Does anyone know what the building on the roundabouts (the 7 spices indian is below) used to be?

I'm sure it was a department store at some stage but unsure. Does anyone know?

Cheers

I remember it being a departmant store when I was a kid around 1969 Pecks I think it was called.:)

The building was indeed a department store. A very posh one where boarding school kids bought their uniforms. (Mount St Mary's @ Spinkhill for instance).
Most customers had accounts, so money didn't change hands, good were simply charged.
It was just like Grace Bros inside. Even in the early seventies it had a forties feel to it. It made Cole Bros look modern.
I think it was called Lacey's, but may be wrong on that

Yes,it did stock uniforms-not posh ones though as I got my first one from there in 1977-didn't go to a posh school either.

Originally posted by dodger
Yes,it did stock uniforms-not posh ones though as I got my first one from there in 1977-didn't go to a posh school either.

It obviously changed its profile a little then. In the sixties it catered very much for the wealthier client, (Not me, I'm off the Cross) and the school uniforms were outside the norm.

I heard it was Lacey's aswell. Does anyone know what it was before that as it does not look to be the buildings original design.

I think the building was originally the West Bar Police Station which was used up to the new one being built at the bottom of Scotland Street

Does anyone else know anything about it being a police station?

Does any one have any pics of it either as Lacfeys or a police station?

The old West Bar police station is the building now being used as the Fire Station museum. It started out originally as a Fire Station complete with a lookout room on the top (still there) but then turned into a police station.

The Laceys building is on the opposite side of the road, I think that may have been an old Salvation Army hostel but I'm not sure about that.

It was a sort of hostel, (quite a bit more upmarket than a doss house) for hoousing single men, who were working in Sheffield's industries.

It had single rooms for each person, if I remember the history correctly.

Currently, as well as housing the seven spices balti house, it has been converted into swish flats/ studio flats (bedsits in other words), for single people.

PT

does anybody know where the records of the mens hostel at 120 west bar are kept.i am having a lot of trouble trying to find their whereabouts in search of my family .any help would be greatly appreciated.

The old West Bar police station is the building now being used as the Fire Station museum. It started out originally as a Fire Station complete with a lookout room on the top (still there) but then turned into a police station.

The Laceys building is on the opposite side of the road, I think that may have been an old Salvation Army hostel but I'm not sure about that.HI, you are right it was the salvation army hostel for men, for many years, Arthur.

If its the building that was a house storage centre a few years ago, or maybe still is then i remember it being called Western Senior.
It was on the roundabout on the corner of West bar.

It was a sort of hostel, (quite a bit more upmarket than a doss house) for hoousing single men, who were working in Sheffield's industries.

It had single rooms for each person, if I remember the history correctly.

Currently, as well as housing the seven spices balti house, it has been converted into swish flats/ studio flats (bedsits in other words), for single people.

PT

In 1951 it was a doss house — and a scruffy one at that! If my memory serves me well it was originally built as a doss house, and advertised the fact by its name which was carved into the lintel about the main door.

In 1951 it was a doss house — and a scruffy one at that! If my memory serves me well it was originally built as a doss house, and advertised the fact by its name which was carved into the lintel about the main door.Yeah, you're dead right there peterw, that used to be a bad place.

this has been brought up in a later thread and when i said it was sav building but someone said itwas opposite kelvinssite

If its the building that was a house storage centre a few years ago, or maybe still is then i remember it being called Western Senior.
It was on the roundabout on the corner of West bar.
Paul, Western Senior building was on the other side, from the old SAV building

Does anyone know what the building on the roundabouts (the 7 spices indian is below) used to be?

I'm sure it was a department store at some stage but unsure. Does anyone know?

Cheers
Probably totally wrong but I remember a department store my mum took me to in the late sixties it may have been in this area,it was called"Bradford Woolen"(I think)

I think we are getting a little confused about the doss houses which used to be around West Bar.

The big building on West Bar itself was, according to my 1954 Kellys, called The Hostel run by the executors of A Truelove deceased. There was another doss house called "the 600" just up from West Bar somewhere around where the Police Station is now.

Although I don't know much about the 600 my dad used to tell me that it was called that because it could sleep 600 people. He also used to tell me that the people used to sleep in hammocks but I suspect he was just winding me up a bit.

I used to have a bedsit in the building that houses the 7 spices balti. I thought it was originally a workhouse?

Probably totally wrong but I remember a department store my mum took me to in the late sixties it may have been in this area,it was called"Bradford Woolen"(I think)

Bradford Woollen was indeed by the West Bar roundabout. It is now used as a storage business, previously called Apollo but now trading under another name, which I cannot recall.

My memories of West Bar buildings back in the 50's are that as you are coming out of Sheffield towards Hillsborough Bradford Woollen was on the left hand side & used to be a picture palace ( I used to work there in the 60's.
Also on the left but further around was the old police station where the Black Meriah used to be garaged. Opposite side if the road was the building that you were refering to as Lacey's which was actually a retail shop like Bradford Woollen. My aunt used to have a shop at High Green & used to be able to go to places like Lacey's back then I dont think they were just open to people to walk in off the St Later it was also called Weston Seniors I think. That would have been in the 60's when I worked at BW.
Janet Olsen

..........

what year was that pipine?was it in the mid 1950`s

before it was Bradford woolens it used to be a Picture House cant remember the name of it.

Does anyone know what the building on the roundabouts (the 7 spices indian is below) used to be?

I'm sure it was a department store at some stage but unsure. Does anyone know?

Cheers


The building in which "7 Spices" is in the basement, used to be a "Doss House" for down and outs and alcoholics. It was called The 600. It is situated between Steelhouse Lane & Bower Spring, as you go towards Gibraltar St. Ellis Pearson's was on the corner at top of Corporation St., then the Gaiety pub, Steelhouse Lane then The 600. After that was Wigfalls.
The picture house was The Don.

before it was Bradford woolens it used to be a Picture House cant remember the name of it.The Don
Ibelieve, Arthur.

Plain Talker has got down it to a T his info is exactly what l was going to say also l saw a proposd plan and speci; of the flats conversion,talking of this building , l once worked with an irishman a bricklayer who stayed at the hostel, after two days he asked the boss for a sub this was in the morn; he paid him 3 days, then the boss went , and so did the irishman !!a very interesting bloke to talk to but not to employ cheers Arthur.

There are a couple of pictures on the picture sheffield website which mention the 'Don Picture House'

http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/s20340.jpg & http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/s20339.jpg

Not sure how to make them 'clickable' but they look like the area you are talking about

an anybody tell me any more about the records from the hostel. My grandad died there in 1951 and as I neverv knew him I am desperate to find out more about him. He was Joseph Henry Theaker.:help:

an anybody tell me any more about the records from the hostel. My grandad died there in 1951 and as I neverv knew him I am desperate to find out more about him. He was Joseph Thomas Theaker.:help:

Post your question on Sheffield Indexers site and I am sure someone on there will be able to help you.

When I was a child my mother used to get a credit note to get clothes from there.
Someone used to call weekly to collect the money owed.

In 1951 it was a doss house — and a scruffy one at that! If my memory serves me well it was originally built as a doss house, and advertised the fact by its name which was carved into the lintel about the main door.

my parents always told me it was the" poor house" where debters lived and worked , but it was always a scruffy looking place .

My cousin has a picture and It was called Maceys I think. It looked quite a nice building and I would not like to think that my grandad who had worked all his life ended it in a place which Spanner 1954's parents told him about:(

My cousin has a picture and It was called Maceys I think. It looked quite a nice building...The buiilding was actuallly occupied by P.W. Lacey's (see here (http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/zoom.pl?picture=http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/t01142.jpg)) after it had closed as a hostel, P.W. Lacey being a clothing/footwear wholesaler/retailer. The hostel was run, as extaxman wrote in post #19 on this thread, by the executors of A. Truelove, a local benefactor. Built around 1908, it was a well-constructed building and as a hostel it was well run, each resident having a cubicle with clean bedding etc. and access to good washing/toilet facilities. It eventually closed (I guess around 1960) because, I would imagine, it was no longer needed.

As has been noted on the thread, the former Gaiety Theatre was between the old hostel and the West Bar roundabout, also Ellis Pearson's glass merchants - see here (http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/zoom.pl?picture=http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/w00758.jpg). The Gaiety Theatre closed many years ago but the basement bar, the "Gaiety Vaults" survived until the late 1970s.

It was Laceys where you could spend a clothing check (not a cheque) and then you paid weekly, thats why no money seemed changed hands, I cant remember if Laceys & the old 600 Doss House were the same building but I do know that in its later lifethe lower floor became an upmarket Italian Restaurant.

If I have got this right the last Sheffielder to be hung for murder in Sheffield lived in that hostel

I don't think so :(

Neither do I, my grandad lived there. Who was the last person to be hung in Sheffield? The hostel was mainly for people who had retired but in those days you didn't get a pension.:huh:

Hi Givingaway and Denlin,

The chap who murdered Edith Simmonite- a working girl- as they used to refer to them- and left her body in a blitz damaged building near Bridge Street- I must lok him up and report back. As far as is known nobody was actually hung in Sheffield.
WB

Yes it was a Police station on one side..Been often to show my licence in my younger motorcycle days.
Remember my Dad talking about the mens hostel as well..He said there was a room where you could keep warm and lean on a rope to rest..The rope was stretched across the room..He told me it was a Penny a night..
This was 30's early 40,s..
Moved on from then I hope.!!!!! Sheffield is still full of Characters..

There were two hostels on West Bar, the Lacey building and a doss house nearby. The man who murdered Edith Simmonite was William Smedley and he was hung in Armley or York in 1947:huh:

guess it was the doss house where you leaned on the rope. My Dad said it as just somewhere warm and dry to rest, for the night.
Never went myself so wouldnt know. My Dad went fire watching during the war. They were stationed on various rooftops looking for fires and bombs dropping..All sounds far away and primitive now!!!

This had broght back some memories of when my Mum had a shop and we used to go to Bradford Woolen which I think changed to Weston Senior and Lacey's.
I think anyone could shop at Laceys but they had different coloured cards which you had to show depending on whether you had your own shop and so were buying wholesale price.

This had broght back some memories of when my Mum had a shop and we used to go to Bradford Woolen which I think changed to Weston Senior and Lacey's.These were actually three separate buildings, but they were all very close together. Bradford Woollen started in Change Alley in the 1930s (my uncle worked for them) and soon afterwards they moved to North Church Street. Around 1960 (?) they took over and extended the old Don cinema - it is now the Armadillo Storage Co. Weston Senior were across the road at 36-38 West Bar (near where the Crown Court is now) until the building was demolished and then they moved into a new building on West Bar Green opposite the police station. I think that both firms eventually went bust but the Swycher family who owned Bradford Woollen are still around and live at Whirlow. It was P.W. Lacey that moved into the old hostel.
I think anyone could shop at Laceys but they had different coloured cards which you had to show depending on whether you had your own shop and so were buying wholesale price.Quite right - the price of anything depended on what colour card you had. And (at least at Weston Seniors in the early days) if you didn't have a card, a retailer could give you a note for anything he didn't have in stock - then you paid full retail price. Thank goodness those days are over and you just have to shop around!.:)

I know Bradford Woollen and Laceys were seperate but I was thinking Bradford Woollen changed to Weston Senior, I got mixed up because I think we just used to do all three at one go.
North Church Street was where Memmots hairdressing suppliers used to be, I used to go there years ago when old Mr Memmot was still there then his son David took over. Is it still open I wonder ?

i think the warehouse on north church street was sheltons it was in the seventies,i used to work for speights removals and they had a contract to deliver their goods.

Memmott's hairdressing supplies used to be in the old North Church St synagogue building, just below St Peter's Close. They haven't been there for some time; I would guess since the 1980s.

i think the warehouse on north church street was sheltons it was in the seventies,i used to work for speights removals and they had a contract to deliver their goods.Yes - they were at the bottom of North Church Street, adjoining Bradford Woollen.