Terracotta white swan on building in Call Lane Leeds, opposite the Arts Cafe bar.
I often wander around Leeds city centre looking at the buildings for traces of their past life. I do not know how I missed this nice white swan in terracotta built into some fancy red brick work at first floor level.
Leeds had many more public houses and hotels in the city centre before the Edwardian period. Call Lane as an example had in 1881 the following public houses:
Star and Garter, publican William Field
Masons' Arms, publican Robert Wardle
Legs of Man, publican William Cawthorn
White Swan, publican Tom Riley
Old Parrot, publican Mrs Lydia Gill
Hope and Anchor, publican George Sowry
I may be wrong but I think that all these pubs are no longer.
As I walk around the city of Leeds today the loss of public houses is perhaps greater than at any time in the past. There are empty puns to let and boarded up all over the city, it would be a rare day when I do not pass at least one. This is I think a pity because they form so much of our social history.
If you ignore the bottom half of the old buildings in Leeds City Centre and concentrate on the upper half, you can get an idea of what the centre was like in the past. However, there are more and more high rise offices and apartments being built that can, in some cases, spoil the illusion of a bygone era.
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