The story of the Leeds city centre character known as 'Woodbine Lizzie'

'Woodbine Lizzie’ was a familiar character in and around Leeds city centre.

She protected herself from the elements in several layers of old coats and an assortment of hats, including an old tram conductor's hat which also earned her the name of 'Tramway Lizzie'.

Other people have recollected that she was sometimes seen selling cigarettes from a box hanging on a string around her neck.

Woodbine Lizzie started life as Alice Porter born in Stanningley in 1887.

Her parents were Frederick Porter, a labourer in an iron foundry, and his wife, Priscilla, and she had an older brother and sister, Harry and Elizabeth.

The family lived at number 9 Eastwood Buildings in Stanningley and from the age of 12 Alice worked part-time in a mill. By the age of 13 she was earning 3 shillings and 6 pence working full-time as a worsted spinner.

When she was 18, in 1905, Alice married James Richard Hartley at St. Wilfrid's Church in Calverley and following their honeymoon in Hull the couple set up home in Pudsey.

Over the next few years they had six children, five of whom were boys. During the First World War, after 12 years of marriage, Alice and her husband split up and went their separate ways.

From 1919, Alice lived with her parents at Kirkstall. She went into service in Headingley but at the age of 38 decided to change her lifestyle completely by living on the streets as a 'vagabond' - as she described herself.

At one point she walked to London but was not impressed and returned to Leeds the following week. 'Woodbine Lizzie' became addicted to tobacco during the First World War when she started smoking a pipe.

Sign up for our free monthly email digest of Leeds nostalgia

She would begin her day at 5.30 am at a coffee stall in Boar Lane. Much of the day she would rest in parks or stand for hours in one of her usual haunts like the passageway leading to The Whip public house off Duncan Street.

Her nights were often spent on Woodhouse Moor or at the back of the Seaman's Mission just off The Calls.

Alice Porter, 'Woodbine Lizzie', died in 1947 in the Stanley Royd Hospital in Wakefield. She was about 60 years old.