Bus, crane, crash, copper, subway!

[Phill_dvsn]

Same here Chameleon, i simply can't remember any subway, or toilets been there in the mid 70's for sure, I can't even begin to think where they fitted in the stairs on either side, Briggate and Boar lane was footpath and road in those days. But it's obvious some people do remember them lol.Fascinating stuff     

[carith]

Hi PhillThink it was blocked off about 72-73 but as i said we used to use it in the 60s as teenagers. it was a like a paddling pool after heavy rain.

[chameleon]

Phill_dvsn wrote: Same here Chameleon, i simply can't remember any subway, or toilets been there in the mid 70's for sure, I can't even begin to think where they fitted in the stairs on either side, Briggate and Boar lane was footpath and road in those days. But it's obvious some people do remember them lol.Fascinating stuff      (shovels at 0600 Sunday next?)

[Cardiarms]

carith wrote: As kids we used to go into town regularly and used the subway often. You could enter at one side of briggate down the steps use the toilets then exit at the other end. We demand photgraphic or documentary evidence! ;-D

[BLAKEY]

carith wrote: Hi PhillThink it was blocked off about 72-73 but as i said we used to use it in the 60s as teenagers. it was a like a paddling pool after heavy rain. I'm sure you're about spot on there carith - my word, for a piece of relatively recent history, this is causing some head scratching isn't it ?? So let's recap as concisely as possible. A picture in "A nostalgic look at Leeds Trams since 1950" clearly shows that on September 28th 1957 the old "centre of the road" toilets from the 1880s were still in use.I still believe that the crane in the bus crash in December 1965 was excavating the new subway which would open in the New Year 1966. That subway incorporated brand new toilets built at the same time and was, as carith recalls accurately, an unsavoury affair which was almost always wet, rain or otherwise, and very slippery.It does seem odd that it was only open for such a few years, but changing City Centre plans cause all sorts of anomolies.The entrances were as I described above, approximately level with the top boundary of the present Mcdonalds in Briggate.

[Cardiarms]

The sewer down Brigate does jink to the east side of the road at about the point where the toliets were and drops from 3m to 5m deep very quickly about where the underpass seems to have been. I'm assuming that the sensitive 1960's remodeling simply bulldozed through the Victorian toilets.

[Cardiarms]

Just came across a history of pedestrian crossings which mentions experimentation on Briggate and the origin of the gantries:http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/pedestr ... gs/3.shtml

[Phill_dvsn]

BLAKEY wrote: carith wrote: Hi PhillThink it was blocked off about 72-73 but as i said we used to use it in the 60s as teenagers. it was a like a paddling pool after heavy rain. I'm sure you're about spot on there carith - my word, for a piece of relatively recent history, this is causing some head scratching isn't it ?? So let's recap as concisely as possible. A picture in "A nostalgic look at Leeds Trams since 1950" clearly shows that on September 28th 1957 the old "centre of the road" toilets from the 1880s were still in use.I still believe that the crane in the bus crash in December 1965 was excavating the new subway which would open in the New Year 1966. That subway incorporated brand new toilets built at the same time and was, as carith recalls accurately, an unsavoury affair which was almost always wet, rain or otherwise, and very slippery.It does seem odd that it was only open for such a few years, but changing City Centre plans cause all sorts of anomolies.The entrances were as I described above, approximately level with the top boundary of the present Mcdonalds in Briggate. Yes very very strange all this Blakey. The expense and Inconvenience of building new subway/toilets that only stayed open about 6 years??MMM..    

[carith]

roughly about the same time the public toilets under wade lane at the side of the merrion centre were also blocked off.

[Phill_dvsn]

carith wrote: roughly about the same time the public toilets under wade lane at the side of the merrion centre were also blocked off. Weren't the Wade lane loos open until the late 70's-early 80's?