GLORIA’S TALE & THE VAGARIES OF THE 61/62 BUS ROUTE

As Gloria’s tale Mrs Gloria Hislop (nee Blakey ) depends on quality rather than quantity it has given me the chance to air the vagaries of the present No 62 bus route too.

GLORIA’S TALE
About eight of us from school [presumably Ellerby Lane School?] used to go to the cinema once a week, twice if you had enough spending money left. It was about 9d to get in. We used to make a B-line for the Easy Road Cinema. We always sat a couple of rows from the front. You not only came home with a stiff neck from looking up at the screen but also with a stiff bum for sitting too long. The girls weren’t so bad at sitting but the lads were always getting the usherette shining her torch on us, it was either crunching sweet papers rattling bags of crisps, talking or the lads putting their feet up on the row in front.
Eventually they got sick of us and told us to get out and not to come back. So then we ventured further to the Princess Cinema which was about a shilling to get in and on this particular night one of the lads decided he wasn’t, going to pay so he decided to climb in through the toilet window but he got stuck and fell backwards into a dustbin so we got banned from there too. From there we went to the Star cinema, talk about luxury, plush seats, it was about one and Six to get in there, so we stayed a while until we got banned from there and

THE STAR CINEMA

moved on to the Shaftsbury Cinema, got banned from there and moved onto the Regal Cinema at Crossgates, stayed there for a while then it all fell apart as we were older by then and almost ready to leave school.
They were great days and times not like now, violent. My daughter is in the police force and the tales she tells are unbelievable.

**********************************************
WOW! Let’s get on the 62 bus after that but thanks for a great tale, Glo.

THE VAGARIES OF THE NUMBER 61/62 BUS ROUTE.
This month’s tale concerns the number 61/62 bus routes. This may only appeal to dyed in the wool old East Leedsers so I do apologise if you are not conversant with the area

Here is a picture of a number 62 bus passing East End Park, it’s an old AEC. Thanks to those old camera snappers who took the trouble to record the mundane things in our past. It was a long circular route- shared by the number 61 and the number 62. The number 62 went around clockwise and the number 61 anticlockwise. I’m going to relate the route anticlockwise from Eastgate and then draw a sketch.
Eastgate, Duke Street, East Street, Cross Green Lane, Eastpark Parade, Ivy Street, Lupton Avenue, Hudson Road, Compton Roads, Stanley Road, Harehills Road, Sheepscar, Meanwood Road, Blackman Lane, Woodhouse Lane, The Headrow, and return to Eastgate,

Sketch of bus route. ‘click’ to enlarge
How do I remember this old route? Because I’m an old ‘saddo’ and an old saddo who nostalgically walked the route on foot a few years ago.
My old mate: the late lamented Eric Allen, loved that route and as a school boy if he saw our favourite ‘clippy’ Alma was on duty he would hop on the bus and travel all the way round. Alma, also of show stoppers fame would let him ring the bell and if the grumpy old inspector got on she would palm him a penny ticket which would see him OK until the inspector got off.
Fast forward to today. While on my current forays around the area I keep seeing a single decker No 62 bus cropping up all over the place i.e. Flax Place, Lavender Walk, I even saw one coming down Easy Road surely that was the job of the number 64? You could catch a number 63 or 64 from Eastgate too. The 63 came by way of York Road and the 64 by way of Hunslet, They both crossed at the coal stathe at the bottom of Easy Road. Seemingly the 63 and 64 have disappeared and the 62 does the job of the lot. This intrigued me and I thought I’ll get to the bottom of this, ‘saddo’ again, so I obtained a route time table from the bus station and this is what I found out: The new 62 bus route is as follows: It starts from the bus station and goes: St Peter’s Street, Marsh Lane, Mill Street, Flax Place, Richmond St, Bow St, East St, Accommodation Rd, Knowsthorpe Cres, Cross Green Lane, Pontefract Ln, Park Parade, East Park Rd, Pontefract lane, Lavender Walk, Upper Accommodation Rd, Dial St, Easy Rd,
Cross Green lane, South Accommodation Rd, A 61, South Accommodation Rd, East St, Marsh Lane, Richmond St, Flax Place, Saxton Place, Marsh lane, York St, St peter’s St, and back to Leeds City bus station. So in a way it is still a circular too but a much shorter one than of yore.
Pontefract lane twice how does that work? I challenge old East Leedsers to work out this route in their minds eye. And I’ll include a sketch of it in next month’s ‘blog’. Apologies once again for being a ‘saddo’ but it is East Leeds memories when all’s said and done!


Current no 62 single decker passing Saxton Garden Flats
If you think about it, it is a tidy little anticlockwise route that takes in our three areas of East Leeds: Cross Green, East End Park and Richmond Hill, it can bring you home from town or take you into town and it does not need a clockwise partner.