Leeds nostalgia: Beginning and end of Quarry Hill flats...

It’s also hard to tell all the stories we have about the flats, or to print all the pictures, dozens of which reside in our archive. In a bid to remedy that, we’ve created an online picture gallery showing some of the lesser seen pictures.

It cost about £600,000 to build the flats and about £720,000 to acquire the land. They stood for four decades and became synonymous with Leeds. Before they were pulled down in 1976, they were the epitome of modern living, although claims of poor construction were made.

The picture, top, shows cars parked just inside the entrance fo the flats. Ordinarily, there would have been many more cars there but on that day, November 21, 1977, a new no-parking order had been enforced - clearly, though, quite a few people missed the memo.

The second picture shows construction workers on site during a break, with the main entrance arch to the complex in the background. The picture was taken during the 1936 by Lilly Lunn, of Belle Isle (she was 76 in 1986), whose husband John (third from left) worked there, making concrete slabs. John had been a Hull trawlerman previously but lack of work drew him to Leeds.

During their four decades, more than 15,000 people lived there. Their eventual demise came about because of fears over the steel structure of the building, which was found to be degrading. The cost of repair was then considered too great, which left only one option: demolition. By 1959, the city council was spending about £10,000 a year on repairs and in 1961 came the announcement that £2m was required to keep the flats in operation.