Leeds Telephone Services.

[dogduke]

Telephone Exchanges seem to mostly nondescript places,not usually noticed,I think there are several across the city.My earliest recollection is of numbers containg 5 figures,reading The Prestige Series book on Sammy Ledgard,his early advertising for The Bridge Garage in Lower Briggate was 4 figures 3730 but the advert for the business at The Nelson was Central 3330.Anyone any info of the history of GPO telephones in the Leeds area.I remember on Mabgate they had quite a large garage/maintenance setup.

[BLAKEY]

Yes, a fascinating subject indeed. There was a major exchange in Basinghall Street in the centre of the City. Also a very large exchange building in Headingley, next to "The Oak" and opposite St. Michael's Church. I remember when I worked at WA in the 1960s the excitement as we prepared to make our routine call to the drivers' "digs" in Southend on Sea. This had always involved speaking to a human operator - but on this day it was the launch of STD - Subscriber Trunk Dialling. Rather like the early pioneers we tentatively and hesitantly dialled 0S02 40687 - after a couple of clicks and only a very few seconds our landlady answered - it was magic. I much preferred the original system where the ciode included letters representing the town. "0" stood for trunk call, "S0" for Southend and "2" for one of several exchanges to begin with those letters. In those early days Leeds was "0LE2"

[tyke bhoy]

I don't know what it is now but as I understand it the building nestling behind the parade of shops at the Harrogate Road entrance to the Stainburn Estate in Moortown was a GPO Telephone exchange.

[Chrism]

There's still the exchange on either side of Burley Street, just past the Fox & Newt. I think.

[BLAKEY]

Chrism wrote: There's still the exchange on either side of Burley Street, just past the Fox & Newt. I think. Oh yes of course - don't remind me of when that was doubled in size by erecting a new building on the opposite side of the road - about 1970/1. I was driving on LCT at the time, and was on the route daily. The contractors had to install a "U" shaped chicane made of vertical wooden pillars and wire, and it was only JUST possible to negotiate it with a full sized bus - as if the width wasn't bad enough it was the sharp curves that put the tin hat on it - a real ordeal it was. More by good luck than good management I never had an incident, but plenty of mirrors and orange trafficator lenses were wrecked during the several months that this went on.    

[chameleon]

Can't go back as far as our friend Blakey ( ) but I know a little of the history from then. More recent times had Aberford with just three digits (code) xxx. St Jame's of course was 33144 to become 433144 as exchanges grew and then to 2433144 with the 'Big Number' change when Leeds lost 0532 and became 0113, gaining a '2' before every number - NOT as many people still seem to think, a 2 added to the dialling code - causes all sorts of problems!I think most of the exchanges mentioned are still there, and more besides. Always considered to be the hub of communications at times of emergency and treated accordingly if you tried to get in when you shouldn't.Those first few digits used to allow you to determine the area in which the number lived, 264 - Crossgates, 265 - Oakwwod and so on. With other operators coming on the scene, the number allowed you to identify them, 293 for Bell Cable in their begining. Now of course, numbers can be transferred between operating companies and technology now means they're not necessarily tied to any particular area.One thing which always stood out to me (sadly less so these days - commercial pressure I suppose) was the way nothing was left to chance with The Post Office phones, precision, pride and precaution seemed to be their philosophy.

[simong]

Exchanges are no more than two or three miles apart in most cities due to some physical constraints on copper. Also and more relevant now, ADSL isn't efficient over about two and a half miles - I just fall within that being on Rawdon exchange (that's on Well Lane) and can't do better than 2Mb at the best of times. BT regularily revise and review their exchanges and will repurpose them or even sell them if they don't need the space as telecoms technology gets smaller. I believe that the central exchange in Leeds is now under 1 Sovereign Street as BT wanted to consolidate their Leeds operations when O2 was split off and they had to leave Arlington. Of slightly more interest to the forum might be the military gateway at Colton, one of three in the UK which manages voice and data traffic between the Army, RAF and Navy communications systems. I don't think there's any secrecy about its location although BT tend not to publicise any of their operational buildings. They usually have a fairly recognisable appearance though. BT does still have a very cautious approach to operations, particularily where the exchanges are concerned although modern switchgear is a lot more resilient than older kit, and everything done in the network has to be logged. 'Raising a change' is a phrase that's never far away when talking to BT operations staff.

[sirjohn]

I needed to ask for a receipt at a company the other day and the telephone number on the header started 0532.... I think they may need new stationery!

[BLAKEY]

sirjohn wrote: I needed to ask for a receipt at a company the other day and the telephone number on the header started 0532.... I think they may need new stationery! Yes, although to be fair they're doing their best - they have "leapt forward" from 0LE2 !!    

[Trojan]

It's funny how telephone numbers stick in the mind (well they do in mine) when I first started work for an electrical contractor in Morley (which at the time was on a manual exchange) we used to deal with Arthur F Tobell electrical wholesalers on St Pauls Street, their number was Leeds 30771.The Midland Bank in Morley BTW before STD was Morley 2.