SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

When my partner and i were Carpet fitters for Eastern Carpets , corner of City Square and Bond Street we and all the other fitters around Yorkshire were offered contracts to work for a London Company "John Miller" we accepted and a lad from York Billy and I became Managers over all the rest fitting for the various shops.
An Hotel was being built near the Merrion Centre and we were given Architect plans for the whole ground floor. The carpet was a very high quality Wilton and was ordered from Kidderminster. When it arrived we assembled about 20 fitters and they began working day and nights in shifts. As work had to on for the Carpet Stores I stayed with that side of it. After about two weeks Bill called me upstairs in City Square where the fitting planning was being done. He told me "We have only X number of corridors to fit, and one Lounge to go and yet we have loads of carpet left over. We studied the plans and realised that the Head office in London had included the whole of the Kitchens in their quantity estimate. We where in a quandry, if we told the London Bosses we knew they would say that we were responsible yet we had been told quite firmly to leave everything to them as this sort of job as "Run of the Mill" to them, to them we just were "Yorkshire Puddings"
So in the end i had my modest Semi in Beeston Hall, Stairs and Landing carpeted out with this and Bill had the rest.

After all this Long Winded Saga what i would like to know is What was that Hotel called ?.
I thought it was the Merrion but after looking on line i see that opened in the 1960s.
This was, from memory, somewhere near by.

I'm intrigued Jack and I hope you find out. I wonder if it might have anything to do with the nightclub and or casino that used to be nearby, though that is purely speculative.

[quote="Leodian"]I'm intrigued Jack and I hope you find out. I wonder if it might have anything to do with the nightclub and or casino that used to be nearby, though that is purely speculative.

From memory it was a multi storey building, sadly the lad from York has passed away so have no way of getting any more information.
I actually would have been certain that it was The Merrion except for the dates not fitting.
It certainly was in that area.

Hi Jack,

The Merrion Centre was opened in 1964. The Merrion Hotel opened in January 1966. Here is a link:

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

In the late 1960's/early 1970's, I knew the manager of the hotel. He was called Robert David Wiles-Gill. He was from the Pontefract area and now lives in Scotland. He left the Merrion Hotel to set up the restaurant and cafe side of Makro off the Ring Road in South Leeds. He went back into hotel management which he did until he retired.

If it was not the Merrion Hotel that you worked at, can you give us a clue as to what year and a better location?

Ian

[quote="iansmithofotley"]Hi Jack,

The Merrion Centre was opened in 1964. The Merrion Hotel opened in January 1966. Here is a link:

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

In the late 1960's/early 1970's, I knew the manager of the hotel. He was called Robert David Wiles-Gill. He was from the Pontefract area and now lives in Scotland. He left the Merrion Hotel to set up the restaurant and cafe side of Makro off the Ring Road in South Leeds. He went back into hotel management which he did until he retired.

If it was not the Merrion Hotel that you worked at, can you give us a clue as to what year and a better location?

Ian

Ian / Leodian. Firstly let me apologise for my memory lapse, it was certainly was the Merrion Hotel in the mid 1960s and i also recall now that after seeing the amount of material left over we made a tentative call to London to mention this. were told firmly to "Fit the Managers Office out" and do not phone again.