Prostitution Leeds

[BLAKEY]

[quotenick="chameleon"] grumpybloke wrote: Leeds Described by Brears and Heap .................................... not somewhere for the unwarey to venture at night. Not much change today then eh, and I say that only partly in jest.

[sonypc100]

PC - Dublin wrote: Looks as if it's time to bring this thread to a close?? For any particular reason?

[LS13]

chameleon wrote: grumpybloke wrote: I think I once read that the Dark Arches used to be a red light area in times gone by. Anyone know if that's correct? Leeds Described by Brears and Heap details the less salubrious activities which this area was well known for. Prostitution indeed and not somewhere for the unwarey to venture at night. I'd heard that too and always felt it was typical 'Jack the Ripper' territory. I always took it with a pinch of salt though-after all, theres nothing down there so anyone skulking about in the shadows would obviously be up to no good, so would be an easy collar for the bobbies of the day?

[Crazy Jane]

Maybe PC Dublin is going to arrest everyone for soliciting?

[LS13]

My mother used to tell me that Leeds was known as 'sin city' to the Yanks during and after the war and they were often banned from going into the City Centre. Apparently the Robin Hood pub was a notorious pick up joint for visiting soldiers (later became the Duchess). Maybe Leeds lasses are just naturally friendly...

[liits]

LS13 wrote: My mother used to tell me that Leeds was known as 'sin city' to the Yanks during and after the war and they were often banned from going into the City Centre. Apparently the Robin Hood pub was a notorious pick up joint for visiting soldiers (later became the Duchess). Maybe Leeds lasses are just naturally friendly... The topic of Yanks and the Robin Hood pub has been mentioned before. Not that I want to cast doubt on your dear old Mum’s reminiscences but I don’t see what Americans were doing in Leeds during the war [to which they came late, as usual]. There were no airfields with Americans any closer than Lincolnshire [although they were, very briefly at Elvington and Holme-on-Spalding Moor during the 50’s] and the closest Canadians – easily confused with Yanks, I suppose, were at Linton on Ouse with the closest US Army, despite the myth of the film, “Yanks”, being at Burtonwood over towards Liverpool.

[grumpybloke]

On Leodis there is a picture of Mint dry cleaners where it says the GI's took their uniforms for cleaning, so there must have been a few around somewhere.

[LS13]

liits wrote: LS13 wrote: My mother used to tell me that Leeds was known as 'sin city' to the Yanks during and after the war and they were often banned from going into the City Centre. Apparently the Robin Hood pub was a notorious pick up joint for visiting soldiers (later became the Duchess). Maybe Leeds lasses are just naturally friendly... The topic of Yanks and the Robin Hood pub has been mentioned before. Not that I want to cast doubt on your dear old Mum’s reminiscences but I don’t see what Americans were doing in Leeds during the war [to which they came late, as usual]. There were no airfields with Americans any closer than Lincolnshire [although they were, very briefly at Elvington and Holme-on-Spalding Moor during the 50’s] and the closest Canadians – easily confused with Yanks, I suppose, were at Linton on Ouse with the closest US Army, despite the myth of the film, “Yanks”, being at Burtonwood over towards Liverpool. I might be wrong but I'm sure I remember her saying there was a Canadian Forces club or similar in Leeds City Centre? I'm sure in those days people didnt really differentiate between Americans and Canadians, they'll all have been yanks!

[Crazy Jane]

There were some stationed at Sherburn between York and Scarborough as well? My neighbour was stationed there and said they did 24 hour bombing runs from there with us on the day and the yanks on the night. Maybe the came over to Leeds looking for a different kind of action?I will run that with the warning that he does keep his postage stamps in the egg poacher these days, though his memory of anything before i was born seems pretty good.

[Cardiarms]

Sherburn wasn't an operational airfield for bombers, but it was a transport airfield so all sorts could have stopped in on their way somewhere. The American airfields were in East Anglia and the Thames Valley, not yorkshire AFAIK.