Pictures of Leeds

About Leeds

In the middle ages Leeds was a wool centre and it flourished. The sheep on the Yorkshire moors providing the wool for the cottage craft industry of spinning and weaving. The introduction of machinery in the late 18th century started the mill system around which the city of Leeds grew. By the mid 19th century the city moved into the ready-made clothing industry and by the end of the century Leeds was the world centre for the clothes trade. Joseph Hepworth pioneered chain-store tailoring in 1883 and by 1921 Montague Burton's mill was the largest clothing factory in the world.

Transformed in recent years Leeds has cleaned up and restored many of it's black sooted buildings, and the city now has some fabulous examples of victorian buildings to visit and see. Visit the pride of the city, the Leeds Town Hall which truly is a monument to the pride of the Victorian era, and was opened in 1858 by Queen Victoria herself. It is home to the International Piano Competition and the annual international concert season. Another must-see building in Leeds is The Corn Exchange - truly one of Britains finest Victorian buildings. It was designed by the late great Cuthbert Brodrick who also designed the aforementioned Leeds Town Hall. Recently restored, the Corn Exchange houses a great selection of shops and cafes.
Other buildings to see in Leeds include The Edwardian Kirkgate Market and Kirkstall Abbey which dates back to Medieval times.

As for today, Leeds is considered the social hub and capital of the North of England. It has just been voted as one of the top three places to shop in the UK by an independent survey, and offers a huge range of shops, stores and cafes for you to enjoy. It is also the second largest employer of the IT industry in the country with some 35% of England's email traffic carried on from Leeds. A combination of this prosperity and Leeds fascinating history make it one the most popular and interesting cities to visit in England and Europe. It truly is a cosmopolitan city with over 75 nationalities of people living there and a population of over 700,000 people.