Fforde Grene

The Fforde Grene was a public house and music venue located in the Harehills district of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is now an ethnic supermarket and online grocer, CC Continental Supermarket.

The Continental Supermarket on the A58 Roundhay Road, was formerly the Fforde Grene

Music venue

It hosted many bands before they became famous, including The Sex Pistols,^[1] U2, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Diamond Head, Be Bop Deluxe, Def Leppard, and The Rolling Stones and artists including Bo Diddley.^[2]

Be Bop Deluxe played the venue to a packed house of fans who became incensed that the landlord would not allow an encore, resulting in a riot. The police were called to find the carpet under a sea of broken glass and the furniture smashed to matchwood. The band's gear was untouched.

Built in 1938, the pub closed its doors in July 2004 and is now one of the UK's largest ethnic supermarkets and online grocer which opened in 2007 as CC Continental Supermarket.^[3][4]

The patrons of Fforde Grene were an inspiration for Chumbawamba's classic "Tubthumping."^[5]

History

The pub took its name from a director of Melbourne's Brewery (a forerunner of Tetleys) who could trace his ancestry back to a 13th-century relative called Richard del Fforde who lived in a house called Fford Grene.^[6]

This venue was at the busy junction of Roundhay Road and Easterly Road A58 and Harehills Lane (B6159). This junction is still named the "Fforde Grene Junction"

The name of the pub was to lend itself to a tram stop on the proposed Leeds Supertram project.^[7] This project was abandoned in 2004 owing to spiralling costs.^[8]

In 2007 it opened to the public as CC Continental Supermarket, an ethnic retail supermarket, providing fresh meat, vegetables and world foods.

References

1. Brudenell Social Club (12 September 2016). "Sex Pistols plus support". Brudenell Social Club. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
2. Set List.fm. "Fforde Grene Hotel Leeds Concert Setlists". Retrieved 5 September 2020.
3. Hello. "Former music pub gets new lease of life". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
4. "Four Leeds landmarks that are no longer with us – and one that never was". Yorkshire Evening Post. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
5. Khaleeli, Homa (5 April 2016). "How we made Chumbawamba's Tubthumping". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
6. "When the Fforde Grene was ahead of pub pack". Yorkshire Evening Post. 4 March 2006. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
7. "Leeds Supertram Revised Submission to the Department of Transport" (PDF). leeds.gov.uk. 8 November 2004. p. 13. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
8. Iqbal, Aisha (19 July 2016). "Inquiry launched into double debacle of Leeds Supertram and trolleybus schemes". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 21 November 2017.

53°49′03.9″N 1°30′55.3″W