Old Restaurants

Off-topic discussions, musings and chat
Post Reply
Leigh80
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed 24 Oct, 2012 4:16 am

Re: Old Restaurants

Post by Leigh80 »

tyke bhoy wrote:
Leigh wrote:Can anyone remember the name of a cafe that stood in the unit where Greggs is now at the bottom of the headrow in the Light? Was there for years, and I last was in there circa 1996-1998. Proper cafe, glass front? Would be the unit facing costa coffee on the junction of the headrow and park row. Would have been demolished when the Light was built? Better still, any pictures of it?
It just appears on the left of this Leodis image
Image http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL I think demolished is slightly overstating it ;) While the shops may have been closed to refurbish them I think the original structure remained The frontage was certainly retained https://goo.gl/maps/bGQNS

Incidentally my Leodis research to find that image turned up, in comments on other photo,s that construction for "the Light" was underway in 1999 and it opened in 2002.
THANKS MATE

Bugblatter
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon 12 Nov, 2012 5:09 pm

Re: Old Restaurants

Post by Bugblatter »

The Headrow Coffee House.
Leeds born and bred

Youngsurveyor
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 30 May, 2019 11:05 pm

Re: Old Restaurants

Post by Youngsurveyor »

Good to read these reminiscences of great old restaurants. I was only talking about the Peony and Hao Wah the other day and it brought back a lot of happy memories so I looked it up. I lived in Leeds from 1949 (born in ‘46) to 1976 and worked there from 1963 to 1988. As a 17 year old articled clerk in a firm of Chartered Surveyors in Butts Court, these restaurants were very close, but I could only afford to eat there maybe once a week - and that was a treat on an articles wage of 18/8d per week !
I seem to remember the Peony Chinese Restaurant was down stairs in Commercial Street which gave it a somewhat mysterious atmosphere, particularly at night. By contrast the Hao Wah was upstairs near the junction of Commercial Street and Briggate. Both very good and did a ‘business man’s lunch for 4/6d!
A bit further up Commercial Street from the Peony was The Gourmet Cafe, which was a Greek/Cypriot restaurant again downstairs and run by a Greek chap who always had a square cigar in his mouth! Fabulous food though - the Escalope Chasseur was outstanding. The Craven Dairy’s Cafe on the Headrow was also very good for a business man’s lunch - good traditional food at a reasonable cost.
This was early sixties to mid 70’s. I can’t remember when they all closed but they had gone by the 80’s . Very happy memories.
In the 80’s we used to have staff nights out three or four times a year at Fiori’s Italian - great pizzas, is that still there? Thanks for the memories!

User avatar
tilly
Posts: 2209
Joined: Mon 11 Jan, 2010 2:32 pm

Re: Old Restaurants

Post by tilly »

Welcome to S/L Youngsurveyor very interesting post.
No matter were i end my days im an Hunslet lad with Hunslet ways.

jma
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re: Old Restaurants

Post by jma »

When we were newly-weds in 1967, my wife was a civil servant at whatever they used to call the DHSS in Lower Basinghall Street. A large part of her work was home visits, which she carried out by bus and walking. Although mini skirts were allowed by the Civil Service dress code, women were not allowed to wear trousers, no matter what the weather. Her home visits were normally in the morning with the paperwork completed in the afternoon. As I was working shifts, we could often meet for lunch and the Hao Wah was our favourite. In cold weather she used to wear warm trousers and I'd meet her with her skirt so she could get changed in the ladies and then go into the office. That lasted about eighteen months till we realised the money would be better spent on the deposit for a house and we went on a crash saving programme.

Post Reply