City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

[davieG]

Neil M Blower

43 m  · 

 

London Road Station 1969

[lcfc278]

7 minutes ago, davieG said:

Neil M Blower

43 m  · 

 

London Road Station 1969

And now... so many changes in 50 years.

[davieG]

Memories of Leicester

pordnsStoes1g228ml7h0 0i8i527lm9 u077u5Aiuu25a69uu6tth410227  · 

 

On 21 September 1949 tram No.80 emerges from "The hole in the wall" next to The Bell Hotel in Humberstone Gate. The Layland PDI bus No.251 entered service in 1946 and lasted a mere thirteen years whereas the tram, albeit modernised, was some 45 years old. The Tram Shelter reads "Humberstone Cars" and was the central loading point for that route..

— at (National Tramway Museum).

[Paninistickers]

Mercury website reporting Jewry Wall revamp underway at last. Very welcome. 

[Wymsey]

50 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Mercury website reporting Jewry Wall revamp underway at last. Very welcome. 

Always think that part of Leicester has been forgotten about by some.

 

Possibly because of the location.

[Paninistickers]

29 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Always think that part of Leicester has been forgotten about by some.

 

Possibly because of the location.

I think Soulsby would love to have that part, the castle/st mary de Castro and the river connected to the city centre. 

 

The damage that Polish town planner fella did to the City is still being felt 60-70 years on. Extraordinary legacy. 

[Tuna]

On 05/02/2024 at 22:20, Voll Blau said:

Since November, I've been commuting to Barrow from the north. That road down from Hoton offers some lovely views of Beacon Hill on the right and a glimpse of Prestwold Hall on the left. Really pleasant and makes you proud.

 

Anybody want to suggest a nicer stretch of road in the county?

Nether Broughton to Melton on the Nottingham Road is great, really clear views over the Vale of Belvoir and across to Leicester near Ab Kettleby

Edited 11 April by Tuna

[Eurofox]

Nice walk down the Narborough Road

really makes you feel proud!!!

[davieG]

[davieG]

Born and Raised in Leicester  · 

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Haymarket car park 197

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History of Leicestershire in Images

Steve Anderson  · Ssptoderno50ailtccg018al42g39g635f1ca08t58mgtmcuif32chtaiggu  · 

 

 

Now and Then. St Peter’s Road and St Stephen’s Road junction. Then being 1953, Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation year.

[davieG]

[davieG]

New proposals aim to give Leicester a market fit for the 21st century. If approved, work on the scheme could get under way in spring 2023.

 

https://news.leicester.gov.uk/news-articles/2022/september/city-mayor-outlines-75m-proposals-for-leicester-market/

[davieG]

 

History of Leicestershire in Images

Steve Anderson  · 22 m  · 

 

 

Now and Then. St Peter’s Road. Then is about 124 years ago.

[davieG]

 

History of Leicestershire in Images

Steve Anderson  ·   · 

 

 

Now and Then. The Post Office and Craddock Arms, Knighton.

[davieG]

Paul Jay  · 

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B1 61209 leaves Leicester Belgrave Road with a Sunday excursion to Skegness, Summer 1961.

[davieG]

 

History of Leicestershire in Images

Steve Anderson  · sSoonerptdf50hltt0g1901al1t8171417m58c6680al0692h0l7c797ftih  · 

 

 

Hinckley Road in 1906.

[davieG]

Story of Leicester

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#ThrowbackThursday to when you could drive in both directions along Aylestone Road in front of the Leicester Tigers stadium! This was taken in 1969 and to the left you can see all the houses and shops on what is now the site of the Leicester Royal Infirmary car park.

A number of streets have been lost as the LRI has expanded, just to name a few: Napier St (in this photo), Chestnut St, Aylestone St, Kentish St, Crown St, Bridge St, Victoria St, Albert St, and Raglan St! Did you or anyone you know live on any of the streets?

#StoryofLeicester

[davieG]

 

Leicester 50 years ago  · 

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Gary Freestone  ·   · 

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Leicester Memories

Jayne Wills  ·   · 

 

 

Humberstone gate before the Haymarket

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[davieG]

 

 

Leicester Memories

Peter Taylor  · 46 m  · 

 

 

A 1956 picture of the Grannd Union Canal looking towards Frog Island and North Bridge .

 

 

 

[davieG]

 

Remember Loughborough  · 

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Suggested for you  · Graham Hulme  ·   · 

 

 

An old postcard view of the Brush engineering works. The card was posted from Loughborough to a village north of Lincoln on 23rd October 1913. The message on the card, to a Miss Edie True, was dated and addressed from the Lonsdale Hotel by the writer “Will” - possibly a visitor to the town who was staying there. The Lonsdale stands at the corner of Burder Street and Glebe Street but has been closed for many years. The licensee in 1913 was Gertrude Hyde, a widow whose husband, Harry Hyde, had taken over at the Lonsdale in February 1910 but died in March 1911. The couple had previously run the Leopard Inn at Derby before coming to Loughborough. No doubt the Lonsdale, which had opened in 1899, was quite prosperous at the time and benefitted from its nearness to the Brush Works and its employees, as well as other industries in the locality and the Midland Railway Station. The engineering works, shown in the picture, first began to be developed there in 1865 when Henry Hughes & Company was established on a seven acre site next to the Midland Railway, manufacturing locomotives, rail coaches and wagons (Hughes had previously run a Falcon Works since the 1850s at a canal wharf near The Rushes - see article by Tony Jarram https://www.lboro-history-heritage.org.uk/origins-of-the.../ ). The company was also noted for producing tramcars and patented lightweight steam engines for operation on tramways. The company came to be called the Falcon Engine and Car Works, continuing the Falcon name from the wharf works. Henry Hughes was born in London in 1833 and was initially a timber merchant. He is described as such in the 1861 census when he was then living in Loughborough but in 1871, while living in Leicester, he is called a mechanical engineer and, with two partners, employed 120 men and 55 boys. By the time of the 1881 census he is entered as a civil engineer and was living at Falcon Cottage in Loughborough with his wife, Emma and a large family. In 1882 the factory suffered a serious fire and the following year the business ran into financial difficulties. It was then taken over by Norman Scott Russell, a son of the renowned shipbuilder John Scott Russell who had collaborated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the building of the SS Great Eastern at Millwall. Henry Hughes and his family subsequently moved to New Zealand it seems and he died there in 1896.

The Falcon Works was purchased in 1889 by the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation which had been established in Lambeth, South London, in 1879. This business soon after changed its name to Brush Electrical Engineering Co Ltd, the name seen over the works in the picture. The Brush Company had initially manufactured dynamos and arc lamps, exploiting the inventions of the American Charles Francis Brush (1849-1929) who gave his name to the company. Charles Brush was born near Cleveland, Ohio and in 1876 had invented an improved electric dynamo for powering arc lights. The following year he patented the dynamo and invented the first practicable arc lighting. In April 1879 Brush’s arc lamps lit the public square in Cleveland. By 1882 his lamps had been installed in several major cities across America and Europe. The American company Brush Electric was also established in 1879 and after some later mergers with other companies became General Electric. The Anglo-American Brush Electric at Lambeth owned the worldwide patent and sales rights of the various products, excluding the US. The company also began to manufacture motors, switchgear and small transformers and experienced a large increase in business by the late 1880s. Thus the move to the site in Loughborough was prompted by the need for room to expand and a location close to the railway.

At first only the heavier manufacturing was transferred from Lambeth (the works stood where the Shell building and the London Eye are now on the south bank of the Thames) but, with the building of large extensions at the Falcon Works, most of the production was moved to Loughborough by 1895. In 1891 Emile Garcke (1856-1930) had become Managing Director of the company. He had been born in Saxony and became a naturalised British subject in 1880, joining Anglo-American Brush Electric as Secretary in Lambeth in 1883. (Garcke was much involved in the development of electrical engineering throughout the country and in 1895 set up the British Electric Traction Company, becoming its Managing Director. This company was involved in the electrification of tramways in Britain and abroad and became the largest private owner of tramways in the country). Before the First World War tramcars and electrical engineering were the main manufacture at Brush and by 1910 the works employed about 2,000 people. Steam locomotives were also produced, and motor omnibuses and other motor vehicles. During WW1 production was mainly concerned with munitions but after 1918 turbine production increased, suited to small municipal and company electricity works. By the mid-1920s the works employed about 2,500 people and covered an area of about 33 acres. After the Second World War there was more diversification with the production of heavy electrical equipment, large oil engines, diesel and diesel-electric locomotives, generators and transformers. Other companies became part of the BRUSH Group and in 1957 it amalgamated with the Hawker Siddeley Group following a £22 million offer. By October 1960 the Falcon Works employed about 4,300 and had a total site area of 59 acres. During the 1970s the various divisions of BRUSH were formed into separate manufacturing companies with about 5,000 people on the site. Since the 1990s there have been many re-organisations and acquisitions of the various companies and divisions, and many changes have occurred in recent years, including the sale of its generators and motors division.

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, davieG said:

 

What a building!  What a waste!

[davieG]

12 hours ago, Parafox said:

 

What a building!  What a waste!

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/pub-first-go-demolition-men-3233587?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0oyA8dVFqihnCkd1qmgftUHmXB36hEKXMrSEQIkY070WNnQzS52yRD_fw_aem_AenjHxzhLUJ0ee7QaX2NrH0s70GjE-kMyjsKtx0bH2yCCvFPtoTbKgarQf8awRUAx6FE-LGl5fj9yd59QeccOvXb

 

Pub was first to go when demolition men moved in to Humberstone Gate in 1962

Boards surround the demolition site of the Stag and Pheasant pub on Humberstone Gate, Leicester, in November 1962

 

 

The fabulous photo from our archive, above, shows the end of one of Leicester city centre’s much-loved and long-gone pubs.

This is Humberstone Gate in November 1962 and the start of demolition work to make way for what was to become the Haymarket shopping centre.

The pub which has just been flattened is the Stag and Pheasant.

As the demolition boards surrounding the site tell us, it was set to be replaced by a Littlewoods store as part of the huge redevelopment which took place in this area.

The other shops on the right were all on borrowed time, too.

These included one of the stores of W A Lea and Sons, chemists shop FH Clark, the Irish Manufacturing Co and another pub, the Admiral Nelson with its Art Deco facade.

 

Just rubble remains in November 1962 where the Stag and Pheasant pub once stood on Leicester's Humberstone Gate