RECOGNISE this part of Bradford?

Almost 50 years have gone by since this photograph was taken, says our regular contributor Vincent Finn, and it shows the last days of what was known locally as ‘Poets’ Corner’.

Taken in 1969, the photo is of Butler Street and Scott Street in Barkerend. “The view is looking to the top of Undercliffe Street,” says Mr Finn, who sent us several photos of the area under demolition. “The area at the top of Undercliffe Street formed the backdrop for several scenes for the movie Room at the Top.

“These streets were all named after English poets, hence the local name Poets’ Corner. The pictures were taken standing in Butler Street, the houses that were still standing formed Scott Street, looking toward the top of Undercliffe Street. There had been rows of streets there, with the names Wordsworth Street, Shakespeare Street , Chaucer Place. Southey Place, Fryston Place and on up to Tennyson Place, which ran from Undercliffe Street to Otley Road. Beyond Tennyson was Ripon and Exeter Streets, and at the top of the hill, Newlands Place.”

Adds Mr Finn: “The only major buildings that survived the demolition were the Barkerend School and the Roxy cinema, the rear of which faced the area in the photographs. Once the are was totally cleared up it was developed as Pollard Park.

Mr Finn says the area of Scott Street captured in the picture was developed as a nursing home, Shakespeare Court.

“The area to the east of Undercliffe Street, which runs as far as what was Hanson School, survived the wrecker’s ball,” he says. “It would be difficult to estimate the number of families who called Poets’ Corner, Ripon, Exeter, Mildred Street and Heap Lane and a whole group of other small connecting streets home, but it must have been in the several hundreds.

“Maybe some Remember When? readers will recall growing up in the area, attending the two major schools there - Barkerend and St Mary’s.

“They may remember a sometimes weekly visit to either the Roxy, the Tennyson or the Coronet, and for those who were old enough, a visit to any one of the seven pubs in Otley Road, and of course East Ward Labour Club on Free Street or the Brand Club on Heap Lane.

“Almost 50 years - how time flies,” mused Mr Finn. “In the words of the song, The Town I Loved So Well: ‘Those were happy days, in so many ways, in the town I loved so well’.”

* In 2013 former T&A writer Jim Greenhalf looked back on the making of 1959 film Room At The Top. The adaptation of John Braine’s best-selling novel, directed by Jack Clayton, starred Simone Signoret as unhappily married Alice Aisgill, who falls in love with embittered Joe Lampton, (Laurence Harvey). Three weeks of filming began in Bradford on June 3, 1958. Clayton brought a film unit of 60 people, who stayed at both the Victoria and the Midland hotels.

The film broke new ground for a British film by being shot largely on location, at places such as Bradford Town Hall, Cartwright Hall, the Boy & Barrel pub and Bingley Little Theatre. Members of BLT appeared as extras in the film.