Leeds nostalgia: Nightclub memories of Leeds

The modern nightclub may have evolved from these dingy drinking dens of old but if you were to put them shoulder to shoulder they wouldn’t even recognise each other.

Our first picture harks from February 21, 1966 and shows the new £60,000 Main Line Social Club, Pudsey Road.

Members moved into the “very modern” premises a month before that, to ensure they were well and truly bedded in, that they’d all bagsied their favourite seats and, because smoking was still allowed indoors back then, that the place had the requisite aroma of stale cigarettes.

They had moved from their old clubhouse on Wellington road, where they had been for over 3o years.

Membership was strong, too, ranging from 800 up to 1,000.

The architect, Robert Clay, said he designed everything with members in mind. Certainly, the split level room gave drinkers the chance to view the adjacent snooker match, although one of the dominoes players looks as though he’s far from pleased at his picture being taken.

The second image was captured on September 6, 1973 and shows the Leeds Pentagon Nightscene, “an oasis where wining, dining and dancing are most important.”

Looking at the picture, it’s almost as though the floor has started sprouting mushroom shaped stools. It was the seventh club owned by Pentagon Nightscene.

The club took over from the burned out Rycrofts building at the corner of Call Lane and Briggate.

Are nightclubs so different today? If you have memories of nightclubs in Leeds, send them to us at the usual address or email [email protected]