Longstanding On (& Off) North Lane

Shopping centres nowadays have a steady turnover of shops, and Headingley Town Centre is no exception. So most shops on North Lane are relatively recent. But some shops on (and just off) North Lane are actually of longstanding.

The oldest shop on North Lane by far is the greengrocer. Suttill Hannam established a fruit and fish shop at what is now 50 North Lane in 1900 – and it has remained a greengrocer ever since. (Before that, the building was a maltings house, dating from the eighteenth century - above the shop you can still see the slanting roofline of the old house.)

Keith Harris took over the shop in 1975, and the Harris family ran the shop for 44 years. When they retired in 2019, Eileen and Raymond Harris offered to sell the business to Headingley Development Trust, who were only too pleased to accept. HDT now owns the building which houses both the greengrocer and Headingley Farm Butcher. The Headingley Greengrocer is now a community-owned business committed to supplying a wide range of high quality fruit and veg at reasonable prices. This year marks 125 years of unbroken greengrocery business on North Lane!
More info here and at https://theheadingleygreengrocer.co.uk/
The Headingley Greengrocer, 50 North Lane, LS6 3HU, 0113 275 2113

The Natural Food Store at 23 North Lane originated at Hyde Park Corner in 1983, founded by Chris and Sue Sharratt, and it did very well from the day it opened. Seeking to expand the business, they moved to North Lane the following year, 1984, taking over a women’s clothes shop called “Charlie Dees” at number 23. After a quarter of a century of successful trading, they were approached by Headingley Development Trust, and a sale was agreed. In 2007, the Natural Food Store opened as a community owned co-operative, and nearly 18 years later it is still owned by its community members and going strong. Chris Sharratt has stayed on as an employee of the business and is still there (he has worked in one place in Headingley for nearly 41 years). The shop specialises in organic, fair trade, ethical, vegan and vegetarian foods, natural remedies, dietary supplements, raw foods, gluten-free foods, environmentally sound toiletries and household goods. New members of the co-op are always welcome, people who share our values and who are willing to invest in order to support the business.
More info at https://www.naturalfoodstore.coop/
Natural Food Store, 23 North Lane, LS6 3HW, 0113 278 4944

Between the wars, no17A North Lane was a shoe repair shop (“Soled & heeled, 3/6 Ladies, 5/6 Gents, real leather”).

The shop was still a cobbler when Shirley Philips rented the unit and set up a photographic process and print shop called Quick Colour Prints there in 1992. Shirley ran the shop for seven years, until it was bought in 1999 by Ian Harrison, who was a photographer, and his stepson Mark Shephard, who was in the photography business. In due course, they renamed it The Photo Shop and have run it ever since as a family business – Mark’s son Luke now also works there. To start with of course, all the work was film-based. It has since become digital. But now (in parallel with vinyl records) there is an increasing return to film. The Photo Shop is a one stop shop for all your photographic, printing, photo processing and photocopying needs, including passport photos, video transfer, photo restoration, poster printing, photographic supplies and so on.
More info here and at http://www.thephotoshopleeds.co.uk/
The Photo Shop, 17A North Lane, LS6 3HW, 0113 278 8039

William Butler, “The Practical Grocer”, was established in a Victorian-era shop at 10 North Lane in the 1930s. But in 1932, North Lane was widened, to make way for a tramline – and the front of his shop was sliced off!

"A new frontage was pasted onto the old stone building in incongruous 'Art Deco' white stucco" (Bradford, p193) (and at the same time, the building was extended to the west, as 10A: this was a bike shop for some time, Marsden’s Cycle Depot).

Sadly, the original Art Deco frontage has been substantially modified. By the mid-1990s, Carl Evans had an opticians at no10. He was succeeded there by Graham Phipps Opticians – who in turn sold to Daniel Hayton in 2003. The present opticians is a family practice, owned and run by husband and wife team Daniel and Rohana, providing the best in professional eyecare, in a friendly, relaxed and helpful environment. The Haytons offer eye exams, glasses and contact lenses. (They also opened a branch in Horsforth in 2013.)
More info at https://dhopticians.co.uk/
Daniel Hayton Opticians, 10 North Lane, LS6 3HE, 0113 2784872

The small parade of shops at 15-17 North Lane (home also of the Photo Shop) has been there for a good hundred years (a century ago, the odd triangular unit at the end was occupied by CE Setterington’s business). Towards the end of last century, this corner shop was a newsagent selling cigarettes and sweets run by Peter Marriott, called Candy Corner. Then in the year 2000, Linsey Cliff and Geoff Benson moved up from the city centre and took over the shop. They opened as a barber and renamed the premises Cutting Corner. At the time there were only another two barber shops in Headingley centre (there are now six other hairdressers on North Lane alone, and seventeen altogether in the town centre!). Geoff retired in 2013, and Linsey’s main customer base now are regulars of all ages. She’s a fully qualified stylist with thirty years experience, providing a friendly, relaxed environment. “A Quarter of a Century on the corner is quite something!” says Linsey.
More info at https://www.facebook.com/CuttingCornerHeadingley/
Cutting Corner, 15A North Lane, LS6 3HW, 07899 834789

For over a hundred years, Dinsdales famously sold stationery and art & design materials in Leeds city centre, located at one time or other in New Station St, Albion St, a now long lost Coronation St and lastly in King Charles Street, off the Headrow. But when that property faced major redevelopment (which was never carried out), they moved to Headingley, just after the turn of the millennium, in 2003 – to a building on Chapel Place, just off North Lane (it was originally a corner shop and two houses, and still has original windows; it’s a Listed Building, no1255622). At the time, the building was derelict, but was soon renovated. Graeme Lindsay-Jones, an employee since the late 90’s, then became the employer as he bought the business and also later rescued the building from probate limbo (eventually buying it from the Dog’s Trust). Dinsdales is now Leeds’ last proper local art supplies and stationery shop, offering card, paper, board, canvases, easels, brushes, photocopying – and much more! More info here.
Dinsdales Stationery & Art Shop, 6-8 Chapel Place, LS6 3HY, 0113 278 1700.

The early history of North Lane is the subject of Chapter 11 in Eveleigh Bradford’s Headingley (2008). Eveleigh notes that at the beginning of the twentieth century, “directories show the range of shops and services along North Lane: dressmakers, a tailor, bootmakers, a draper, a jeweller, several grocers, a fruiterer, a milk supplier, a coal merchant, a chimney sweep, laundresses, a carting agent” (p191). Some of this diversity is maintained by our longstanding shops.

Richard Tyler
Headingley Development Trust, 2025

Longstanding On (& Off) North Lane

Richard Tyler

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