Eastgate subway?

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Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

The mystery of those raised 'brick platforms' deepens!I've found another one directly on top of the beck on the other side of the railway. This one appears to have access inside. I'm thinking i know whats in there when your under the beck. Aren't the remains of the old Timble bridge to be found on one of these traffic islands somewhere? I thought i've read that on S.L before.    
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

Regarding the Timble bridge, is this it anyone know?http://snipurl.com/11a8mh
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

18th September 1950.A view of new access to Timble Beck from East Street bridge. In the background at the junction with Richmond Street are large premises, possible timber merchants.
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

Cardiarms
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Post by Cardiarms »

I'll have alook on the plans at work.

Cardiarms
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Post by Cardiarms »

Was down there this morning and can confirm that the eastgate lumps are nothing to do with the beck. It runs straight under thw roundabout, the manhole access can be seen to the right of Aaron's statue as you look at milgarth. +i think the lump before the viaduct is just coincidence. - ive noticed some steel hatches on the right in the shrubbery just before the bridge which I've mentioned before. There is alump of landscaping on the other side of the bridge in front of the hotel which has a manhole on the top of it, which strikes me as odd or poor planning.

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

Thanks for that info Cardiarms. I came across this cracking pic that shows the exact couse under the Eastgate roundabout. That Leodis website is invalueable for sure
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

As you say at the bottom of this thread here Cardiarmshttp://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Messages.as ... Light=1The beck runs under Millgarth Police station. I know it's a newer construction along Eastgate, so i'm guessing the course of the beck was altered slightly, and modernised under Millgarth, and along Eastgate in the 70's? I know it's a newer construction under there.I seem to recall hoardings along, and the road Eastgate closed for ages.    
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

mark1978
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Joined: Thu 28 Feb, 2013 7:28 am

Re: Eastgate subway?

Post by mark1978 »

Now then. Eastgate subway.

All indications I've been able to find seem to be that the entrance to this subway is behind the large black wooden hoarding on Lady Lane, opposite the bottom of Templar Lane:

https://goo.gl/maps/kPXyJih2DYw73hDs7

A while ago I asked around some colleagues in the council and they confirmed that is where it is. At the time Victoria Gate was being built on the other side of Eastgate, there were discussions about the possible subway, but it wasn't fully explored as there was no need to expand the span as far as this side.

This photo from 1956 (a year on from the initial photo that Phill found at the beginning of this thread) shows the buildings completed, albeit with scaffolding up, and the subway entrance visible:

https://www.leodis.net/ViewImage/ByIndicator/5436

The description of that original 1955 photo at https://www.leodis.net/ViewImage/ByIndicator/5533 has also been updated:

"This image, showing a man holding a plank of wood on top of scaffolding, a bucket in the foreground and a corrugated iron fence behind the scaffolding, was said to show Eastgate subway under construction, but we have found no evidence to confirm the existence of a subway under Eastgate. According to annual reports of the Leeds City Council’s Town Planning and Improvements Committee between 1956 and 1958, a block of buildings was built on Eastgate which incorporated the entrance to a proposed vehicular subway running under Eastgate to a proposed underground car park. However, there is no further mention of this vehicular subway in later reports, so it may be that it was never built and the entrance just led to car parking accommodation in the basement of the buildings."

This fits with the fact that there was no sign of a corresponding subway entrance/exit where you'd expect to find one - ie, at the rear of the former buildings on the other side of Eastgate (Union Street as-was, rear of Hoagy's etc). It sounds like the plan was actually for it to provide access to an underground space below Eastgate, rather than a thoroughfare type subway. There is another basement car park further up Eastgate / Lady Lane.

The odd thing about the idea of it being a car park entrance, though, is the three rather large concrete pillars. These would seem rather awkward to drive a car through, although cars were smaller back then I guess!

I walk up Lady Lane several times a week and it is possible to peep slightly round the edge of the hoarding, although I've not been able to glean much - just that it extends a long way beneath the building.

Possibly a bit of a naughty suggestion, but does anyone who has a drone camera fancy sending it over the top of the hoardings on a little surveillance mission?

mark1978
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Joined: Thu 28 Feb, 2013 7:28 am

Re: Eastgate subway?

Post by mark1978 »

Well. There's currently a bit broken at the top of the hoarding so I grabbed my chance this morning and poked my phone over the top - see attached.

Hard to judge distance but I'd say the opening we can see here extends at least halfway across the building, maybe further. And if you look at the line of the brickwork on the right, it certainly slopes downwards - although maybe not far enough down for the boarded-off bit to be entirely below ground level at that point.

Oh to know what's behind the boards!
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IMG_20240228_093645258_MFNR.jpg (874.48 KiB) Viewed 3189 times
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IMG_20240228_093643799_MFNR.jpg (924.56 KiB) Viewed 3189 times

mark1978
Posts: 143
Joined: Thu 28 Feb, 2013 7:28 am

Re: Eastgate subway?

Post by mark1978 »

243 views on the photos and no replies? Ok, please yourselves then!

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