In 1985 the Timothy White chain of stores – formerly a major presence on British streets – disappeared from the high street following a takeover by Boots the Chemist. It’s perhaps not secret history – more forgotten history – that the Timothy White company had at least part of its roots right here in Leeds….
Category: Leeds History
Lines Around Leeds
Leeds Corporation Tramways formerly served the city of Leeds. The transport network first opened on 29 October 1891 and its original trams were horse-drawn but, by 1901, electrification had been completed. There were several lines running between the city centre and Cross Gates, Chapel Allerton, Moortown, Roundhay, Middleton, Beeston, Armley, Hunslet, and Kirkstall. The network, of which…
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Walk through Woodhouse Moor on any summer’s day and you are sure to see throngs of young revellers. But, we wondered, how did our ancestors enjoy the Moor during warm weather? We took a look in the Leeds Mercury, via the 19th-century British Newspapers website (free to all library members) to find out. Our most…
Going out in Leeds
Are you going out in Leeds over the Bank Holiday weekend? Here at the Secret Library we thought we would share some of the photographs from our collections of just a few of the many places to visit in Leeds from yesteryear. Place to eat out always feature on a day out. Who remembers the…
Owney Madden
Friday the 24th of April 2015 marked the 50th-anniversary of Owney Madden’s death. Owney – sometimes Owen – Madden was a legendary figure in American organised crime; a notorious bootlegger during the Roaring Twenties; an associate of Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano; the owner of the fabled Cotton Club; a childhood friend to actor George…
Two Centuries Earlier…
This week, we’re taking you on a short walking tour of the city centre – not as it is today, but as it would’ve looked in the early Nineteenth Century – using descriptions taken from the pages of The Leeds Guide of 1806. In the spirit of the original volume, which was printed by Edward…
Easter Scenes from Years Gone By
It was a wet and slightly chilly start to the bank holiday weekend this year in Leeds, but a look through our photography website, Leodis (www.leodis.net), shows that this isn’t unusual for the city at Easter time. Here’s a photo from Easter weekend two years ago, when the Trinity Leeds shopping centre first opened its…
1920s Eclipse Fever
“Leeds never really went to bed last night. The last ordinary trams had scarcely stopped running at midnight, when a special series of ‘eclipse’ cars began the journey to City Square to meet the convenience of the thousands going to the shadow-belt by rail and charabanc.” This was the news that greeted the city from…
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