FF locations in Leeds on Google Street View and in November 2010

[Rob]

Ed Foley made a couple of very informative posts about FF filming locations in Leeds. I decided to try Google Street View to see if I could find them!

First of all the scenes from "Stryker's Good Deed".

Ron is riding along North West Road...

...and here is North West Road today, completely rebuilt!


As they put the rag and bone man in the ambulance, you get a glimpse on the right of a block of flats called Holborn Towers in Shay Street:

Here is Shay Street with Holborn Towers today:


Gip talks to a policeman by a flight of steps that leads to Servia Hill:

The steps are still there but the local surroundings are much greeer and more verdant!


Now for "Poor Bald Head". The notorious Thacket's Rise was filmed at the bottom of King's Road:

The lower end of King's Road has been redeveloped, and the road now ends in a cul-de-sac.


This shows Kelsall Road from the junction with Alexandra Road, more or less where King's Road would have ended. This is the road that can be seen in the distance on the screencap.


More to follow!

[Rob]

Now for some locations from "Miss Him When He's Gone".

In the Burley area of Leeds we find the home of the Foley family... Situated in Lilian Street, the door being knocked upon has been identified as no 20. In the background is the Kirkstall railway viaduct beyond which are the studios of Yorkshire Television.

Here's the Foley house in the very run-down Lilian Street:

...and as far as I can ascertain, this is the same view today. You can see the parapet of the viaduct behind the bungalow in the distance!

The family stables... had been constructed on the site of the former Banker and Watlas Streets.

Dora and the brothers on the site of the stables:

...and this is Banker Street today. Not very attractive, but then bankers aren't held in high esteem nowadays! The cobbles look original - perhaps Dora could have walked across them?

The funeral appears to have taken place at the New Wortley Cemetery. Armley Jail would be just out of view to the left while the dark coloured buildings at the bottom of the cemetery would have been the backs of houses in Eighteenth Avenue.

I think I've managed to pinpoint the exact location in the cemetery! Here are Dora and young Master Foley:

... and here is the same corner of the cemetery today:

[Loopy]

Wow Rob - you've done an amazing job finding these.  Very interesting pics - thanks so much.  The places certainly look better now than in the 70s.   

[Jane]

I know this is going to sound strange but some of the pictures I prefer them as they were in the 70s. Pure nostalgia and wearing rose-tinted glasses on my part. 

Great bit of research Rob  8-)

[Rob]

I've managed to get a closer view of the steps up to Servia Hill:

Here's Gip running away from Ron!


And here are the steps today:

[Rob]

I know this is going to sound strange but some of the pictures I prefer them as they were in the 70s.

I know what you mean, . I particularly like the old gas lamps in the picture of Ron going along North West Road. But I suppose the old back-to-back houses were unhealthy to live in, and it was easier to knock them down than refurbish them.

I imagine the redevelopment was already well under way when FF was filmed - it looks as if most of the houses in Lilian Street and N W Road were already derelict. It would have been easy for Yorkshire TV to take over an abandoned street for filming.

[Jane]

Thackets Rise just looks so different now. I definately prefer the "before" picture rather than the cul de sac it is today. I know what you mean about the old back-to-backs though. I've been in a few of them in museum sites and they do seem pokey especially when you think how many people lived in them in those days with no bathrooms and the dunny next to the coal shed. 

The other one where I prefer the before picture is Banker street. The only redeeming feature in the present picture are the cobbles!

[squeakytre]

Brilliant work Rob, fascinating too!
I am with Jane on this one and prefer the old early70's scenes.

The church gravestones are an exact match. Usually cemetry grounds and churches/cathedrals change very little over the years -only when new generations of locals become less religious do the churches become altered into housing etc.

'Gip's steps' appear not to have changed- even the handrails look the same  Strange bt they look smaller too in the modern photo.

Incidently in the episode 'Poor bold head' where the horse is going up the rise, a person sudenly sticks his head around a near by building-presumably spying on the camera crew -then hides again!    (have a look ) ha

[Sabrina]

Rob, sterling work!! What a labour of love -!!    I confess to being with Jane and preferring the 1970s version too.

For anyone considering a "Follyfoot site tour", now you know what to look for!!!
Cheers
Sabrina x

[sue]

Wow! Well Done Rob.

A fascinating sets of images, and interesting to see how places have changed over the past 35+years.

Your hard work will certainly help those wanting to take a follytour around the locations.

Sue
 

[Soniks]

Nice work Rob ! a very interesting project the original screen caps show just how dark and grimey some of the UK cities were in the 60's and 70's...

[dave]

A belated well done from me too, Rob. I some how missed all these posts for some reason. Maybe Christmas was the reason? I'm glad Soniks posted here today. If it had been done this month, it would have been a candidate for POTM.

[Rob]

I've now had a chance to visit the Leeds locations myself and here are a few shots taken on Friday 19 November!

It was very foggy early in the morning and it took a long time to clear. The first FF location I decided to check out was the site of the Foley family residence at 20 Lilian Street. Lilian Street has been completely redeveloped and no longer exists - the western half is now an extension of St Matthias Street, and the eastern half up to the railway viaduct is now an open green space. But I found that my Google Street View research was correct as far as the house location went. Where there was once a cobbled street with tiny back-to-back houses there are now gentrified 1980s houses with gardens, and grass grows up to the viaduct!


Apart from the viaduct, I didn't expect anything to have survived the redevelopment, but I did find another "fixing point" to link the past and the present. On the old Banker Street (now a cul-de-sac with no houses, leading off the main Kirkstall Road) is the HSS Hire Shop:


When walking around the site I suddenly realised that the back of this very same building appears in "Miss Him When He's Gone" - the landrover and horse trailer pass it just before coming to a halt outside the Foleys' house:

I went inside and asked the man behind the desk if the building had always been a Hire Shop, and he said that before 1995 it was a video library and before that an electrical goods shop. He also told me that older residents had told him about the little streets of terraced houses that once stood behind the shop. I have subsequently been advised that the building was originally a Fine Fare supermarket.

[Rob]

The HSS man also pointed out a grassy mound to the right of the shop as you look along Kirkstall Street:

He said that this mound was made from the rubble of the demolished back-to-back houses. So perhaps pieces of Minnie Foley's fruit bowl or the frame of Ed Foley's "Honour thy Father and Mother" sign lie buried here!

I walked up Kirkstall Road, under the impressive viaduct and up Willow Road to Burley Road, to find a location from "Poor Bald Head". Here I found a large area of extant back-to-back housing. Kelsall Road can be seen in the distance at the foot of "Thacket's Rise" - it hasn't changed much, but the houses have been somewhat modernised:

The street sign is definitely original:

Originally these houses had no bathrooms or lavatories - every so often there is a break in the houses for what was a communal lavatory block:

When you consider that these are back-to-back houses, they are very small indeed. I heard raised voices coming from one house where an argument was in progress - the language was rather more colourful than the Foleys'. I hurried on up to the site of Thacket's Rise!

[Rob]

My Google Street View screencaps of King's Road are better than any photos I could take on the day. I suddenly became aware of a large number of Muslims around, and then realised they were going to a mosque which is just off the east side of Kings Road! By walking along Hartwell Road, which appears to be a post-Follyfoot creation, I took a photo looking down towards Kelsall Road - this is the nearest I could get to Thacket's Rise!

You can just see the chimney pots of the old terraced houses in the background, but the forest of factory chimneys beyond has gone!

Here is New Wortley Cemetery - smaller than I expected. It took me ages to find the graves seen on TV, because sadly the gravestone with the distinctive cross has fallen over - or been deliberately smashed.

This damage must have happened recently as it is still intact on Google Street View. Here is the smashed gravestone lying face down on the grass: