SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

We're in the lull before the storm. Furlough and other similar schemes are keeping places from being permanently shut but there must be loads that will never reopen once that support is removed.

The Victoria Hotel (behind the town hall) has been boarded up for some time. I was suprised as it used to be very popular, and has/had a beautiful victorian interior. From what little I can discern it was sold by Nicolsons to 'Blackrose Pubs' who seem to have not re-opened it after lockdown. The same company own the Vesper Gate near Kirkstall Abbey, and that has re-opened, so it seems to be just the Vic that has been shut.

Doesn't seem to be listed for sale/auction anywhere.

The Vic was recently mentioned on the Lost Leeds Pubs thread

The interior was fully refurbished around the early 1980s. It used to be really busy at lunchtime because it was a popular watering hole with lawyers, police and others involved with the courts in the Town Hall. When the courts were moved out into two separate buildings, it lost much of that trade. Also, the building next-door on the corner of Calverley Street, which had housed the Juvenile Court and was used as an overflow for the adult courts was converted into another, competing boozer.

RobH wrote: ↑

Tue 26 Oct, 2021 10:02 pm

The Victoria Hotel (behind the town hall) has been boarded up for some time. I was suprised as it used to be very popular, and has/had a beautiful victorian interior. From what little I can discern it was sold by Nicolsons to 'Blackrose Pubs' who seem to have not re-opened it after lockdown. The same company own the Vesper Gate near Kirkstall Abbey, and that has re-opened, so it seems to be just the Vic that has been shut.

Doesn't seem to be listed for sale/auction anywhere.

I think that the Victoria Hotel is owned by Milton Pubs & Taverns Ltd who have gone into liquidation ??

jma wrote: ↑

Wed 27 Oct, 2021 7:19 am

Also, the building next-door on the corner of Calverley Street, which had housed the Juvenile Court and was used as an overflow for the adult courts was converted into another, competing boozer.

The Felon and Firkin which i believe then became and still is an O'Neils Irish Pub. The Felon would have opened mid 90s and was a "younger sister" of the Feast and Firkin, now "The Library" on Woodhouse Moor. The Vic won't have been helped by the opening of Veritas on Gt George Street and the more recent (5 years?) refurb of the Town Hall Tavern (Westgate/Headrow) which were both trendier to the younger crowd and nearer both the courts and most of the barristers/solicitors chambers.

Just a rumour at the moment.
It would seem the owner(s) of the Hope Inn on York Road are coming up to retirement soon.
The pub/land to be bought by an adjacent food/meals plant to improve access to their land after the pub is demolished.
Watch this space!

Hi have read on a Leeds news website that The Duncan pub on Duncan street has been boarded up, never gone in the place so can’t comment on what it was like

The Duncan!
Seem to remember calling in once-once was more than enough

I always regret the closure of so many pubs, but the Duncan is much less a loss than any other in Leeds.

The place was full of old grizzly men, a shizenhousen