ARCADES PROJECT

Cross Arcade in Leeds’ Victoria Quarter sits perpendicular to the larger County Arcade, rather like in Brussels the Passage des Princes sits astride the more glamorous Galeries du Roi and de la Reine.

It was built at the same time as County Arcade, opening slightly later in 1902, but with a very similar entrance and equally magnificent glass ceiling and overall feel.

Like the County Arcade, it has gone for the upmarket, designer brand approach, with the most well-known business currently in place being Harvey Nichols. The famous London Knightsbridge store occupies a large part of the space in the arcade which used to be the home of the Empire Theatre, and up above the Harvey Nicks entrance is the old signage for the Empire Palace still in place.

Where the Cross Arcade meets the County Arcade there is a beautiful mosaic floor design depicting Community, Prosperity, Culture, Opportunity, Diversity and Art.

And the arcade also crosses the newly-covered Victoria Street (the result of a 1990s refurbishment) with its extraordinarily beautiful modern stained-glass ceiling.

I am planning a section on new-look arcades like this once I have completed the tour of vintage arcades in the UK, but for now wanted to include a separate entry for Cross Arcade, partly because it has a few slightly different stories from County Arcade next door, and partly because it had its own entry in the 1983 Margaret MacKeith book on British shopping arcades, which is the start point for tracking down what arcades still remain today.

My pick of the arcade’s past

15 shops were made available when Cross Arcade first opened, at £50 per annum rent for the basement, shop and room above. The adverts which appeared in the local newspapers suggested that appropriate tenants might include sellers of poultry, vegetables, fruit and flowers.

A ship fireman from Sunderland was arrested after a chase across the roofs of various Leeds city centre buildings, including the glass ceiling of Cross Arcade, in 1922. He was caught in the act of stealing cash from a shop when he made his escape upwards towards roof level. He jumped from the roof of Cross Arcade onto the top of the Empire Theatre (now gone), before swooping back to ground level, where he tried to escape into the crowd which had gathered, but he was brought to ground by members of the public and handed over to the police.

Peters the chemists opened in Cross Arcade in 1929, targeting ‘business men of Leeds, his idea being that they ring up to order whatever they need and he would deliver to their offices.

The alterations shop operating out of Nos 7-11 in the 1930s fell foul of the war-time blackout rules in the autumn of 1939, a neon light being visible outside the shop after dark. The company was fined £2, and the shopkeeper had to pay 4 shillings court costs.

Sources for these stories all came from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, and British Library Board, specifically: 1) Leeds Mercury, 17 May 1902; 2) Daily Chronicle, Newcastle, 29 April 1922, Reach Plc; 3) Yorkshire Evening Post, 7 January 1929 – National World Publishing Ltd; 4) Yorkshire Evening Post, 2 October 1939 – National World Publishing Ltd.

This arcade in films or books

As yet, I have not seen Cross Arcade in any films or books. Has anyone done better than me on this?

Photographs

As with the County Arcade, Cross Arcade comes under the Victoria Quarter umbrella, and the official photograph policy allows no photos within the arcade without permission. With no reply to my request for that permission, it means that for now Cross, like County has only one external photograph, which is a shame given its beautiful features.

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by? Does anybody recall the Empire operating as a cinema or theatre?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

Is there a website for this arcade?

As with the County Arcade, there is no separate site for Cross Arcade as it comes under the overall umbrella of Leeds’ Victoria Quarter, whose website is linked to here.