Much as I'm a fan of orrible brutalism, that YP building has always struck me as a bit of a stinker. Is it pebble-dashed?? Why would you pebble-dash lovely, pure, naked, expressive concrete?!

John Madin saved his best for Birmingham rather than us - Pebble Mill and Brum library in a different league to the poor YP building, although it appears he (or the newspaper) gave it modestly funky interiors when built.

More likely exposed aggregate.

It's a rare building in so far that it looks much better in the dark, when it was flood lit, it looked alright, in the cold light of day, it's hideous.

Place it next to the poor dead International Swimming Pool and you can see where the city planners were heading in their thinking when laying out what was probably seen as a "gateway to the motorway city of the north".

Leeds Leads and all that...

The photo is circa 1970/71 and the first Yorkshire stage of the M62 from the Lancs border to Outlane only opened in 1970 well before the first McDonalds arrived in the UK. Prior to that the trip to away games in Lancashire was an all day event. Wallace Arnolds used to send a fleet of coaches often stopping for a pint and a sandwich at the old "Nont Sarahs" pub which overlooked Scammonden reservoir and the Stott Hall farm before if became famous.

Now that is interesting because I'm assuming that the Dortmund barrel man has always been int he same place as he is now but I didn't know that he pre-dated the St Johns Centre, AND although I'd have passed that way zillions of times I can't recall the top of the street looking like that, I thought there was a garage where those houses were, IN FACT the more I type this the more I realise that the barrel man must have been somewhere else in this photo ?

Really?
I had no idea!

No, I'm pretty certain that's still Dortmund Square. The building in the background to the right of the barrel man is still there in some form, I think.

Re the Dortmund Square area, this view is almost as bamboozling as the one of the YP building:

Thanks for the confirmation.

You can see the barrel man in that photo in Dortmund Square which was taken prior to St Johns Centre being built.

The building in the background to the right is [url=http://goo.gl/maps/eLJ2wFairfax House[/url which has since had a facelift, but more importantly, it's had a wash.

Street heading down towards Dortmund Square is Wade Lane.

Wade Street is the right turning halfway down Wade Lane.

Merrion Street bottom right hand side of the photo leading to junction of Albion Street and Woodhouse Lane.

High rise building to the right was Dudley House... Leeds Careers Office used to be in there along with council rent office... (it's now The Cube). I can't recall if Dudley House was completely demolished and replaced by a new high rise which is now The Cube, or whether it was a refurbishment.

Leeds Permanent high rise block is now demolished and replaced with The Light.

The bit of the building in the far left centre of the photo was Schofields which is now demolished and replaced by the Schofields Centre.

Every shopping centre erected in Leeds during the 1960's onwards have been disgustingly awful, and we've another monstrosity to look forward to on Eastgate soon as I believe Hoagy's (formerly Tam O'Shanter and before that, Yorkshire Hussars) has finally closed it's doors prior to that whole length of building being demolished in the very near future

Didn't there used to be a pub in the building that now contains the Eastgate jobcentre?

In the early 80s, a treat for me if out shopping with my mum was to have sausage and chips in the Schofields self service. Even at the age of 10 I remember being upset when they pulled the place down and replaced it with the crappy mall-lite which today is just a commercial disaster area.
[u
[url=http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=1428This link[/url[/u has lots of images, of which this view, for some reason, stands out most of all for me - the oft-travelled corner between the car park, Schofields and Beatties.

Yes... it was called the Marquis of Granby.

Thanks for the link. I didn't realise it was as quite as long as 27 years ago that Schofields was demolished.

Bloke furthest right who has just exited building looks like a deadringer for the ed-up father in Rita, Sue and Bob Too... judging by his gait... if only he was a bit scruffier.

and of course there is the lovely Hoagys across the road, where I took Mrs Flipper when we first went out for a drink

Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html

Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html

I walked through the Schofields Centre (or whatever it calls itself these days) a month or so ago for the first time in a long time and was surprised to see that its empty, I don't mean that there were no shoppers in there, I mean there are no shops in there, it reminded me of my days working on building projects and walking around places like the Arndale Centre in Manchester two days before the whole thing was handed over to the client - sheets of plywood where shop fronts should be and the only people in there were doing what I was doing - using it as a short cut to keep out of the rain.

...the Tam o'Shanter ?

On college nights we'd finish about 9pm and then make our way down to the bus station stopping in the Tam o'Shanter for a few pints and a scabby cornish pasty that had been under the plastic dome on the bar since at least the week before, heated up in grill at the back of the bar you'd have it shoved towards you piping hot and running in grease, no wonder my stomach if f***ed with all the rubbish I used to eat

Quote ="flipper"Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html'" The Faces, 1972-ish

Quote ="flipper"Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html'" The Faces, 1972-ish

Blimey, the Queens Hall.

Bryan Adams - somewhere around the late 80s?

Appalling venue for live music, all the acoustics of an abandoned tramshed. Decent for beer festivals though.

Quote ="flipper"Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html'" The Stones & Lulu - same bill 1964

Quote ="flipper"Leeds' premier music venue of yesteryear only saw a few bands there, but a couple were ACDC 1982 www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1982 ... 40d61.html Kiss 1983 www.setlist.fm/setlist/kiss/1983 ... 5138d.html'" The Stones & Lulu - same bill 1964

Lets go back even further
Swinegate Depot 1916-1917. Headquarters of Leeds City Tramways

In May 1961, the depot re-opened as a new exhibition hall known as the Queens Hall
The refurbishment cost £40,000 and the first event to be held there was the Yorkshire Ideal Homes & Food Exhibition (5th to the 20th May, 1961), sponsored by guess who? The Yorkshire Post.