City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

[davieG]

Clock Tower 1930s from above the tram power cables...

 

 

Looking down Churchgate 1955....

 

 

Looking along Charles St 1955.On the left corner is Lea`s Department Store. In the centre Hannam Court Flats and to the right it was known as Snowden`s Corner above which was the posh night club called Les Ambassadeurs....Far right we have the planters nicknamed Beckett`s Buckets...

(Francis Frith pic).

[Phil Bowman]

On 19/10/2021 at 09:01, davieG said:

Free lighting and heating, plusher surroundings in the lounges and probably some of the bars. Washing away the industrial dirt from their throats. Cards, dominoes, darts and shove ha'penny to entertain them.

 

Pubs were also open pretty much all day and anyone over the age of 12/13 (I think this is what I heard on a recent TV programme)  at the time could drink alcohol.

It makes you realise just how much daily life has changed in really a pretty short time.

[davieG]

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones  · 40Suosh12dm  · 
1951 and easily recognisable are the Hannam Court flats on Charles St and showing the mish mash of buildings in the foreground.The red dot I placed is on the top floor of Lea&Sons department store on the corner of Humberstone Gate but if you look there isnt a top floor but just the facade propped up...The background is a gem... 🙂

 

Lee Circle in the background was used to exercise and sell horses from the nearby Horse Repository

 

Now gone and replaced by Epic House

[Guest WarehamFox]

Thank you DavieG could look at these pictures all day.

[davieG]

Northampton Square 1960

 

Now the start of St Georges Way with the only surviving building being the ex-Police Station as you turn into Charles St.

 

Many people caught their buses to Oadby and beyond here which would have been Midland Red ones that used to serve the County whilst Leicester City Council's Corporation Bus Group used to serve the City.

[Parafox]

8 minutes ago, davieG said:

Northampton Square 1960

 

Now the start of St Georges Way with the only surviving building being the ex-Police Station as you turn into Charles St.

 

Many people caught their buses to Oadby and beyond here which would have been Midland Red ones that used to serve the County whilst Leicester City Council's Corporation Bus Group used to serve the City.

In the background is the pub which became The Carousel Fun Pub where I was resident DJ from 1976 to 1980. Used to love it, great nights there with people queuing outside to get in on a Friday/Saturday night and the place packed with people. I used to do a Mick Jagger impersonation to "I Can't Get No..."  as if he was a flasher in a dirty raincoat. I guess you had to be there but it was very much requested for. Also the revolting food eating competition... frogs legs in custard, L'Escargot (snails) in a glass of raw egg, among other things I've forgotten, the prize being a free pint .

Staff dressed up in various costumes. It was non-stop stuff going on. One group of people used to come every Friday from Sheffield for the craic. One the best, happiest times of my life. 

I doubt anyone on here will know of it but, in it's heyday it was one of the most popular places in Leicester.

[davieG]

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones  · 
Standing on the corner of Humberstone Gate and Gallowtree Gate looking across to Churchgate many moons ago......The  Eastgates Coffee House on the left corner and at this time the Clock Tower island was a taxi rank...😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest WarehamFox]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones  · 
Standing on the corner of Humberstone Gate and Gallowtree Gate looking across to Churchgate many moons ago......The  Eastgates Coffee House on the left corner and at this time the Clock Tower island was a taxi rank...😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How on earth were they allowed to bulldoze the building on the other side of Church Gate to the coffee house? Obs don't get started on the Haymarket 

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, WarehamFox said:

How on earth were they allowed to bulldoze the building on the other side of Church Gate to the coffee house? Obs don't get started on the Haymarket 

There was a fire near the corner at one time but as for your question you could ask the same about the whole length of that side of Haymarket as well as the Haymarket block it's like Leicester suffered some really heavy bombing in the war but it didn't certainly not there.

[Guest WarehamFox]

4 minutes ago, davieG said:

There was a fire near the corner at one time but as for your question you could ask the same about the whole length of that side of Haymarket as well as the Haymarket block it's like Leicester suffered some really heavy bombing in the war but it didn't certainly not there.

Keep the photos coming davieG, the whole Haymarket has been a disgrace since the seventies!

[boots60]

23 hours ago, Parafox said:

In the background is the pub which became The Carousel Fun Pub where I was resident DJ from 1976 to 1980. Used to love it, great nights there with people queuing outside to get in on a Friday/Saturday night and the place packed with people. I used to do a Mick Jagger impersonation to "I Can't Get No..."  as if he was a flasher in a dirty raincoat. I guess you had to be there but it was very much requested for. Also the revolting food eating competition... frogs legs in custard, L'Escargot (snails) in a glass of raw egg, among other things I've forgotten, the prize being a free pint .

Staff dressed up in various costumes. It was non-stop stuff going on. One group of people used to come every Friday from Sheffield for the craic. One the best, happiest times of my life. 

I doubt anyone on here will know of it but, in it's heyday it was one of the most popular places in Leicester.

How could you not give a mention to the reason the Carousel became an iconic pub?

The strippers. 10p in the glass please.

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones  ·
Granby St from Bishop St....

[davieG]

 

 

Leicester Mercury local history and nostalgia
 · 
We wonder how many of our readers recall Worthington’s Cash Stores, the local chain of grocery shops with their memorable slogan, “Let Worthington’s feed you”?
By 1960, the company had 47 branches, the vast majority within Leicester, but also in the county, and in Coventry, Northampton, Nuneaton and Rugby.
Founded by Charles T Worthington in 1891, the first of many stores was at 18 Humberstone Road, Leicester.
These two great photos from our archive show two of the firm’s shops, in Oban Street and Uppingham Road.
The earlier photo, top, dates to 1913 and shows the shop on the corner of Oban Street and Beatrice Road, in Newfoundpool.
The window display looks very intricate and must have taken hours to create.
The banners advertise dried plums at 6d a pound, cooking figs at 3d per lb and dried apricots at 9d per lb.
It seems that it was not just today’s health-conscious people who valued the benefit of reducing sugar in our diets as another poster extols the virtues of food with “Sugars Reduced”.
Notice the joints of meat hanging up outside the shop and the advert for “Challenge Blend Tea” over the entrance.
The other photo, in Uppingham Road, above, dates to 1957 and, as well as Worthington's, features the chemist shop of C P Butlin.

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones    · 
1930`s Leicester....

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester
Rob Hubble  
Staff at Benjamin Russell's hosiery factory (Eastern Boulevard) photographed taken during the First World War.

[Parafox]

On 22/10/2021 at 18:23, boots60 said:

How could you not give a mention to the reason the Carousel became an iconic pub?

The strippers. 10p in the glass please.

I wasn't much involved in those shenanigans. They were a Monday night and Friday lunchtime thing mainly because the posties that worked at the main sorting office nearby, wanted it.

I did once give a quite attractive girl who was a stripper, a lift back to Nottingham. She was lovely. She was a student who found this line of work the most lucrative way of bolstering her income, bearing in mind this was 1977 and there were no student loans. She wasn't ashamed or defensive about what she did. Just being honest and doing what she needed to do to support herself. Some will criticise but she changed my view to some degree. She took her clothes off for more money than bar work or being a waitress. Nothing more than that.

I don't recall the 10p in the glass thing, though. Punters were charged 50p at the door IIRC.

[davieG]

Looking up London Rd from Granby St c1903.....

 

 

Now.

[davieG]

 

History of Leicestershire in Images
Richard Brandreth  · 
The Newarke looking very different in the 1960's.

[davieG]

 

Welford Road between Wordsworth rd and Keble rd. 

Closed in 1963 aged 26. Was a Quicksave in the 90s Gone now.

[davieG]

Couple of night time gaffs. Not places I went too.

 

 

Was it the Il Rondo that had the Grab a Granny Night, can't imagine that going down too well these days.

 

 

[davieG]

 

Bradgate Park Entrance before they took the steps away.

[davieG]

Made In Leicester

Terry Jones  

Looking up Horsefair St c1900....

 

Make sure you avoid the horseshit although there's plenty more on this forum 

 

[davieG]

Made In Leicester
Terry Jones  
The Fire Brigade on Rutland St c1909 presumably on their way back to the station up the road......

 

[davieG]

Made In Leicester
Terry Russell  ·
Did car sales boom in the 1940's or was it just Leicester booming with big profits from clothing, shoes & engineering?
This was Gallowtree Gate in the 1940's

[Stadt]

Somehow despite the city having much taller buildings these older photos make Leicester seem much bigger? Maybe it's the density and scale of the buildings, the streetscape is more ornate; it looks like there's more going on?

 

It's criminal what post war planners, councils and architects did.

Edited 25 October 2021 by Stadt