circle to the left hand side until it seems at least 1994-ish.

Leodian wrote: WiggyDiggy wrote: A friend from the area said it was a turning circle for bus's? EDITJust looking again I remember sometimes (always?) there can be horses tethered in the area, could the other circles be from them exercising themselves? Cheers WiggyDiggy. The suggestion about tethered horses does seem a possibilty for some, if not all, of the less obvious circles. TBH I have more faith in my horses theory than his bus's one!

Ho Leodian,Scott Hall Drive used to have small blocks of flats (and, from memory, possibly some houses) along the western side. The circle that you can see on the map was just like a large roundabout at the top of the hill and there were blocks of flats around it. On the eastern side of the circle, there was a steep drop down to Scott Hall Road.The flats were in small blocks of four - two upstairs and two downstairs. Some people might call them maisonettes. They had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. They were council owned.My grandmother lived in Farm Hill Square from the 1920's until around 1950, when she got the opportunity to move into a first floor flat at 55 Scott Hall Drive (overlooking the circle). She lived there until her death, which was in 1978.I have not visited Scott Hall Drive since her death and I had no idea that the flats had been demolished.On Leodis, there has recently has been a thread about the block of flats at the bottom of Scott Hall Drive, called Bronte House, in 'Today's Top 50'.Here are some linkshttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... =FULLThere is reference to the 'circle' in some of the comments.Ian                

The flats on Scott Hall Drive were the buildings that were demolished. The houses remained as most of them had been bought under the “Right to buy” scheme.All of the flats were on bedroom, there being four to a block, my aunt living in one of them until they were demolished when she moved out onto Scott Hall Road [I think it was around 2003 /04]. From memory they only went half way around the circle from the o’clock position round to 12 o’clock. Then, set back from the road were some garages but these were burned down some time in the 90’s.

Cheers all. The information in Ian's links is very interesting.I've had a look at Google Street View and this link does support the tethered horses suggestion for the fainter rings.http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Leeds,+Un ... 8,,0,-1.28    

That's that one sorted then in just over an hour