Mystery Esso Petrol Station

[tyke bhoy]

J C D said late 50"s but its actually circa 1963 going by the Austin/Morris 1100.
The building in the background looks so much like the old Tate of Leeds(was that New York St).
.

Well I thought it looked like a building on New York Street too and that the flyover I think I spotted could be the inner ring road.
The image I have uploaded is from Leodis http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL
I think I was poo-pooed because there wasn't a roundabout on regent street for there to be a sign advertising one or maybe because there never was an esso station between the Marquis of Granby and New York Street on Eastgate. I for one can not remember what was in that gap

[j.c.d.]

I am going to lie down in a darkened room, I was confused when flyovers and car reg's were mentioned. I have only being looking at the top half of the picture. "Screens Nurse please"

The Petrol station on Burley Rd, was around well into the 60s and was the place to get fuel late at night. twice I put fuel in without any money and left my watch as security until the following day.

[String o' beads]

It's got to be post 1971 as the sign says '3p' rather than '3d'.

[TABBYCAT]

There's also a MK3 Cortina there so the earliest it can be is 1970 and as Geordie says P instead of D means it's after the 15 Feb 71.

[mhoulden]

The caption says 1976 but I know the YEP has a rather flexible idea of accuracy. Places ruled out so far seem to include:

• Near Eastgate and the old NE Gas Board building on Bridge Street
• Harehills Avenue/Newell Avenue
• Harehills Avenue/Lupton Ave
• West St/Kirkstall Rd/Wellington St (now a big mound of earth carrying the inner ring road)
• Whitehall Rd opposite the Polestar Petty building by the old Honda car dealership. There was a WYMCC depot there but no petrol station
• York Rd opposite Iceland (there is an old petrol station there, but opposite doesn't match)
• Armley Rd Esso

Leeds Council has planning records going back to 1974 at https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/online-applications/ so it's easy to check if a site is a former petrol station. I think I may have to get in touch with the YEP and ask them. I've checked Flickr, Leodis, Google Images search and https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/online-applications/ but I couldn't pick up any clues there. The place may be listed in a 1976 telephone directory but I don't have access to one.

[String o' beads]

What we need is Uncle Mick and his seventies telephone directories.

[chemimike]

Telephone directories do not list any stations under ESSO, so that is no good. The only ESSo entries are main offices and distribution depot

[LS1]

I think the building in the background is likely to hold the key. It looks a bit like the building that used to stand on York Rd where Iceland is now (Sumrie?), but I can't think of an Esso filling station around there...

There has been an Esso on Armley Rd for as long as I can remember. Could that be it?

Not that part of York Rd. as Sumries was, and still is, a rather low building. it certainly is a strange one. I am coming round to thinking more and more that as another member suggested that it is not in Leeds at all. we shall see.

Is the old Sumrie building even there? I thought it was knocked down years ago and is there the RSPCA is/ was. Sorry to go off topic.

[mhoulden]

Thanks to efforts in the Secret Leeds 2 group plus checking various records on Leodis, the Leeds council planning website and Old Maps I've identified a load of places where this petrol station isn't. Some are ruled out because buildings don't match, they aren't near roundabouts, the site was bulldozed before 1976, the site was never used as a petrol station, or there simply isn't room to put one. I've put these locations on this Google map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... wbtxpfX9ZY. Clicking a marker gives the reasons why I think that location isn't where this petrol station is. Around Eastgate or Lady Lane was mentioned several times but there's nowhere to put a petrol station round there. Probably why they put it in the middle of the Eastgate roundabout instead.

[Leodian]

We need CSI's help! They would be able to determine readily what the roundabout sign states and even the car number plates to identify who their drivers/owners were. It would be a doddle for them as I recall in one episode they were able to identify who a person was from a blurred reversed (or was it upside down) reflection in a wing mirror!

I thought I had lost this post as when I first tried to post it I got a message "SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ] User 775594_secret already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203] An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists." Not that I've any idea at all what that meant but it then posted OK.