Iirc it was near the Grand Arcade at the top of Briggate (was called “Mr Craig’s” in the 80s/early 90s - good for cheesy student nights ). Would occasionally make headlines:
Student died after taking ecstasy drug
that gatecrasher was awful. I went once and never went back.Taken over by fucking Gatecrasher?!?!
How the fuck long did THAT last?!?!
Over the road was Barry on Briggate, the rudest rip-off newsagent/confectionery shop in the city but stayed open until about 11pm so an essential destination if you wanted a late-night Mars bar and didn’t mind paying a quid for it (many people did and the frequent arguments were probably why the proprietor ended up being such a grumpy bastard). Nowadays the likes of Tesco Express stay open late and the business model is dead.
Also the taxi rank round the corner was often the epicentre of late-night scuffles, people pushing in and it all kicking off, somewhere to avoid. I think all that shit is down on Boar Lane these days.
The cheeky sod put his prices up in the evening on weekends.
The shops still open, but I think Barry ended up with a newsagent on the head row.
Yeah, I seem to remember a new owner at some point, an Asian guy, had a sign up saying something like ‘we’re not expensive anymore’. I can see how running a late-night place is a pretty thankless job, dealing with pissed idiots all of the time. Kind of like how some bus drivers progressively turn into Gollum because dealing with the same shit day in day out grinds you down if you don’t have the right fortitude to let it pass over you.
When I first moved to Leeds the centre was really quite bad, and round the top of Briggate in particular, proper fucking nasty bastards out boozing and battering people. The rave scene definitely took a lot of that away, not my scene but owe it some gratitude for bringing in a more placid going out culture. These days the bother all seems down near Boar Lane, hen and stag dos going to the birdcage then onto Squares/Yates’s etc, then kicking off around takeaways and taxis, the usual trigger points.
I burst out laughing on the bus once when I heard some kids talking about having to go to Robbing Barry's because the other newsies were shut.The cheeky sod put his prices up in the evening on weekends.
The shops still open, but I think Barry ended up with a newsagent on the head row.
Barry the BastardI burst out laughing on the bus once when I heard some kids talking about having to go to Robbing Barry's because the other newsies were shut.
The guys running it the shop on briggate now charge a lot more reasonable prices.
That link and the reviews made me really laugh out loud