SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I suppose this is appropriate give it most certainly "secret Leeds" - even if it is a bit of a close-to-the-wind topic.I'm talking prostitution in Leeds.I don't mind admitting that this subject has always facinated me, especially since I used to live in the badlands, as was, of Potternewton in the mid-1990s when things seemed to reach something of a head. Shootings, drugs and prostitution were all rife. I've often wondered why this leafy, once-proud corner of Leeds - a handsome part of town - was traditionally the red light district. Was it down in some part to the notorious pubs of the day, chiefly the Gaiety / Hayfield?Any info / stories / facts etc appreciated.

The White Swan (Mucky Duck) down Call Lane was also a haven for 'Ladies of the Night' and round the back of the Corn Exchange. Someone told me that!

My guess would be that Potternewton is lots of big Victorian houses that could be turned into cheap flats and bedsits. Throw in proximity to the entertainment you mention and an easy ride out of city and you have the perfect conditions for the trade.In recent years the centre of business in town seems to have been Water Lane, and I have also noticed women working around the Corn Exchange, which I suppose is still quite a quiet area at night despite its proximity to the Calls.I'm not any expert on this but I seem to have spent a lot of my time living around such areas - in the early 90s I lived in Streatham and Tooting, and Tooting Bec Road was a busy area with the same sort of conditions as Potternewton. Then I moved to the East End and found myself near the areas that served the City - the Met waged a constant campaign around Spitalfields in an area that had hosted the trade for 200 years or more - perhaps the gentrification of the area has removed it but I wouldn't bet on it.

I used to live in Marlborough Towers and there were women plying their trade on Kirkstall Road near Staples and The car-phone place. That was when the knocking shop (Winstons) was at the bottom of Marlborough Street.

The long gone Gaiety on Roundhay Road in mentioned in books about the Ripper as one of his haunts when looking for victims.

SIMONQ WROTE :-"I'm not any expert on this but I seem to have spent a lot of my time living around such areas - in the early 90s I lived in Streatham and Tooting, and Tooting Bec Road was a busy area with the same sort of conditions as Potternewton. "..........................................................................................................There's a coincidence Simon, as I used to have relations in Leigham Court Road Streatham and visited there regularly right from the middle of WW2 until recently. I can remember Streatham being a really nice refined area but the way it has gone down the drain in recent years is distressing to say the least. I had no idea that Tooting Bec was "5 star" in this connection - mind you as a young lad heaing for the wonderful motor boat lake in those days such things were far from the mind.

BLAKEY wrote: There's a coincidence Simon, as I used to have relations in Leigham Court Road Streatham and visited there regularly right from the middle of WW2 until recently. I can remember Streatham being a really nice refined area but the way it has gone down the drain in recent years is distressing to say the least. I had no idea that Tooting Bec was "5 star" in this connection - mind you as a young lad heaing for the wonderful motor boat lake in those days such things were far from the mind. My sister lives in Croydon so I go down that way a few times a year, and what seems to have happened is that the demand for housing has pushed the poorer residents of the city down the A23, particularly the West Indian/Caribbean former residents of Brixton. However the desirable property is that near the main transport routes so it's those areas that have been polished up and the rest of the area has declined somewhat. It means that there's lots of cheap property to be had which is often taken by eastern Europeans, and it's quite interesting to see how it changes the face of an area - West Indian and Caribbean shops have now been replaced by Polish and other eastern European shops. If south London has had the same experience as other parts of the country and the eastern Europeans have now gone home it must leave something of a void for landlords who specialise in cheap housing.It wasn't Tooting Bec as such, as it is on the Tube and is therefore desirable, but the roads between the Bec and Streatham were cheap but not too badly presented when I lived there, but if they've spent 15 years not being improved at the cost of more attractive properties, they get filled by the current migrant population, and the associated dubious industries that need cheap property.

The White Swan down call Lane was definitely a prostitute pick up place in 1980's.I remember going in once just after I had moved to wakefield, to see what the place was like as a fancied a drink having just been to a meeting at the Fat freddys cafe that used to be at the end of Call lane.Whilst sipping my pint I idly wondered how come the older men in there seemed to have copped off with younger women.It was only when I spotted one slipping some cash to his companion that the penny dropped!Incidentally it has always been a mystery to me that whilst Leeds,Bradford and even Huddersfield had red light areas,Wakefield has never had one as such.I also once spent a hair raising night in the flat of a girl who rented the top floor of the hayfield and who hadn't told me where she lived after offering me a bed for the night(she wasn't on the game!) when I got stuck in leeds after a meeting!She sternly warned me that on no account should I venture downstairs into the pub unless I wanted my head blown off(there was no such thing as closing time in that pub,the noises went on all night)

Cira 1985 i was living on Avenue Crescent in Harehills, and one Friday night i decided to take a walk to my evening job at the Old Bank.Just happened to go down Spencer Place on the way... it was pretty blatent, groups of women stood on the kerb, i think one of them mistook me for a guy and asked if i wanted 'business' A few years later, i met a woman who'd rented a flat there in the early 90s, she said that the guys driving past figured everyone there was on the game, and she kept getting propositioned while nipping across to the corner shop.Used to pass Water Lane a lot a few years back too, on the way to Wednesday nights at The Grove... there were usually hookers out but i'd have to say that not only must the girls have been pretty desperate to have been doing that, from the look of them, the guys must have been pretty desperate too to pick them up. I don;t mean that in an awful way, but they generally looked well rough.

Spencer Place was well known for hookers too.