Laisterdyke in 1954 (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Laisterdyke in 1954

9:08am Thursday 13th November 2008 in From the Air By Mike Priestley

Britain was still suffering from post-war austerity when CH Wood took this aerial photograph of Laisterdyke in 1954.

Wholesale clearances and house building were to be ushered in by the 1960s. But for now the landscape was dominated by mills and factories and the terraced streets where the people who worked in them lived.

Leeds Road runs up the centre-left of the picture, passing the church (as it still does) on its way to the junction with Killinghall Road/Laisterdyke Lane.

The school at the junction has gone, to be replaced by housing. So have many of the houses in the centre foreground, between Leeds Road and Battye Street and the railway.

Just past the junction, Bradford Lane forks right off Leeds Road to pass (at the junction with Ing Street) the building which towards the end of the 1960s was to become the Talk Of Yorkshire night club.

The importance which was at one time attached to Laisterdyke Station can be judged by the number of building on both sides of the platform (top right) and the imposing footbridge, with superstructure, across the line.

Picture published courtesy of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage