University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison  reports here on her research over the last year.

The Local and Family History Library and My Research
One aspect of my research that has been particularly interesting over the last year stems from my use of the Leeds directories held in the Local and Family History Library. These are basically like early versions of the Telephone Directory and Yellow Pages, with a section for residents listed alphabetically, and a section for businesses listed by type. However, the feature that has brought about their ease of use for me, is that there is also a street section, with all streets listed alphabetically, houses listed numerically (separated into odds and evens), and the name or names of the lead occupants, often with their occupation. I have to say, I’m not entirely sure why the Victorians and Edwardians would have found a street directory to be particularly useful, but thank goodness they did because my work would have been almost impossible without it!

My study area includes almost 2200 back-to-backs in the Harehills Triangle area, but for now, I have been looking at just the shop-houses. These are located on the ends of streets or at cross-roads, and were identified initially from a survey of the area, although consultation of the original building control approval drawings has provided additional evidence where recent modifications have concealed the original architecture. The directories have added another layer of evidence, in many cases verifying that the houses were originally built as shop-houses, but in a few cases, providing clear evidence that they were not! And of course, there are question-marks over a few too. It’s been a fairly time-consuming process trawling through the pages of the 1891-1906 directories, made more complex by the fact that most of the shop-houses have two addresses – one for each street that they face.

There are quite a few little peculiarities within the directories:

• some addresses appear only once and all other listings for the property are given in relation to its ‘other’ address;
• where both addresses are listed, they sometimes repeat the same occupant information, and sometimes give different names and occupations – perhaps some properties were occupied as both a residential unit, and a separate ‘lock—up’ shop unit, or perhaps one of the listings refers to a lodger…;
• occasionally, it appears that a resident has moved on, but then after a break of a few years, they will be listed at the address again – did the resident move away and rent out the property, was the resident still there but perhaps not working and so the shop manager was listed instead, or have lodgers have been listed…?

Other historical documents (such as census or electoral registers) may help me answer some of these questions, but it’s possible the information is not documented.

Moving to the more specifics of my findings, the most common shop categories (largest first) were general grocery, cloth and clothing, meat and fish, green grocery, boot/shoe manufacture and repair, confectionary, and cooked food (aka fish and chip shops). There was a wide variety overall, although I’m sure it had a very different feel to Harehills today.

Figure 1 52a Harehills Road c. 1918 (www.leodis.net) and recently.

In some cases, it’s clear to see that there was a family business. Mr John Neall and his wife Margaret ran a greengrocers’ shop together at 79 Bayswater Place from 1898-1903, while the draper Dennis worked with the dressmaker Miss Annie Armitage at 19a Lascelles Road East between 1897 and 1904. The Kennedy sisters ran a grocery store at 80-82 Bayswater Place, and Gallon and Sons were pork butchers and grocers at 156 and 158 Roundhay Road.

It’s been intriguing to see people’s entrepreneurial spirit. For example, the butcher’s shop at 72 Harehills Road was run by the aptly named Alfred Hogg from 1897-1904, but in 1903 he was also listed as a refrigerator maker. I can really imagine how this man, keen to keep his meat fresher for longer, would have loved to have a refrigerator, and working with two colleagues, set about making one for himself rather than buy a commercially available model. I was disappointed that there was no listing in subsequent years – perhaps Leeds just wasn’t ready for refrigeration at that early date… or maybe the refrigerator business outgrew the back-to-back and moved elsewhere in the city. The meat sales seemed to be going well in Harehills though – Alfred had an additional store at 56 Bayswater Road from 1901-1905.

Figure 2 Alfred Hogg’s shop is now the Al-Hayat grocery store.

Another aspect that I’ve found fascinating, is that some of the shop uses are the same today as they were more than 100 years ago. Ashley Road Off-licence and General Store was a grocery shop from 1897, selling beer from 1900. Similarly, the newsagent on Ashley Road was a newsagent from 1899. Others however, combined shop uses that we no longer see together, like the hairdresser tobacconists at 111 Bayswater Road and 152 Roundhay Road, while others, like the tailor and coal merchant at 16 Lambton View can’t possibly have combined both uses in a single room!

Figure 3 The Ashley Road Off-licence and General Store has the same use as when it was first occupied, and in comparison to many of the other shop-houses in the area, has a relatively unaltered appearance too.

I’ll keep digging into the records, surveying the area, and talking to local people…and hopefully, in a few years, I’ll have a really thorough understanding of life past and present in the Harehills Triangle back-to-backs.