Leeke Street

History of Leeke Street

Leeke Street was built after 1873. Ada Keynes in 1947 recorded that eleven cottages were built in the garden behind Mendicity House on a new (extended) road named Leeke Street. The street was named after a vicar of the parish – Edward Tucker Leeke, vicar of St Andrew the Less from 1869-1877.

The first 11 houses were built in 1879 by Cambridge Improved Industrial Dwellings Company.

Further detailed information can be found here:

https://library.thehumanjourney.net/3162/1/report%201632_LR.pdf

1881

1. Stephen Pink, 29, general dealer [in later censuses Stephen Pink, farmer was living at 186 Newmarket Road]
2. James Huntlea, 23, musician
3. Steven Bruce, 22, labourer
4. Francis Smither, 36, painter
5. William Palmer, 38, carpenter
6. Joseph Dawson, 42, plasterer
7. –
8. Charles Burdon, 29, painter
9. George West, 24, bricklayer
10. Edward Low, 21, labourer
11. Albert W Rolls, 35, painter and glazier
12. Mary A Donnis, 71
13. Samuel Curry, 31, general dealer
14. James Carse, 42, masons labourer
15. Jane Scott, 48, charwoman
16. Robert W Brazier, 30, labourer
17. William Shadbolt, 31, brickyard labourer
18. James Pratt, 38, labourer

1891

1. Alfred Ison, labourer
2. Thomas Housden, labourer
3. Stephen Bruce, coal porter
4. Mary Ison, charwoman
5. –
6. George Pain, cab driver
7. Joseph Mayse, gas stoker
8. William Harris, general dealer
9. Maria Brown, charwoman
10. Thomas Fagg, pedlar
11. Charles Chapman, labourer
12. –
13. –
14. Henry Smith, brick maker

1910

Fred Thomas ‘F T’ Unwin (Unwin 1991) describes the street as it was circa 1910. Unwin was himself born in 1915 and died in 2014. Leeke Street seems to have been a very poor area of Cambridge, a cul de sac with 15 houses either side. A rag and bone man, a fishmonger, a boot repairer, a coal merchant, a bookmaker and an escapologist lived there; the rest were casual labourers, usually out of work. Unwin describes it as a rat invested damp trap. The names that Unwin uses for the occupants of the street seem to have been changed from what they were in reality.

1913

West Side

1. Alfred Bruce
2. Alfred Warren, labourer
3. Mrs Parker
4. Tom Cash, shoemaker
5. William Matthews, labourer
6. William Rumbelow, carman
7. Frederick Graves,
8. James Cook, labourer

East Side

10. Victor Frederick Ostler, labourer

11. Mrs Collins

12. William Pope

13. Henry Jenkins

14. George Cash

15. F C Franklin, labourer

16. J Stevenson

17. G Tyrell

18. James Beamiss

1939

Several of the freehold properties on Leeke Street were auctioned in 1939; they were part of the estate of George Clark deceased. Lot 5 covered 9,10,11,12 Leeke Street. each had a living room with cottage range scullery with sink and copper, coalplace and WC, large bedroom with fireplace and gas and water laid in. Weekly tenancies of 5s. Lot 6 covered nos 13 – 17. They had two bedrooms and three had a scullery. Rent ranged from 5s to 6s.

Leeke Street – derelict shop is Pink’s the Florist (date unknown)

1962

1. Rt Gray
2. Colin Hughes
3. Mrs B Barton
4. Geo Dell
5. Cecil R Rose
6. Italo D’Alessandro

8. Chas F Cook

15. Jn R Newstead

A 1964 picture of Leeke Street survives showing a narrow road with cobbled guttering with terraced houses on the east side subdivided by an alleyway leading to the backs of the properties. The end of the street is blocked off by a wall and it appears the street was a cul-de-sac.