UKC

The orginal and world's first climbing wall at Leeds uni is going to be pulled down... yeah the old corridor that pushed climbing grades in the 60's...the one they all flocked too.
The one that Syrett used to mess about on before his judo classes...then accidentally got into climbing and on his first outdoor outting onsite flashed the wall of horrors...

In reply to zoobizooretta: why is it being pulled down?

In reply to just: Extremely dangerous - someone could seriously hurt themselves on all those jutting edges. Also, I believe there is a peg on there that dates from 1970. Someone might DIE! Also haunted. Keep well away.

In reply to zoobizooretta:

Seriously, write a letter to the local authority stating the history of it and get the BMC off their arses to assist you. You could get it listed.

They list post boxes and milestones so why not.

In reply to Irenee Handle: If it's THAT bad, why not attempt to get it restored when getting it listed?

Just a thought..

In reply to Jamie monks:

like putting the arms back on David

In reply to Irenee Handle:

they're pulling the whole building down...

but would be worth listing...

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.2422

In reply to zoobizooretta:

The one in the sports science building at the uni? If so I'm not too surprised, access has been an nightmare for the last couple of years and the staff there always give the impression they want rid of it.

In reply to zoobizooretta: Where have you heard that. Not saying its not true but I can't find any refence to it on the University website or the sports pages and I thought there might have been something there if it was going ahead.

In reply to zoobizooretta:

I can't decide which way I feel about this. If they were getting rid of it in another interior rehash of the building then I think it should be saved, but if the whole building is going then I find it harder to object despite years of climbing there.

Maybe the main corridor wall could be saved or relocated somewhere. If you got rid of the opposite corridor wall and padded the concrete floor then it would be safe enough.

In reply to zoobizooretta: Having climbed there I can honestly say it's pretty dangerous but, worse than that, absolutely awful! Bring on the bulldozers, that's what I say!

In reply to zoobizooretta: Shame.. I used to love that place. It's a great wee traverse, if poky. But so long as Henry Price is to be preserved I guess we need not totally despair

In reply to zoobizooretta: I cant belive it, Its where I first climbed, its wicked, I have revisted it a couple of times since I left leeds uni, but alas if its dangerous then I suppose that its got to go!

In reply to zoobizooretta:

I've climbed at Leeds in my student days. Nice little wall the 'squash court' was better though.

I know it's got some history but the real history is the routes people put up after training. A wall is a wall the sport (for me) is about the outside stuff.

So for me it's not worth saving. Let's just maintain access to the routes it helped produce...

In reply to The Crow:

yeah the whole building is going..... it's the history thou, it was the worlds first climbing wall.

Meh!

Learnt to climb there! Drop, hit the floor, tuck and roll!

Taught me the ways of the Ninja at the same time.

Was a litle scary at times I suppose.

Bit of a shame should have just put some mats down

I also spent hours on the Leeds Uni Wall whilst a student (perhaps sad to admit but I was there most days). It's a shame they want to demolish it. In many respects its better than almost all of the 'modern' walls because of the actual pieces of stone cemented in to make the holds - and it has proper depth hand and fist jams on it - something the 'new' Leeds Wall has tried to do and failed. I think there should be a petition to keep a piece of it and mount it in whatever building is put up in its place - with some kind of plaque. That would be a good way to remember it - and give the pioneer Don Robinson a worthy mention. Perhaps we can queue for a piece of it like the Berlin Wall?? Incidentally, I did once climb on a 'replica' of the Leeds Uni Wall built on the outside of the Trinity/All Saints College in Horsforth. Maybe its still there...

In reply to chevinboy:
Fab idea selling it off in chuncks a la berlin wall
We used to pop in on weds nights in the 70s and 80s
when it was the only thing around we thought it was the bees knees.

In reply to Liam M: The uni wouldn't advertise this sort of thing on their website. Hope it's not true, but if so then i'd be very sad to see it go.

In reply to Sean_J:

it is true...

In reply to zoobizooretta:
Well i thought i should investigate. Went over to the office today to find out what is happening.
My ulterior (sp?) motive was actually to see if i could blag some of the holds from the 'squash court' area. I thought if the building was being torn down they might have been going in the skip.

Anyway the building is staying intact but the Sport Leeds department is vacating the building and moving to the sports centre. The climbing wall facilities are being moved down there as well.
The girl in the office was unsure of details but they are well aware of the original wall's historical significance and it is somehow going to be re-erected in its original form elsewhere. Guess they will number the bricks or something!!
Lets hope they put down decent crash mats this time

In reply to zoobizooretta:

maybe they( someone) should preserve a bit of this original wall at that climbing museum in the lakes. As you say it is history. It is also light years removed from the sort of facilities we take for granted today so it would be pointless preserving the entire thing. I do have some fond memories of the place even though it didn't improve my climbing one bit.
andy

In reply to Andy Kassyk:

light years in what way? you get a better work out and build miles better technquie on the old style walls than you do on any of todays walls....

In reply to Andy Kassyk:
The corridor was classic, so many things you couldn't find on a modern wall. Real rock holds, using brick edges for feet, the pocket traverse - complete with 2 perfect hand-jams, the mantle-shelf!! (how many have done that with the shelf as the only allowed hold from bottom to top?), super-polish to emulate the almscliff and ilkley experience, concreate landing! What more could you want!

The complete traverse was just classic training, by the end I had it so wired, in a race I managed the whole thing - concreate panels - the old corridor - squash court in some ridiculous time (58s?). The real shame was that the route book that was there when I arrived disappeared after some time, that detailed all the rock hard (landing) corridor up-routes that barely saw an ascent after the mats were taken away.

In reply to zoobizooretta: Let it go quietly into history like our own youth. Nice to see the Henry Price mentioned, I remember climbing up the side of it with John Syrett to gatecrash a party. Incidently, he'd done a fair bit outside before Wall of Horrors. Funny how the myths grow....

In reply to Andy Long:

aye...