OUGD405 - Wayfinding Ideas and Ideas Crit

OUGD405

Wayfinding Ideas

Leeds sports wayfinding

A wayfinding system to direct public around Leeds city centre including all of the major sporting venues. There will also be information on previous sporting events that have taken place in the city as well as elite athletes that are based in Leeds.

Sports venues:

Headingley Carnegie Stadium (Yorkshire county cricket club, Leeds Rhinos (league), Yorkshire Carnegie (union),

Elland Road Stadium (Leeds United)

First direct arena (boxing, darts)

Leeds Sailing and Activity centre

John Charles Sports Centre

Headingley Cricket Ground

The Edge

Tour de France route

ITU World triathlon route

Leeds Half Marathon

Leeds music scene wayfinding system

A way finding system which includes iconic venues around the city including those that no longer exist, accompanied by information on famous gigs and festivals held in the city as well as underground scene and music cultures based in Leeds.

Venues:

Brudenell Social Club

Seven

Leeds Town Hall

The Wardrobe

O2 Academy Leeds

Becket Students Union

First Direct Arena

Stylus

City Varieties music Hall

The Key Club

Belgrave Music Hall

Headrow House

Festivals:

Live at Leeds

R+L

Futurama Festival (1979-84)

V festival (1996 and 1998)

Leeds Lieder (yearly classical music festival at Leeds College of Music)

Bands:

The Mekons and the influential Gang of Four came out of the 1970s punk movement, with the early 1980s

In the early to mid-1980s, the city was home to a large goth scene. The March Violets, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, The Sisters of Mercy and Salvation (who were formed by The Sisters of Mercy roadies)

Leeds Metropolitan University's (then Leeds Polytechnic) Fine Art course led to the formation of early 1980s electronic pioneers Soft Cell.

Kaiser Chiefs, The Music, The Pigeon Detectives, Your Vegas, Record Department, Duels, ¡Forward, Russia!, Buen Chico; I Like Trains, The Sunshine Underground and singer Corinne Bailey Rae.

The 2010s (decade) saw the emergence of a number of second-wave grunge bands, most notably Pulled Apart by Horses, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Holy State.

Electronic music and the clubbing scene

Leeds hauntings wayfinding

A wayfinding system that documents hauntings around Leeds. The stories found are widely spread across the city but ghost stories are subjective so can be changed to suit the wayfinding system.

10 woodhouse square

Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Twentieth century

Further Comments: Footsteps, strange noises and doors opening have been blamed on a phantom Victorian lady looking for two children who died in the former nursery room.

Abbey Inn, Newlay

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Summer 2007 (laughter)

Further Comments: Even though the only recent activity is said to be the sound of female laughter coming from the cellar, this pub is said to be also haunted by a grey lady, a cloaked figure (who could be a monk connected to the abbey that once stood here) and a man wearing a Guy Fawkes-style hat.

Armley Prison

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: 1990s, 2014

Further Comments: This phantom manifests as a light that moves around the cells. One former employee reported prison officers in Victorian uniform and the sounds of clanging chains, with the most paranormally active areas being the new wings which were constructed over executed prisoner's graves.

Temple Newsam House

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Twentieth century

Further Comments: Not alone in haunting this mansion, the blue lady is the best known here, having a room named after her. Other entities reportedly include a monk in brown robes, a Knight Templar, a small boy who climbs from out a cupboard, and a non-descript misty form. Screams have been heard from the South Wing, as have the sounds of something or someone heavy being dragged across the floor.

Leeds - Town Hall, the Bridewell

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: Unknown

Further Comments: Held in the Bridewell (a small prison) under the town hall while awaiting his trial, Peace was later executed for a double murder. His ghost is said to still remain within his cell.

Leeds Folklore Wayfinding

A wayfinding system documenting folklore around Leeds, including leaflets which tell the stories of the locations. The information I have found is very varied and the stories are set all across the city and mainly outside the city centre which would make it difficult to create one wayfinding system.

Giant’s Stone

 A rock once sat about a mile from Leeds, beside the Bradford road. It was known as the Giant’s Stone and local legend related that it had been thrown there from a hill near Armley on the opposite bank of the River Aire. Indentations on the boulder were supposed to represent the giant’s fingerprints.

Ghost Dog

A ghostly black dog was said to roam around Leeds, described in 1879 as ‘the size of a small donkey, black with shaggy hair and large eyes like saucers’. The fiend was also supposed to ‘utter a roar totally unlike the voice of any known animal’. Rumour that the dog had been spotted would deter people from venturing any distance alone in the dark. In more rural areas there were often spots that were considered no-go areas after sunset.

Boggart Menace

Household spirits, known as boggarts, once acted as a scapegoat for all the minor irritations of daily life. Houses which had a reputation for such ‘poltergeist’-style hauntings were known colloquially as ‘boggart houses’. A whole council estate in Seacroft, Leeds, inherited the name from the now-demolished house on whose site it stands. At one time boggarts were considered such a nuisance around Yeadon that the town accounts record sums paid from the public purse for ‘boggart-catching’.

Kirkstall Passage

Legend has it that a man threshing corn in the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey spotted a cavity in the ruins which he had never noticed before Further investigation revealed an underground passage which he followed for some distance until it suddenly opened out, and he discovered himself standing in a great hall with a fire blazing in the hearth. A black horse stood in one corner, behind which sat a large chest with a cock watching over it. Suspecting the chest contained treasure, the man resolved to acquire it for himself – only to receive a blow on the side of the head and wake up on the grass outside. The man searched for the entrance to the secret passage many times over the years, but was never able to find it again.

Underground Leeds Wayfinding

Wayfinding system documenting the subterranean systems under the city of Leeds. The wayfinding would include the history of the underground constructions.

Leeds Town Hall (Victoria Hall)

The Town Hall took five years to construct and was built by Cuthbert Broderick in 1858. It was opened by Queen Victoria. under the front steps, you can find ten very unnerving prison cells. The conditions in the Bridewell prison cells were so bad they were classified as inhumane for prisoners in 1902 and were later used as cells until 1993 until prisoners were later held in magistrate courts.

WW2 Bunkers

Buslingthorpe recreation ground in Chapletown

Woodhouse Moor

Wortley

Cross Flats

 Armley

 Potternewton

 East End Park

 Chapel Allerton

 York Road (Shaftesbury cinema)

 Roundhay Park (Soldiers Field)

 shelters with separate compartments for men, women and children. Once all were safely tucked inside, the exits were sealed to ensure the wreckage of bombs raining down on the city would never reach those locked away. They were fitted with drinking water, toilets and warden’s posts with emergency exits to be used if necessary.

Rooms under Leeds Train Station

directly underneath it there are long forgotten rooms and corridors, that stretch out as far and wide as the station itself. A building that encompasses the glory of the industrial revolution, these rooms were abandoned when the station was completely renovated in the 1960s. When the new railway station was designed in 1967, it was thought to be more appealing to create staircases that would take passengers over the platforms instead of underneath, thus leaving the space below to become deserted.

Merion Centre Subways

When Merion Centre was first built it was a huge moment for the city and people were expected to swarm to it. To make that easier, there were a number of subway systems built so people could access it without crossing the main roads. They’re all now out of use, but they still exist. A walk up Woodhouse Lane will show off one that went from one side to the other. There’s another, inside, that can still be partly accessed from The Key Club, which includes old offices and toilets, coming out at Fairfax House where it’s boarded up.

Underground River

Meanwood Beck flows from Adel, through Meanwood and Sheepscar and out into the River Aire in Leeds city center – more interestingly, the bulk of it is underground. Meanwood/Sheepscar and Lady beck tunnels.

Briggate Underground Subway

Constructed in the mid-sixties at the junction of Boar Lane with Briggate, the subway went from outside McDonalds to the other side by the Yorkshire Building Society with toilets at each end. For a short period, there was also one from the bottom of Briggate to Lower Briggate to beat the chaos of Boar Lane

Temple Newsam servants’ tunnel

Visitors to Temple Newsam House and glean some kind of picture of what life was like for the blue-blood residents who enjoyed a lavish life in its oak paneled rooms. But beneath the house are a network of cellars and corridors and one giant tunnel built 250 years ago under the courtyard to the front. Running for about 100 yards, it used to link the kitchen to the main dining room and when the council took over the house, an inventory of the cellars included 132 bottles of champagne, 3,800 gallons of ales, 2,200 gallons of beer, 474 bottles of sherry, 72 bottles of fine claret and 77 bottles of spirits and liquors.

Queens Hotel and The Secret Caverns

The Queens Hotel has been a dominant feature of City Square for decades but even it has underground secrets. Service lifts travel connect to cavernous subterranean rooms, some of which interconnect with the abandoned tunnels which run beneath Leeds railway station. One seldom seen storage area contains classic paintings to grand chandeliers and a gantry opens onto the banks of the River Aire. Another tunnels heads off under City Square and runs for a good 100ft, draped in silence and darkness, its floor made of uneven hardened mud and rubble.

 Feedback:

From the feedback I have received it is clear that the underground way finding system is the most popular. To create the signage for the way finding system I should consider using vinyl placed on the ground to show what lies beneath. I think this would suit the draftsman style of architectural drawings in order to show where walls are placed ect. I should consider using glow in the dark vinyl, developing the idea of showing something which is hidden for sight. For example, with this idea the outlines of the underground systems would be hidden in the daytime and visible when dark. The same principle would apply to UV paint and ink.