Lost lane made way for industrial estate

Today Simmonds Road forms part of the main access road to the Wincheap Industrial Estate. However, before the early 1970s, this was the site of a short lane, with small terraced houses, called Simmonds Row.

The narrow junction onto Wincheap itself was between numbers 16 and 17 Wincheap Street, as it was once known.

The first of our pictures shows numbers 17 and 18 Wincheap, and the newly opened Pilgrim Cycles premises, in June 1960.

Dating from about 1810 these two small shops had been occupied by a greengrocer before Pilgrim Cycles took over and extensively refurbished the properties. As can be seen from the photo, they also traded in mopeds and scooters. The narrow junction into Simmonds Row is visible on the left.

Simmonds Row itself was also first laid out in about 1810. It followed the line of an ancient trackway that led across Bingley Island to link with St. Peter’s Place. The nearby railway occupation arch and small brick bridge across the Stour are testament to this old route.

As first built, Simmonds Row had a long terrace of houses on either side.

However, the ones on the south side (Nos 1 to 9) were demolished shortly after the Second World War and a row of lock-up garages constructed on the footprint. The houses on the north side (Nos 10 to 17) were refurbished and continued in use until the mid 1960s, when they were finally condemned.

The second picture dates from March 1967 and shows the north side of Simmonds Row empty and awaiting demolition.

Wincheap Industrial Estate first appeared in the early 1970s.

Pilgrim Cycles on Wincheap in June 1960; a condemned Simmonds Row in March 1967