The contrasting fates of two Leeds buildings in the 1970s

The North Eastern Hotel on Wellington Street was to be demolished under a new road scheme while the Salvation Army Men's Hostel on Lisbon Street just behind the pub was to be modernised and extended at a cost of £104,000.

The North Eastern was one of the last remaining fragments of the frontage of Wellington Street at its western end.

The last pints were pulled on February 12, 1972.

Manager, Pat McMullan, said: "The pub has its devotees. Poeple who once lived in the area and have moved out still came back. Some of them are still among my regular customers."

The site of the North Eastern was to be used for the widening of Wellington Street and making it into a dual carriageway for the approach to inner ring road at Westgate, Wellington Road and Wellington Street, where a flyover and low level roundabout was planned.

A spokesman for Tetley's Breweries said at the time: "Our records relating to the North Eastern go back to 1891. Presumably it was still in existence before then."

Work on the 72-year-old Salvation Army Hostel was due to start in May 1972 and was hoped to be completed by the end of the year.

Brigadier Lawrence Johnson, public relations manager for the West Riding area of Salvation Army said Leeds Corporation were providing a grant of half the cost.

"We are raising the rest through public subscriptions," he said at the time.

The extension, a three-storey building, was to be built on spare ground adjacent to the present hostel.

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