there are a group of underground tunnels,near kirkstall electric station.
as a few of us dug out one of the tunnels a few years ago. must ave been at
least 50 or 60 footlong an 6ft wide by 6 ft high. with a hatch upto the
ground right in the middle of the tunnel. we were told that there are also a
set of ww2 underground office’s. on the ground next to this tunnel by the
canal.

posted by Email

The building on Wellington Street now converted into luxury flats called

‘City Central’ used to be the Railway Hotel and has been on Wellington

Street since the 1800’s. 

 

Back in the day this glamerous hotel was used by travellers and railway

workers alike but a fire destroyed the building in the 50’s and claimed many

lives - not all of them ‘official guests’ because the hotel was known to

turn a blind eye to certain activities so the death toll was even higher

than records show.

 

When developers took it over they added two new floors (6 and 7) and didn’t

put the turrets back on the roof.  It is reported that builders of the flats

left the site and refused to go back to work when they mistook the ghost of

a railway worker in a luminous jacket and slick black hair to be one of the

builders…

 

It is reported by residents that the second floor, previously the grand

ballroom, is now haunted by a lady that continues to dance - her perfume can

be smelt!!

 

Many residents I have met in the lift also report regular hauntings within

individual flats, sightings of orbs and very strange changes in temperature

when the beautiful and original staircase is used…

posted by Email

I’m not sure whether this counts as Leeds or not, but in Fulneck School, Pudsey (est. 1753, so plenty of opportunities for ghosts and such) there was a popular rumour/legend about a ghost named the “Grey Lady”. The teachers often said that it originated from some old wedding photo that was messed up by some six formers not that long ago (though considering the age of the teachers, “not long ago” was probably the 60s or 70s, at the latest) – but it was always she who was credited when all the lights in a room suddenly went off, and then came back again a panicked few seconds later, and I always suspected that that black cat which could often be seen wandering the corridors and gardens had some connection to her…
There are many other strange things about that place, though I never thought that anyone other than me remembered most of them. And I know that this is very recent, but a few nights ago a boggart, or something like it, (I believe they were called will-o’-the-wisps in the dream, as I couldn’t remember the name) managed to trap me inside a dream-room, and it was only by remembering how to defeat it (it was impervious to physical harm) that I was able to wake up from the dream and the sleep. This experience continues to fascinate and disturb me, as it managed to be simultaneously a dream and not a dream… A bit like the tree thing in Totoro, I suppose. Jordan S.

posted by Email

In the heart of Holbeck Urban Village lies an extraordinary building: a direct copy of the temple to Horus at Edfu. The Temple Mills (1838 — 43) were designed by Eqyptologist and architect Joseph Bonomi Jun for John Marshall, founder of the Leeds flax industry and an entrepreneur of the industrial revolution.
Temperature and humidity are very important to the flax industry. To prevent rainwater penetrating the flat roof, the roof was covered on the outside with plaster, tar, earth and grass to insulate it and it is said that a flock of sheep grazed upon the grass. This bizarre story of sheep being kept on its turf roof is well rooted in local folklore…apparently one of them fell through a skylight killing one of the workers below! How more surreal a juxtaposition could one imagine than sheep grazing on the roof of a dark Satanic mill posing as an Egyptian Temple?
Urban myth or not, this anecdote evokes an incongruous vision that symbolises the historical tension between the urban and rural landscape. The workers who initially stoked the fires of the industrial revolution came flocking from the countryside and these low paid agrarian labourers, searching for income in the newly industrialised towns, were soon crowded into areas like Holbeck and Leeds. Those lofty sheep will have had a particular resonance for them as they trudged into work to start a gruelling 72-hour week.
Two hundred years later, digital media artist Andy Wood created a site-specific installation that you could have happened upon much like the original sheep. Comprising a video projection onto the top of the building of sheep grazing with a supporting rural-esque soundscape, it was a subtle intervention with an atmosphere of the past and a suggestion of the murky history of this grand monument to the industrial revolution.

posted by Email

Back in the day it is said that people who were imprisoned in Leeds town hall could send secret messages by passing word down the cells and the message being passed by through gaps in the steps to the eagerly awaiting recipient in the street.

posted by Email

I were doing a psychology project about whether boys are more violent than girls, well i were watchin all these people in Morrisons so see how they were acting, y’know and well,  they thought i were a spy didn’t they and kicked me out! and it turns out that girls are more violent than boy, but i would be bias as i have two boys don’t I, well they’re 40 now but they still my boys.

posted by Email

In 1975 half of the Leeds market next to the corn exchange burnt down apparently due to an electrical fault, it was the better half
which burnt down, mind you, and its never been the same since.

posted by Email

I was in bed wi me husband and at the end of the bed, this ghostly figure appeared like a nun wearing a big pointy hat, well she started pointing at me, well i thought it were me, but then we realised it were my husband and two weeks later he died.

posted by Email

How about Parrott Man? Whilst growing up in Leeds we were always told about the Parrott Man who lived in the woods near the Meanwood Cricket Club, and that if he got hold of you he would peck out your eyes! I now live in London but I still think of this and wouldnt go near them woods if you paid me

Andrew Lang

posted by Email

In t’market there were two guys who had a stall, one was a foreigner called Marks and the other was a local lad called Spencer, together they developed a successful chain of shops which is now nationwide.

posted by Email

Now it was said that mucky Jonny got his name by being so filthy, and used to wait outside the pubs in Rodley before they opened,  the landlords of these establishments used to go out before the pub opened and pay Jonny a shilling to wander down to the next pub.

I t was said the when in his house he used to go to the toilet by doing his business in a sheet of newspaper then he’d wrap it up and throw it into his attic, this he did for years.

It was only when his house caught fire and the fire brigade went to his house that they found the evidence of his ways!

posted by Email

Just after Dunkirk all the soldiers were stationed at up at Quarry Hill you could tell em when they walked round town as they all had the same suit, my husband didn’t stay there tho, no he came home and stayed at his house in Armley

posted by dave

The two places above were where soldiers in the civil war were stationed. The places got their names from the colour of the coats the soldiers use to wear.

posted by Email

In the times of the plague the market was moved from Leeds city centre to Bramley town.

posted by Email

The City Variety’s in Leeds has three reported ghost sightings

There is a guardsman in a long top hat - who patrols inside the stalls, people believe that this could be Edward the VII who was reported to take his fancy women there in secret. The other two are believed to be actors who used to work at the variety’s.

posted by Email

The Yorkshire Witch was known as Mary Bateman and plundered the money from towns folk for charms and potions.  She was convicted of murder, tried at the local court and then hung by the neck till death then chopped into pieces.  People came to see her body and raised £30 for the Infirmary.

posted by Email

The dressing rooms in the Theatre Royal at Hunslet lane  was reported to be haunted  by the actors who had previously took the stage in years gone by.

posted by Email

Now it only shut down a few years back, i think the government closed it, but some of the people who came out of there were wrongfully in there to begin with.

One story that comes to mind is that of some women who were in there and the reason, the mental disability they had was to have an illegitimate child! now this was almost 60 years ago since they were admitted and now they were so institutionalised, they found it near most impossible to re-integrate back into society.

posted by dave

Somebody was shot on Town street in Bramley, one of the shops where the shooting took place is said to be haunted by the receiver of the bullet.

posted by dave

It is said that turrets of the Civic Hall are haunted by some one who died in the maintenance of the building.

posted by Email

There used to be a guy knocking round on the streets called Barnsley Bob, he wern’t reet clever like, but they used to take him in and bath him, y kno every few months

posted by Email

Danny Freeman used to raise money for St James hospital out side Marks and Spencer, he was a true legend that man and is worthy of a mention.

posted by Email

There was a man, who used to patrol the bank area of Leeds, who were massive, he used to keep it free of trouble at night as it was a real rough area.

posted by Email

I used to work at the palace pub near the parish church cleaning n that, and i seen her twice, well i think it was a her.

The first time i saw her out of the corner of my eye, she walked past me and i got goose bumps and went all cold like, n i just saw her through the door.

Second time i was with owner and he was mopping the floor, this faded white figure came past us and walked up the stairs, i even saw her turn the corner at the top.  He said  ‘did you just see what i just saw’    ‘yes’ i said ‘i told ya  it were haunted’

well, i were used to it, but his face was white as a sheet ans were beat wi perspiration, ‘i’ve been sleeping upstairs for weeks he said i aint goin to anymore’

posted by Email

In Rockwood estate near Temple Newsham a bomb were dropped in war, but never went off, well they evacuated the whole estate, i went to have a look and people had just fled. There were windows open with the curtains blowing in the wind, it was like a ghost town.  Anyways when they let everyone back in where the bomb had dropped it was in this womans house and she charged us a penny to look at the hole, we didn’t know if the bomb were in there or not, but she used to say, ‘go and ask your grandparents for a penny for the spitfire fund and you can see the hole’

posted by Email

There is an underground train that runs from the police station near the court to the hospital for transporting prisoners.

Bob Weir

posted by Email

When king Henry the 8th was destroying all the abbeys and monasterys, a monk commited suicide by jumping from the bell tower in Kirkstall abbey, his ghost has been seen in the ruins recreating this fatal jump.

Bob Weir

posted by Email

Woodbine Lizzie used to hang round the streets in the 1930s wearing a 1000 mens overcoats cadgin cigs from everybody, if you failed to give her cigarettes she would come out with all sorts of terrible language directed at you.

She died on the streets and had apparently leaving a small fortune.

posted by Email

The was a old Austin Standard perched on a rooftop on the corner of marsh lane for donkeys years.

posted by Email

My father used to light the boiler on swinegate years ago and he told me when i was a little girl, i sometimes go to work wi him, y’kno. You can always expect a caller on call lane he said, its where they used to rob ya. and thats how i got its name he said.

posted by Email

There is a geezer who sits outside the Yorkshire Bank opposite McDonalds on Briggate who claims to have been living there for something like 16 years and that he has nine children. It was hard to believe him, but he was very nice…

posted by Email

I have heard a couple of myths regarding the Town Hall which I have known for years I hope they will be of some good to you.
The first one is that the Lions of the Town Hall come to life at Midnight and walk around the Town Hall and protect the city and it’s residents.
The other one is that if the Town Hall Clock should ever strike 13 not only will the Lions come to life the will attack the people of Leeds.
Ihope that this will be some help to you.
All the Best
Terry Pickles.

posted by Email

Back inth day, the oldest pub in Leeds - whitelocks landlord was married to a dwarf lady, so she could work at the bar he raised the level the floor from the bartenders side, hence why today it still has a high bar.

posted by Email

I remember been told about a ghost at temple newsam house about a blue lady who huanted a blue room.
also i have story about my granfather don’t know whether it’s true.
He was a tram driver, one evening he was driving his tram it was foggy, he suddenly saw a man with his bike on the tracks he tried to stop but unfortunately he ran other him. but when they went to look under the tram there was only a bike and a cap, no man in sight, the next morning my grandads hair was white. he always swore that there was a man pushing the bike.

 

Michael Orange

posted by Email

There used to be a newspaper seller on Lands Lane (near Barretts shoes) in the mid eighties who, instead of just shouting out “POST!!” every 10 seconds like all the others, shouted/sung very loudly……… “Evening Post! I’m having a TERRIBLE DAY! Haven’t sold a single paper !”

This eventually endeared him to the public and he used to sell loads, thus getting a write up in the local paper he sold…..i.e. the Evening Post!

Eve Solomon

posted by Email

there’s always the irritating guitar man who comes up to you with his guitar when you’re in the city centre at night and plays and sings very badly and follows you until you give him money to **** off?

posted by Email

There’s a myth about the staircases in Leeds Met. The staircases all have metal nets in the stairwell at alternate floors. The myth is that these were put in place as a direct reponse to a failed suicide attempt by Marc Almond. He was a Fine Art graduate from Leeds Poly in the early eighties. He did a cabaret and got a first.

posted by Email

Legend has it that the Skyrack Pub, comes from Skyr Ack (might be spelt wrong!), or Shire Oak, which was the southernmost Viking Camp and was where the Vikings and the Saxons traded and raided (the etymolgy of these words is the same), the border between shirts and skirts. The vikings didn’t tuck theirs in and the saxons did. The oak was written about, and drawn, for a 1000 years and was cut down relatively recently (20-30 years ago), that’s why theres a weird traffic island in front of the pub - where it used to be. It’s also part of the myth that this is why there are about 6 pubs there……

posted by Email

There’s a story amongst Leeds’ medical students that a psychotic patient was convinced that his mind was being controlled from the communications masts at the Clinical Sciences Building at St James’s Hospital. When Quarry House was built, he was equally convinced that control tranferred there…. you’ve seen the mast on top!
Thing is, those of us who work for the NHS *know* we’re controlled by the sinister forces within Quarry House!

posted by Email

Jimmy Saville claims to have invented DJing, as we know it, in a club in the Grand Arcade by connecting 2 record players together. The reason he did this is that it was too expensive to get a licence for a band and he didn’t want any gaps between the records.

posted by Email

The Sister’s of Mercy once had a party in a terrace in Hyde Park that went on for three weeks 24/7. Some people estimate that over a hundred ounces of amphetamines were consumed during the party.

posted by Email

The Department for Health building at Quarry Hill sits on the site earmarked by Hilter as the location of the Nazi headquarters for Britain - should his invasion plans have been a success

posted by Email

Somewhere in the central Leeds area there was a Roman settlemnt possibly that of Cambodunum where there was a crossing point over the river. Now there’s no trace except for little exerts mentioned by Victorian collectors who mention fortified camps at Quarry hill and streets in the Calls as areas of possibly Roman occupation. Has all our ancient history of this region been obscured by our industrial past, or can extracts of our Romano British past still be found?

posted by Email

I have been reliably informed by a friend who used to work at the ‘Underground’ bar, below the Town & Country Club (now Creation Night Club), that in Victorian times the building was sometimes used to host Circuses, & with this in mind, tunnels were built from the cellars to the Station, so that dangerous animals such as tigers could be transported there without putting the public at risk.
I have also heard that, on occasions, the tunnels were flooded with water, which allowed dolphins to swim, underground, below the city, & emerge to give displays within the building.

posted by Email

those owls ontop of the civic hall come alive once a year. they fly round the town scoffing up dropped kebabs and then regurgitate them as owl pellets, which drunks then eat cos the look just the same as kebabs
chilli sauce?!

posted by Email

Holy Trinity church had a Grave yard, the bodies were removed, but the spirits lived on….

posted by Email

Used in WW2 the shelters have two sections men and women connected by tunnels. These tunnels are then connected to the underground tunnels under Leeds University,

posted by michealespessa