How Leeds City Centre has changed

Brandy · Post by **Brandy** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 12:56 am

BLAKEY wrote: weenie wrote: i was glad the Smartie tube was still there though, although shops have changed around there too You've got me baffled there I must say - what is the "Smartie Tube" please ?? only smarties have the answer lolhttp://snipurl.com/tjs96

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 9:27 am

weenie wrote: [The Smartie Tube is the coverd escalator on Boar Lane that conncected Bond Street centre side of Jacomellies. i thought everyone knew it as the smartie tube because it resembled an old smatrie tube I know it now Weenie, but I've never heard it described thus Many thanks.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 9:28 am

Brandy wrote: [only smarties have the answer lolhttp://snipurl.com/tjs96 Thanks for the superb detail Brandy - Ordnance Survey eat your heart out !!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 9:42 am

sundowner wrote: simonm wrote: Thank the lord it has changed in SEVEN years. It was a bit of a dump that warrented change. Much better now, thankfully! Yes i agree it has changed, for the better thats a matter of opinion .If you go back before the rot set in then i for one think it was better then.I cant see any reason to go into Leeds has much as i used to years ago i keep ranting on about how it was a working class city not the case any more if you dont have a few hundred quid in your pocket then its not worth the trip.Then again it might be my thinking thats at fault a silly old fool liveing in the past i would like some feed back am i so wrong? Don't worry Sundowner, here's another silly old fool who openly admits to living in the past. Its all a matter of personal preference I appreciate, but Leeds does nothing for me nowadays. I yearn for the old times - tailors' shops to "get measured" for a suit, World renowned heavy industry in Hunslet, tram shelters in the middle of Briggate, Theatre Royal, lovely cinemas galore, Lewiss's, Watson Cairns, Wigfalls, Schofields original, Central garage in Woodhouse Lane, oh and Rowland Winns higher up, Civic restaurant under the Town Hall, Scala cinema and ballroom in Albion Place, Empre Theatre in Briggate - who needs Harvey Nichols ??. Mind you, a tiny bit of the Empire remains - go into the short Cross Arcade at the back of HN's and look up at the mercifully spared 1900 red brick and there you'll see the immortal carved words "Empire Palace" - lights down and curtain up - those were the days my friends

simonm · Post by **simonm** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 9:50 am

Sundowner, your not an old fart, but you obviously have good memories of Leeds of old, me too. However, I don't believe that a city should stay in one era. I find that Leeds, about 10 years ago, a real dirty run down place in parts. As much as LCC are a pain in a lot of respects, respect has to be given for a lot of the refurb work that has been carried out. That stinky arcade next to Burtons that run towards Albion street, that whole complex was a nasty 70's throwback and quite frankly, embarrassing. Thankfully it has now gone, and hopefully replaced with an airy modern complex to be able to walk about in. Briggate is now finally a clean safe area to stroll, as are the streets feeding off it. It looks like a modern European city at last. Leeds, the third largest city in the country and at last it looks like it belongs as such.

simonm · Post by **simonm** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 9:54 am

hahahahaha. Although I'm only a wippersnapper compared to you two oldies () I do remember the city with fondness, back i nthe 60's / 70's (WHEN I WAS A KID!!! )However, lets face it, which city has remained in that era. All inner cities in the UK are moving forrad. Times change, so do attitudes. Shame!

kango · Post by **kango** » Fri 04 Dec, 2009 11:15 pm

I don't think it's a case of being an old fart, but more a longing for the comfort of the familiar. A yearning for a time and a place that felt safe.A feeling of being out of kilter with what now exists. For example, a brylcreamed teddyboy having a "pie and a pint " in the pubs of his youth,"our thing", if you like, is no more different than the gelled haired wine bar dweller nowadays having his six quid bottle of beer with a pickled onion stuffed in the top; we each have our own experiences collective or otherwise to draw upon. There is a tendency to only remember the good. I for one am glad of much of modern Leeds, the past is exactly that THE PAST. If you want to bring back gas lamps bespoke tailors and trams then you must also have TB, doctors you had to pay for, sunday closing and minor diseases that were killers, You can't cherry-pick only the good, remember it with fondness yes by all means. I am playing devils advocate a little bit here hopefuly we can have a bit of to and fro, a bit of banter as to why i'm wrong/right with no offence intended or recieved (I think it beats moaning about yet another closed boozer, I cannot believe that is the biggest thread on this forum) I shall now man the barricades and wait for the flak to fly!! Peace love and happiness Kango

sundowner · Post by **sundowner** » Sat 05 Dec, 2009 9:04 pm

Hi there Kango you are right about going forward but and it is a big but not every step forward is for the better.I would be the first to agree that some of the new buildings that have gone up in the last ten years or so have improved the sites they stand on.But i did say some and to me some are an eyesore i cant see them being there in another twenty years.In my opinion the buildings that stand out the most are from the 1800s 1900s thank god the council did not pull them down in the 1960s although they did pull down some buildings that were better than the ones that replaced them.The market has not been the same since the big fire well thats what i think, of course people not knowing the market before the fire might say its ok but to me it went downhill from then on.I know a lot of things in the past are better left in the past but a lot of things left in the past we should have brought with us and i am sorry to say they have been left behind.Im just a raggie arxe Hunslet Lad but i still know a thing or two about life.

kango · Post by **kango** » Sun 06 Dec, 2009 12:11 am

Hi SundownerQuite right I agree that some of the modern city center dwellings are awful; and ,like Yourself, being allied to the building trade in a former working life know how badly some of these built-on-a-budget horrors are thrown together. You make a good point of some things from the past being kept I for one miss common decency , the smell of a steam loco and so on, I'm just glad that smallpox and rickets etc are a distant memory! I don't know about the raggy arzed Hunslet bit I always thought You were a good craftsman but someone with a poor choice in pipe baccy!!!!Regards kango

sundowner · Post by **sundowner** » Sun 06 Dec, 2009 3:14 pm

kango wrote: Hi SundownerQuite right I agree that some of the modern city center dwellings are awful; and ,like Yourself, being allied to the building trade in a former working life know how badly some of these built-on-a-budget horrors are thrown together. You make a good point of some things from the past being kept I for one miss common decency , the smell of a steam loco and so on, I'm just glad that smallpox and rickets etc are a distant memory! I don't know about the raggy arzed Hunslet bit I always thought You were a good craftsman but someone with a poor choice in pipe baccy!!!!Regards kango Hi there kango my old mate still smoke my pipe its my only vice a bit late to give it up now.Well the Hunslet bit is about right i was dragged up and proud of it.The river side revamp is a credit to the council but then brick builds to me blend in with the older buildings. Not like the i was going to say little boxes on the hillside trouble is there not so little are they im all for a mix of old and new but a lot of the new builds stand out like sore thumbs.A lot of the planners dont give a toss what it looks like has long as the profit is made once a building is knocked down it has gone forever.History does not mean jack s**t to some of them money is all that counts there is one thing certain i will never make money my god.But then i was brought up to know there are better things in life than sitting in a Rolls Royce.Im starting to ramble on so i will shut up bye for now.