Late Victorian Burley Six

Having stopped off at the corner of Burley Road and Cardigan Lane, let's now resume our walk by turning out of town, up Burley Road. To the right the solitary shop, now a grocer's and off-licence, was then, in the 1890's, just one of the block fronting the old Village* . We fork slightly left here, to the side of a small block of shops: now the Khyber restaurant and a launderette, but opened in 1898 as the Haddon Road Co-op.

A little further up Burley Grange Road is the unprepossessing Haddon Hall pub, showing no external indication that this site was the original hub of Burley village (though inside the pub are a number of fascinating pictures and drawings). Buildings are shown here on the map of 1711, with a small orchard on the left down the slope. By the middle of the 18th Century Burley Grange was here: a large castellated mansion, set in substantial grounds.It was the family home of the Butler family who were the owners of Kirkstall Forge.In 1864 they sold it to William Nicholson a builder,the family lived there until 1914 when passed onto the Craven Lime Company, who had it till it was demolished in 1938.

Bankfield House

A little further on, where the road becomes Bankfield Gardens, stands a sturdy Victorian residence. Since 1928 it's been the Conservative Club, and is one of the rare examples of local buildings that still shows the old Leeds layers of grime on it. But in 1891 it was still a private home, the 'Bankfield' that gave the surrounding roads their names, owned by William Robinson, a wool merchant. We can imagine, however, the reactions of the Robinsons and Nicholsons to the encroachment of working-class housing all around them. Doubtless they made a little profit themselves out of selling land adjacent to their homes; doubtless they soon moved out to more secluded places, leaving their old homes to fall derelict, or be taken over by small businesses or other users.

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