Leeds City Market

Leeds City Market is an amazing building. And it used to be a real hot house of all sorts of little stalls. However there are now more and more empty stalls.

Over ten years ago I spoke to someone who sold ironing board covers and dishclothes from a chair in a corner in Leeds Market. She was saying then that the market would go downhill now the new manager had taken over. Because the first thing he did was put rents up, like he did in the last market he managed, which had shut down. And now it is not worth selling low cost or niche items on the market because of the cost of the stalls. They are talking about closing 25% of the market but it used to be stuffed!

The same thing happened with the Corn Exchange. It went to cheap, cheerful and slightly odd to high class and empty. The Dark Arches were redeveloped back in the eighties, and again when from hippy cheap and cheerful to empty. It is quite depressing. I don't think those on the council planning board have ever shopped in a market.

Of course, there is also the question of location. The market is next to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the BBC building and just by the Quarry House building which is where several government departments relocated to from London (it has a Ming the Merciless death ray on the top and is vast - I've got lost there! http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/07/37/073782_562565ce.jpg) On the other side there is the future site of John Lewis and at the front a few yards further down Vicar Lane there is the Victoria quarter with Harvey Nichols and Vivienne Westwood - designer shops literally yards from cut price fruit and veg. Perhaps the council are hoping that the market can be redeveloped to suit the tone.

It does beg the question of where the poor people are going to shop.

Man with a clipboard

We have had the men with clipboards again, wandering down the street noting the registrations of vehicles and photographing them.

There are two points of view. One is that someone repairing vehicles in a residential street is a nuisance.

The other view, which is nearer mine, is that this is someone who is not claiming anything, works hard to put a roof over his family's head and food on the table, who is always willing to help out and is a good neighbour, and who is not actually doing much worse than the alleged landscaping at the back of Matalan and it isn't actually much of a through road - and privately owned at that.

Apparently the bin men have not collected the bins from the newly converted flats at the end of the street. This is about ten yards from my bins that are always collected. I think the bin men have just forgotten and are using the abundance of vehicles (five cars and a large van) as an excuse. There was a measuring tape out as well.

For me, we can almost always park outside our house, and Nice Mr Next Door will always apologise and move cars asap if we can't. Delivery vans get here. Bin men get here. Asda get here. The only people that always grumble are those from the council who are supposed to collect the big items, like sofas etc. They always say that they can't get in because it is blocked. I think they find the road blocked by a large can't be bothered sign.

Chinese Food

You know that old joke that half an hour after finishing a Chinese meal you want another one? Well, last night we found the exception to the rule.

We hadn't gone to this Chinese before, even though it was local, as we already had a Chinese we knew and trusted. However, after a spectacular fail with boiling potatoes (yes, I can get boiling potatoes wrong!) a few days ago I had nipped out to get some chips and the Chinese were the nearest open. They did 'salt and pepper' chips with OH and darling father raved over. So last night, when I was on the floor with tiredness and couldn't face cooking, I said we would try them out.

Part of their advertising is that they have big portions. That is not false advertising, it is absolutely true. It is not padded either, but loads of really nice meat and veggies. I tried sesame chicken, and really enjoyed it, and OH had the same. Darling father is having the rest of his Special Curry for lunch.

Poor OH, he was enjoying the chicken so much he forgot to stop eating, and although he didn't actually finish his portion, poor lad was absolutely stuffed. He could barely move for the rest of the evening - He had stuck to mainly meat and he could barely move!

And for me, one of the best bits is the dinky plastic, resealable cartons that they come in - ideal for small plastic daleks and weeping angels, random pens and crayons and miscellaneous craft items.

I don't plan to have a lot of takeaways, we are having less and less of them, but I will certainly be going there again. Just perhaps one portion between two. With salt and pepper chips for OH and darling father, of course!

Monday drama

I didn't have the energy to appreciate the entertainment. The lady in the house that used to house Her Three Doors Down and who used to live two doors down (the one where the police carried out a load of plants and had to come back for a second trip) had an argument with the gentleman. I heard her shrieking for him to get out, and his clothes landed on the street. Nice Mr Next Door moved his car in the nick of time, as the clothes were followed by a computer tower landing with a wallop and a smash on the pavement.

It hasn't lasted in the past, it probably won't last now, and all seems to be 'normal' for them. I do feel for the little ones, though. The two oldest didn't make it into school, and they will be taking more and more in.

Police again

No, not in the street, for once. The houses that back on to us. The one that backs on to Nice Mr Next Door had the door kicked in.

I didn't find out the full details, as That Landlord started talking to me so I left. And I don't think that there were many details to find. The house is unoccupied, they have been busy knocking walls down so I may have easily slept through any banging, just assuming it was the normal building work.

It must have been quite bad, because just a broken door usually barely manages a visit, but there were a LOT of police there.

I wonder if people knew it was empty and used it briefly for some nefarious purpose. I don't suppose that I shall ever find out. It will nag at me like toothache.

Not sure about this.

Three cars in the end were clamped. However one has had the clamp removed by nefarious means and has gone.

I know nothing. Actually I do know nothing, but I am certainly not asking to find out.

I await the next stage (if it happens) with interest, as long as it doesn't affect our taxed, MOT'd, legal car parked outside our house, which is technically our property and on our deeds.

So there!

Clamping

After dropping little bear off at School (Day Four, still happy), I came back to find someone in a hired car and a DVLA sweatshirt taking 'surreptitious' photos of the number plates in the street with their phone.

Someone has complained about nice Mr Next Door, I suppose, and so the DVLA have trotted round and found two cars to clamp. There are at least half a dozen others that apparently were not clampable.

I find it really depressing that someone has gone to the trouble of complaining. Our little street is off the beaten track. Apart from the police occasionally being called to the family a few doors down, there is nothing here. It isn't on the way to somewhere, it isn't even a made road, just a dirt track, so it looks to me (though I don't really know what I am talking about here) that someone has insisted that the DVLA Have A Look.

It isn't always convenient to have up to a dozen cars in various stages of repair being lined up outside the four houses. But we have a man next door who works all the hours sent to provide for his family, doesn't get benefits, is on his back in the street in all weathers working on his cars, is kindness itself, having his way of earning food for his family and the roof over their head being undermined. It just seems so wrong to me.

Roof - a Few Tile Gesture

The local roofer was getting his van sorted with Nice Mr Next Door. He had done a marvellous job on our guttering, and when I went out to put some stuff in the bin he checked that the guttering was fine.

Then he pointed out all the new bits that needed doing...

Regrettably, he may have been touting for business, but he was absolutely right. So he is coming back next month to sort it out.

More expense! I feel like tearing out my hair. But if this winter is anything like last winter, we really do need it doing. And a lot of it was pointed out to me by an independent surveyor two years ago...

He isn't charging me too much. In fact, he is reliable, inexpensive, professional and trustworthy (even if he was touting for business). I would recommend him to anyone. But more money being spent out. Sigh.

Pong

Something has happened to the drains in the street.

Last night when I was bringing little bear back from nursery we could smell an awful smell. Little bear immediately said it wasn't him! As we rounded the corner I understood. The sewer that runs under our street seemed to be blocked and a man was holding some sort of twirly thing connected to a large van and waving it around in the liquid that had risen to the top of the drain cover. The man from the local pizza shop was supervising. He is also the owner of the flats that have just been renovated. He is always pleasant to me, though if he had warned me about eg bollards or sandblasting in the past it would have been nice. As it is, he is not the worst of the local neighbours.

Nothing has been blocked or backed up here. I suspect that seven fast food outlets within 150 yards may affect the sewers. At least it was all done in the open. I still remember a lorry with a mysterious tube into the sewer one midnight a while ago, and at the time I wondered whether they were putting in or taking out. Also Her Three Doors Down never used to get the drains cleared on her property until the rest of the street were affected. I once got Transco out for a gas leak as I was convinced that was the case but instead it was a less intangible reason.

And the van was there again this morning. Though there was no pong. I think that probably, hopefully, perhaps, that the problem has abated. However seven fast food outlets within 150 yards probably mean that we will see the scene again.

Banging continues

The house behind next door continues to be worked on, although most of the walls appear to be knocked out now. The noise nuisance has progressed to drilling. Apparently it is going to be converted into flats, now that it has planning permission.

They were working on pipework this afternoon. I know this because our water was cut off when they turned their water off. I don't think it would be too much to ask, just someone knocking on a door and letting us know that the water was going to be going off.

It could be worse, at least the inconvenience is only during normal working hours, and the water went back on quite quickly. And it has windows now instead of boards which raises the tone considerably.

Banging on

The sledgehammer noises from behind continue. I suspect that That Landlord is also doing work.

Also the sofa that was wedged in the porch yesterday a few doors down has now been placed tidily by the bin. The old one has been taken back inside. Oops.

Banging headache

The sledgehammer/rubble noises are not coming from the house behind - they are coming from behind the house next door and they still knocked a picture off my wall!

This house is a bit of a mystery. It is owned by a local firm, as far as anyone can tell, and has been boarded up for about five years. Every now and then he will send some lads in who aren't doing anything else and they will do some more. This usually involves rubble. This is the house where they knocked down the front cellar wall and the entire front of house was held up on two scaffolding poles. If it had gone then there would have been an interesting domino effect on the eight houses joined together. I have no idea what is currently involved. It appears to be extreme open plan. When we moved in to this area that house was an immaculate owner occupier house, beautifully maintained. Now the garden is indescribable and the house is a building site. It is very sad.

And a few doors down, where Her Three Doors Down used to live, they have a leather sofa stuck in the door. I am leaving them to it.

Banging noise

Tuesday I get a lie in - little bear goes to nursery and I go back to bed. This is normally the signal for the house at the back to be hammered.

This morning it is sledgehammer time. I have no idea what they think they are doing. After seeing the mess they made of their windows I have no confidence that they have any idea what they are doing, but I can hear falling rubble and a picture just fell off my wall.

If they come through I am going to get evil cat involved.

Actually, joking apart, I am not sure from the sound of it that they won't come through.

And again

Police in the street again last night. Apparently someone had made an allegation against nice mr next door.

Apart from anything else, he and I had been discussing the vexed question of bollards in the street for part of the evening, so really not possible and I offered to make a statement, but the police just assumed it was malicious allegation more or less from the beginning.

It is all so petty, and a lot of nothing. I just don't understand it.

As for the bollards - That Landlord wants to have bollards across the road. This would be okay as it would stop white vans using this as a rat run and make it significantly safer for kids. The vans go at silly speeds along an unmade road and round a blind corner.

Of course, it would mess up my deliveries and make it impossible to get a car out on slippy mornings, like the ones we had for a month at a time the last few winters. That is, if the only entrance we would have wasn't blocked off like it usually is with cars parked across and the parking either side from the new flats across the way.

Generally I am not in favour of not being able to either get deliveries or get our car out. Having a safer road would be nice, however.

Normal for round here

Today there was a police van outside the drug dealers a few doors down (well, alleged drug dealers, they have always been really nice to me), a dead bat in the street and the bees in the chimney have been swarming.

Normal for round here.

Whatever Next - again

I live at the bottom of a hill. At the back of the house, on the main road and up a steep slope is a pub, which has a bit of a reputation for having a few fights. In fact I heard that it was on its last warning for fighting.

I have never been in it (I am a very boring person and don't really go to pubs) but it looked okay, though possibly a bit rough, and I have tolerated the loud karaoke evenings and discos with as much patience as I could. People seemed to be enjoying themselves and I don't have a problem with that.

Now it has been sold.

Pubs are having a hard time as it is, what with supermarket drink and the smoking ban. If you add in a reputation for fighting it is a hard pub to sell. Because if you try and change the pub too much the regulars won't go, and if you don't change it the licence will go because of fighting.

That Landlord has bought it.

I am intrigued. He already has a pub which does not have trouble, but also doesn't have a good reputation for beer etc. He is not what I would consider a natural landlord, but what would I know. However, according to local gossip, he has decided to turn it into a restaurant.

I would not consider it ideal for a restaurant. The area immediately around the pub is social housing, and there are a lot of problems. There isn't a very big car park either, though it is directly uphill from a bus stop. It is opposite a takeaway that has orders from miles around and a really good reputation.

That Landlord, though, gets a bit carried away. For all I know he could be planning a swimming pool there next week.

Regardless I shall watch with interest. The house behind us has been 'being done up' for around two years now, and it isn't that big. That Landlord sort of wanders round projects and thinks about stuff and gets carried away. The back of his first pub has been half developed (breaches of planning permission, forgetting to pay people, changing minds) for years and years. The practical effect of That Landlord is that he has lots of plans, but talks a lot and stuff gets run further and further down as he doesn't do eg decoration or essential repairs.

I hope it doesn't get left as an eyesore - there are so many good things going on around here at the moment it would be a shame.

Fluff

It's that time of year again. The flowers are blooming, the grass and leaves are bright and tender, the weather forecasts alter by the hour - it's spring.

And that means that the poplars along the beck are shedding the fluff that goes with their pollen. There is a huge stand of them and they shed with enthusiasm. It isn't too bad at the moment, the wind has taken most of it away, but there is enough fluff to look like several cheap duvets have been put through a shredder and the fluff is filling the air.

We will soon have banks of the dratted fluff piled up in all sorts of corners unless the wind takes it away.

The brambles are starting to blossom here, and that feels very early to me. Mind you, I am not complaining. They add to all the blossom around, the air smells lovely round here. And pretty soon I am going to have to have a late night wander by the ring road because during the day the roar and fumes of the cars drown out everything but at this time of year there is a long stand of mock orange blossom that smell delicious, if you can get past at the right time.

Windows

At the back they are once again bricking up the lower half of a window. This time it is on the living room side.

As mentioned, the window faces directly north. There is no direct natural light at all. I suppose they thought that they might as well reduce their heating bills.

Unless there really is a tax on windows coming in and nobody has mentioned it?

Banging continues

The window at the back that had been taken out and half bricked up last time I posted, well it has been replaced with a half sized window.

A north facing house with all windows facing directly north and a steep bank the other side of the road so that you don't actually get any sun is not, in my frail opinion, one where you take a big window out and put a smaller window in, especially not in a kitchen.

Absolutely no idea what is going on. However I know That Landlord had some spare bricks, and I know that he is in cahoots with someone who fits double glazing, so if the window did need replacing this was probably the cheapest option. Or something.

Banging continues

Mac n Janet - if they are taxing windows, pass me the bricks! lol.

The window they are bricking up (not sure if they will do it fully, will keep the gossip coming) is the room that was the kitchen.

When we bought the house in 1994 there was an older couple there, who we never really heard. The lady used to stop hoovering at 7am, but otherwise we hardly saw or heard them. They moved out and That Landlord bought it, for pennies. Apparently, listening to gossip and getting talking to various people, the upstairs rooms aren't fully wired, and the kitchen was described as downright dangerous with only two power outlets.

Having said that, the last family didn't really appreciate That Landlord's approach to repairs and maintenance, and after installing a new kitchen they took it with them when they left. As far as I can tell, hearsay etc, they gutted the house.

That must be two years ago now because the house had been empty some time before last January when some scallies broke in and tried to steal the copper piping. However when the water in that property is turned off, our water is shut off, so the miscreants were caught quite quickly after half the street noticed that something was up and went to complain to That Landlord. And credit to That Landlord, he did get the water back on within 24 hrs.

So the house has been a bit battered. If it was a car the insurance would have probably written it off. It is completely north facing as well, so it must be a dark and cold house, and it faces onto a very busy road. So I have no idea what is going on there, but as long as any neigbours are quiet I am not going to grumble.