SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

There are some really interesting images there, but which remind us of the immeasurable value of recording detailed notes at the time. We see this on leodis especially with Eric Jaquier's priceless images. Without wishing to embarrass leodian, he does this recording in spades and people in future years will be the beneficiaries of reliable contemporaneous information. Of course, they won't have the opportunity to take part in a memory test but that's a small loss.

I've posted this sentiment before re Jaquier's and Leo's work nice to know someone else concurs.

Everyone went to Ainsley's for their sandwiches. Though I can remember someone furious because , the bread tasted awful that day. She went back to complain. Apparently they had missed out the salt in the bread recipe !!. Nowadays that would be considered "healthy" and desirable (not by me)

The mentions of Austicks reminded me of some of its bookshops that I used. That on The Headrow (in what is now The Light complex) was excellent for HMSO publications and maps. I also used an older store on Cookridge Street that had a similar range. There was also a branch on King Charles Street. A favourite of mine was browsing (and sometimes buying ) books in Miles second hand bookshop on Great George Street that got taken over by Austicks (the store not the street!). There was for a short while a bookshop on Upper Basinghall Street that had an extensive downstairs section. I cannot now recall who had the store but it might have been Austicks. It was flooded one day and the store soon closed down.

I have a query. Was the Waterstones bookshop on Albion Street once an Austicks as I cannot recall for sure if it was or was not and I've been unable to readily find out.

Thanks for the nice words about photos that I've submitted to Secret Leeds. I would normally make a note on the back of all photos at the time they were printed but I got very far behind doing so. I therefore decided it was time to make such notes and started doing so many months back but soon found out what an enormous task I had put myself into doing as some are from over 20 years back! Getting location information is hard but thanks to such as Secret Leeds, Leodis and Google Street View I have managed so far (relying on memory alone I soon found led to errors) but I'm barely half way through!

Austick's from the 1969 & 1983 phone books

Thanks Uncle Mick. I take it the Great George Street shop expanded? Or was there some renumbering? Edit sorry I should have said the 53/57 version given there was the later one at 12(that would have been one heck of an expansion )

The success of Austick's and their eventual demise was probably a result of the price fixing involved in the Net Book Agreement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Book_ ... l%20demise.

It's probably why there are now so few bricks-and-mortar bookshops.

From planning records I think Waterstones moved into their building some time after 1991. They're not listed in the 1982 phone book. The clearest photo I can find on Leodis of before it was a book shop is this one from 1951:

According to https://www.leodis.net/viewimage/65434] ... mage/65434 Linsley Bros was a gun maker.

A few of Austick's adverts

All fascinating stuff as I had not realised there had been that many Austick branches (some from taking over others).
PS. Sandow's 'Life is Movement' had presumably not been popular being reduced from 42/- to 8/6 (210p to 42½p for those too young to know or have now forgotten ).