Leeds nostalgia: Letter of the Week: Memories of town hall meals for 11p

Clocks of Leeds. The Leeds Town Hall....26th October 2010 .... Picture by Simon Hulme

I left school when I was 14 in September 1943 and started work two days later at the Food Office in Woodhouse Lane, just four months before Beryl.

We were trainees and went to the College of Commerce every Thursday for English and Commerce. Our wage was £1 a week with 4p stoppages, including 1p for Leeds Work Peoples Hospice (now Simply Health). I still pay into that and it has been very profitable over the years.

I eventually left the Food Office due to unwanted attention from my boss, who was in his 60s and used to ask me to stay behind when the others left.

I was 20 then and went to the Tax Office, which was where The Light is now. I remember going to the British Restaurant in the basement of the Town Hall, where you could get the most wonderful three-course meals for 11p. My mum used to give me 6p a week for travel, which I would save by walking.

I have a lot of good memories of my days there. I am 87 now and still working, doing my son’s books - he is into mobility scooters, wheelchairs and stairlifts.

Dorothy Murfin-Whelan (nee Hood)