Now! Then! Symbols of community decline in Leeds

Excerpt

17 February. To Leeds, where the decent cupolaed building on Woodhouse Moor that housed both the public library and the police station has been converted into a pub, The Feast and Firkin. The Woodman, the pub opposite St Chad’s, has been renamed Woodies Ale Bar, in homage, I suppose, to Cheers. The more real community has dwindled in the last twenty years, the more cheap marketing versions of it have multiplied.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

As of 2022, Woodies is Woodies Craft Ale House, and the Feast and Firkin is the Library – but not my kind of library.

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Original

17 February. To Leeds, where the decent cupolaed building on Woodhouse Moor that housed both the public library and the police station has been converted into a pub, The Feast and Firkin. The Woodman, the pub opposite St Chad’s, has been renamed Woodies Ale Bar, in homage, I suppose, to Cheers. The more real community has dwindled in the last twenty years, the more cheap marketing versions of it have multiplied.

73 words.