Work going on at what was the casino at Harrogate Road/Street Lane

[uncle mick]

raveydavey wrote: jim wrote: Thanks uncle mick, my diaries show ten years earlier for my involvement, so perhaps the club was going for some time without a phone book entry, Slighty off-topic (again), but it's amazing how many people simply didn't have a phone not that long ago.Neither of my grandparents had a phone - my paternal grandmother simply never got one, with messages having to be relayed via relatives living nearby if they couldn't wait until we next saw her and my maternal grandparents didn't get a phone until well into the 90's.It seems archaic now, when virtually everyone carries a phone on their person 24/7, but thats just how it was. I think this will go into reverse were nobody will have a "land line" in their home. It could appear on Secret Leeds in the future under "Things we don't see anymore"

[Leodian]

Hi uncle mick . You will be right.It's fascinating when I see old films where people dialled a local switchboard (often one person run) to request to be put through to a phone number (often not far away) as it could not be dialled directly. I miss the stick a finger in a hole dialling then turn the dial for each number. That may not be possible in the nowadays press 1, 2, 3.... for the service you need then get more numbers to press then more and so on before you hopefully get to where you want if you have not already given up! Two tin cans attached by a bit of string did a good enough job when I was a child!

[Steve266]

Before it was the Grosvenor there was Froggy's resturant attached to the casino great night as you could go have a flutter on the tables after your mealOn the question of phones why was the emergency number the longest to dial?We had a party line back in the 50's 58035 we always used to answer with the number then your surname how things have changed

[j.c.d.]

Think the longest dialling 999 was so you could do it in total darkness and not misdial

[Brunel]

                                            Only 2.5 walls left standing    

[A. D. Young]

With the Skeleton Key at the back of the Corner House complex, wasn't that the second such club there? I remember one called the Cro-Magnon, that I believe began in 1958 or 1959. As I never went in to sample its attractions I don't know how good or otherwise it was, but it was popular with the young and mid teens of the time--and maybe with others too.The Corner House itself at that time, and for years afterwards until it became a casino, had an upstairs ballroom and one, maybe more, function rooms downstairs.The entire complex was studded with small shops from the very beginning-in the late 1940s through to at least the early 1980s, Emm Bee stores was one, a tiny space crammed from floor to ceiling with good foodstuffs even during the latter days of food rationing. It took daily deliveries of fresh-baked bagels, breadcakes and other breads (Russian, rye etc) and was open on Sunday mornings as well.Small businesses like that were done in by the big supermarkets--in this case I guess Sainsburys, once it opened on the Ring Road in the 1980s.A. D. Young

[jim]

Thanks for that A.D. Young. It was indeed the Cro-Magnon (or "Cro" as everyone used to call it at the time) when I first played there in the early 60s, the Skeleton Key name came later. Surprising how much one completely forgets over time, only to be recalled when someone jogs the "forgettory"!    

[Leodian]

Thanks Brunel for that excellent photo on page 1 that you posted on 21-Aug-2014 09:43:53.I pass the demolition (currently!) site regularly (on a bus) and had very occasionally got off to take photos. I've noticed the gutted inside for some time and had thought of trying to get some photos but I assumed I would not get permission, if only on Heath & Safety grounds. Congratulations therefore for getting a photo showing the inside of the site. I wonder if any interesting remains/artefacts of the old Corner House Cinema were found?PS. I find it amusing that the William Hill betting shop has remained open despite all the work going on (and it was only a short while ago that its sign was replaced!).

[Keg]

I was at school with the son of the family that owned it back in the 70s. Spookily we were both at St Gemma's when it was still a school.On a darker note, my sister blew most of my brother-in laws' inheritance in there whilst claiming she was always winning.Split the family and even now can cause friction.

[hyperion]

Picture of Dannys place in car park at back of moortown corner house.The thing that struck me that its a much older building than the corner house.Question,Was there access from this building to the casino.