Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

is known for its culture in the fields of art, architecture, music, sport, film and television. As the largest city in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, Leeds is a centre of Yorkshire's contemporary culture and is the base for Yorkshire's television (

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

, and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

) and regional newspapers. In 2015 Leeds announced its intention to bid for European Capital of Culture 2023. Following the European Commission's decision for the UK to no longer able to bid to be part of the European Capital of Culture Competition, the City Council, along with partners, committed to a five-year cultural investment programme culminating in

Leeds 2023 Leeds 2023, stylized as LEEDS 2023, was a designated year of culture taking place in Leeds, West Yorkshire, during 2023. Years of culture are specific years where a city or region dedicates significant resources to investing in cultural initiat ...

, a year of cultural celebration.

Art

Leeds produced many notable artists and sculptors, including

Kenneth Armitage William Kenneth Armitage (18 July 1916 – 22 January 2002) was a British sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. Life Armitage was born in Leeds on July 18, 1916, the youngest of three children studied at the Leeds College of Art and t ...

John Atkinson Grimshaw John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was an English Victorian-era artist best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes.Alexander Robertson, ''Atkinson Grimshaw'', London, Phaidon Press, 1996 H. J. Dyos and ...

Jacob Kramer Jacob Kramer (26 December 1892 – 4 February 1962)''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' was a Russian-born painter who spent all of his working life in England. Early life Jacob Kramer was born in the small town of Klintsy, Chernigov Gov ...

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

Edward Wadsworth Edward Alexander Wadsworth (19 October 1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist initially associated with the Vorticism movement. In the First World War he was part of a team involved in the transfer of dazzle camouflage designs to ships fo ...

and Joash Woodrow, and was the centre for a particularly radical strain of British art. Before the First World War Leeds was the home of an unusual modernist arts organisation, called the

Leeds Arts Club The Leeds Arts Club was founded in 1903 by the Leeds primary school teacher Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson, a lace merchant and freelance journalist, and was one of the most advanced centres for modernist thinking, radical thought and experim ...

, founded by

Alfred Orage Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine '' The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working a ...

, which lasted from 1903 to 1923. Notable members included

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

Frank Rutter Francis Vane Phipson Rutter (17 February 1876 – 18 April 1937)"Rutter, Frank V. P.", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved froukwhoswho8 August 2008. was a British art art critic, c ...

and Michael Sadler. As well as advocating a radical political agenda, supporting the

Suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

s, the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

and the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

, and promoting the philosophy of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

, the Leeds Arts Club was almost unique in Britain as being an exponent of

German Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

ideas about art and culture. As a result, it staged very early British exhibitions of work by European expressionist artists, such as

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

, showing their work in the city as early as 1913, and produced its own English Expressionist artists, including Jacob Kramer and Bruce Turner. In the 1920s Leeds College of Art was the starting point for the careers of the sculptors

and

, and in the 1950s, and 1960s it was one of the leading centres for radical art education in Britain under the guidance of artists such as

Harry Thubron Harry Thubron OBE (Henry James Thubron, 1915–1985) was an English artist and art teacher. He made radical innovations in art education which are still controversial today. Life Thubron was born on 24 November 1915 at 7 Victoria Avenue, Bis ...

and Tom Hudson, and the art historian

Norbert Lynton Norbert Casper Lynton (22 September 1927 – 30 October 2007, Brighton, England ) was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Sussex. From 1998 - 2006 he was Chairman of the Charleston Farmhouse, Charleston Trust. He has publ ...

. Their attempts to redefine what art education should mean in the post-

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

period led the artist

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced ...

to claim in 1971 in ''The Guardian'' newspaper that "Leeds is the most influential art school in Europe since the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

". This willingness to push at the boundaries of acceptable public behaviour from artists was also evident in 1966 when Leeds College of Art staged an exhibition of paintings by the Cypriot artist

Stass Paraskos Stass Paraskos (; 17 March 1933 – 4 March 2014) was a British-Cypriot painter, sculptor, and writer. Born and raised in Cyprus, he spent much of his life working and teaching in England, where he famously became embroiled in a 1966 obscenity ...

, who taught at the college, which was raided by the police after allegations of obscenity. This radicalism continued into the 1970s when the higher education component of Leeds College of Art was split from the college to form the nucleus of the new multidisciplinary Leeds Polytechnic, now called

Leeds Beckett University Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the Leeds city centre, city centre and Hea ...

. Performance art had been taught earlier at Leeds College of Art, notably by the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

artist

Robin Page Robin Page (2 November 1932 – 12 May 2015) was a British painter. He was one of the early members of the Fluxus art movement. Biography Page was born in England in 1932. His father, Peter Carter-Page, was a humorist and cartoonist who worked ...

during his time as a tutor there in the mid-1960s, but in 1977 a performance art work hit the national news headlines when the students Pete Parkin and Derek Wain used an air pistol to shoot a line up of live

budgerigar The budgerigar ( ; ''Melopsittacus undulatus''), also known as the common parakeet, shell parakeet or budgie ( ), is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot native to Australia. Naturally the species is green and yellow with black, scallop ...

s in front of an audience at Leeds Polytechnic. The

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

was the ''alma mater'' of

, one of the leading international theorists of modern art from the mid-twentieth century, and also the teaching base for the

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

art historian Arnold Hauser from 1951 to 1985. Partly due to Herbert Read's connection with the university, from 1950 to 1970 the university was the host of one of the first

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

schemes in Britain, using funding from the then owner of

Lund Humphries Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham (Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office in B ...

books, Peter Gregory. The Gregory Fellowships, as the residencies were known, were given to painters and sculptors for up to two years to allow them to develop their own work and influence the university in any way they saw fit. Amongst those holding the fellowships were

Reg Butler Reginald Cotterell Butler (28 April 1913 – 23 October 1981) was an English sculptor. He was born at Bridgefoot House, Buntingford, Hertfordshire to Frederick William Butler (1880–1937) and Edith (1880–1969), daughter of blacks ...

Dennis Creffield Dennis Creffield (29 January 1931 – 26 June 2018) was a British artist with work owned by major British and worldwide art collections, including the Tate Gallery, The British Museum, Arts Council of England, the Government Art Collection, The ...

and

Terry Frost Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...

and others. Parallel Gregory Fellowships also existed in music and poetry at the university. Leeds was also a centre for radical feminist art, with one of the first galleries in Britain dedicated to showing the work of women photographers, the Pavilion Gallery, opening in the city in 1983, and the

School of Fine Art being a well-known centre for the development of feminist art history, under

Griselda Pollock Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock (born 11 March 1949) is a British art historian, whose work focuses on analyzing visual arts and visual culture through global feminist and postcolonial feminist lenses. Since 1977, Pollock has been an influen ...

, during the 1980s and 1990s. Possibly as a result of the strength of feminist art in Leeds, in November 1984 an exhibition of ceramics by students and staff at Leeds Polytechnic was attacked by a group of feminist activists who destroyed eight sculptures on display which they deemed to be degrading to women. The University of Leeds's School of Fine Art also specialised in

Art & Language Art & Language is an English conceptual artists' collaboration that has undergone many changes since it was created around 1967. The group was founded by artists who shared a common desire to combine intellectual ideas and concerns with the cre ...

conceptual art practice, under

Terry Atkinson Terry Atkinson (born 1939) is an English artist. Career Atkinson was born in Thurnscoe, near Barnsley, Yorkshire. He lives in Leamington Spa, England with his wife, artist Sue Atkinson, with whom he has frequently collaborated. In 1967, he beg ...

, again in the 1980s and 1990s. Atkinson tutored the Leeds 13 year group that, in 1998, provoked a national media frenzy with their Spanish holiday as art hoax. A major sculpture research centre and gallery, the

Henry Moore Institute The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

, is located alongside

Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

in the city centre, and in 2013 a new contemporary art centre, called The Tetley, opened on the site of the former Tetley Brewery to the south of the city centre. In March 2017, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' voted Leeds as the number one cultural place to live in Britain. This was ahead of London,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, St Ives,

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

and

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

. The citation notes that Leeds has

Opera North Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays a ...

, the

Northern Ballet Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet. The compa ...

, and the

Leeds Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

amongst many other attractions that ranked it at number one.

Art galleries

Art practice and collecting has a long history in Leeds: the city's municipal art gallery (

) opened in 1888.

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

painted numerous scenes in and around the city, and the city was home to one of Britain's largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite Art, owned by Thomas Plint, during the nineteenth century. There was also an early history of holding large-scale public exhibitions in the city, most notably the series of 'Polytechnic Exhibitions' held regularly from 1839. Leeds Art Gallery houses important collections of traditional and contemporary British art, with the best twentieth century collection outside London and a colourful wall painting for the Victorian staircase by Lothar Götz. Just next door, The

is dedicated to celebrating sculpture. In the iconic building, they host a year-round changing programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions presenting sculpture from across the world. Located in the striking art deco headquarters of the former brewery, The Tetley is a centre for contemporary art, centred on creativity, innovation and experimentation. There is also an art gallery within the Mansion Conservatory in

Roundhay Park Roundhay Park in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a large urban park situated on the north-east edge of the city, bordered by the suburb of Roundhay to the west, Oakwood, Leeds, Oakwood to the south and the A6120 road, A6120 outer ring road t ...

Architecture

Leeds has a variety of architectural styles, including a great deal of

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...

, which developed during Leeds' rapid growth through the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. Notable architecture from this era includes the

Leeds Town Hall Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built be ...

and the

Corn Exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

. Leeds has little in the way of architecture that predates this era; however, examples include St John the Evangelist's church and the ruins of

Kirkstall Abbey Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery in Kirkstall, north-west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. It is set in a public park on the north bank of the River Aire. It was founded . It was disestablished during the Dissol ...

. Leeds is famous for its spectacular Victorian arcades – Queens Arcade, Thornton's Arcade, Grand Arcade and the magnificent

Victoria Quarter Victoria Leeds is a shopping district and leisure area in central Leeds, comprising the 1990 Victoria Quarter, an arcaded complex of restored 19th-century and contemporary shopping arcades, and the 2016 Victoria Gate development. Notable for ...

. The centre is also home to a number of iconic buildings:

Leeds Civic Hall Leeds Civic Hall is a municipal building located in the Leeds city centre#Civic-quarter, civic quarter of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It replaced Leeds Town Hall as the administrative centre in 1933. The Civic Hall houses Leeds City Council ...

and

Leeds Central Library Leeds Central Library is a public library in Leeds. Situated in the city centre, on Calverley Street, it houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection and hosts the Leeds Art Gallery. Services avai ...

; a

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

masterpiece with spectacular staircases and archways. Other notable architectural gems include Europe's largest indoor market:

Kirkgate Market Kirkgate Market (pronounced ) is a market complex on Vicar Lane in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest covered market in Europe and a Grade I listed building. There are currently 800 stalls which attract over 1 ...

, Leeds Grand Theatre and City Varieties. Leeds also has several examples of notable twentieth-century architecture. This includes the

art-deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s, ...

Queens Hotel and the

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

Roger Stevens Building at the

and formerly the

Leeds International Swimming Pool The Leeds International Pool often referred to as the Leeds International Baths, was a swimming facility in Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. The pool was situated at the lower end of Westgate and was notable for its brutalist archite ...

Carnivals

Leeds hosts the

Leeds West Indian Carnival The Leeds Carnival, also called the Leeds West Indian Carnival or the Chapeltown Carnival, is one of the longest running West Indian carnivals in Europe, having been going since 1967. The carnival is held in the Chapeltown and Harehills parts ...

in its Chapeltown district, which is home to a sizable West Indian community. This takes place each August and is the longest running West Indian carnival in Europe, having taken place since 1967. The 2017 event attracted an estimated 250,000 visitors.

Literature

Several notable writers and poets have hailed from Leeds, most notably author and screenwriter

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. He has received numerous awards and honours including four BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. In 2005 he received the Socie ...

. These also included poets

Alfred Austin Alfred Austin (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or refused the honour. It was c ...

Tony Harrison Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse ...

and

Barry Tebb Barry Tebb is an English poet, publisher and author. He was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1942. Early career Tebb studied English at the Leeds Training College 1961-1964 and while there ... "read widely, Proust, Firbank, Dickens, G ...

. Writers from Leeds include

Helen Fielding Helen Fielding (born 19 February 1958) is a British journalist, novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones. Fielding’s first novel was set in a refugee camp in East Africa and she started wr ...

, famous for ''

Bridget Jones's Diary ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire from a screenplay by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis. It is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Fielding, which was itself a loose ...

'', and

Keith Waterhouse Keith Spencer Waterhouse Order of British Empire, CBE (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series. He was also a noted arbiter of newspaper style and journalisti ...

, famous for the novel ''

Billy Liar ''Billy Liar'' is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a Billy Liar (film), film, a Billy (musical), musical and a Billy Liar (TV series), TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popul ...

''. Tony Harrison described his relationship with the city in his infamous poem " V".

Museums

Leeds has several museums, including one

national museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

, the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Once an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, and one of the oldest museums in the world. It is als ...

. Other museums include the

Leeds City Museum Leeds City Museum, established in 1819, is a museum in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Since 2008 it has been housed in the former Mechanics' institute, Mechanics' Institute built by Cuthbert Brodrick, in Cookridge Street (now Millennium Squar ...

, the

Thackray Medical Museum The Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a museum of the history of medicine adjacent to St James's University Hospital. It opened in March 1997 as the Thackray Medical Museum. In 1998 it won "Museum of the Year" and ...

Leeds Industrial Museum The Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills is a museum of industrial heritage located in Armley, near Leeds, in West Yorkshire, Northern England. The museum includes collections of textile machinery, railway equipment and heavy engineering amo ...

and the

Abbey House Museum Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is housed in the gatehouse of the ruined 12th-century Kirkstall Abbey, and is a Grade II* listed building. The house is north-west of Leeds city centre on the A65 road. It is part ...

. Leeds also features the oldest working railway in the world:

Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The ...

. There are also local museums in

Horsforth Horsforth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 18,895 ...

and

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 2011 c ...

displaying exhibits of local historical interest.

Historic Houses

There are number of nearby historical houses within Leeds' boundaries, including

Harewood House Harewood House ( , ) is a English country house, country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr (architect), John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built between 1759 and 1771, for Ed ...

Lotherton Hall Lotherton Hall is a English country house, country house near Aberford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a short distance from the A1(M) motorway, equidistant from London and Edinburgh. It is one of nine sites in the Leeds Museums & Galleries ...

and

Temple Newsam Temple Newsam (historically Temple Newsham), is a Tudor- Jacobean house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The house is a Grade I listed building, one of nine Leeds Museums and Galleries sites and ...

. Only 3 miles out of the city centre you can also find

, one of the most complete

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

12th century

Cistercian Abbey The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

s in Britain.

Music

Leeds is home to

and The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD). The

Leeds International Pianoforte Competition The Leeds International Piano Competition, informally known as The Leeds and formerly the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, is an international piano competition which takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It ...

is held every year at

and the

Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

at the

. Leeds also has a

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

. Leeds has a notable musical scene, and has produced many bands and artists. Bands from Leeds include

Chumbawamba Chumbawamba () was a British anarcho-punk band who formed in 1982 and disbanded in 2012. They are best known for their 1997 single "Tubthumping", which was nominated for Best British Single at the Brit Awards 1998. Other singles include "Amnes ...

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, before reforming as Parva in 2000, and releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their cur ...

, the

Pigeon Detectives The Pigeon Detectives are an English indie rock band from Rothwell in Leeds, West Yorkshire, who formed in 2004. The band has released six albums from 2007 to present. They performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2006, where they were ...

and

Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synth-pop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball (electronic musician), David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit versio ...

. Musical artists from Leeds include

Corrine Bailey Rae Corinne Jacqueline Bailey Rae (; née Bailey; born 26 February 1979) is a British singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 2006 single " Put Your Records On". Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an ...

and

Mel B Melanie Janine Brown, Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 29 May 1975), commonly known as Mel B or Melanie B, is an English singer, songwriter, television personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the mid 1990s as a member of the Pop mus ...

. Leeds has several music venues, including the

O2 Academy The O2 Academy may refer to one of a number of Academy Music Group venues in the United Kingdom (in alphabetical order): * O2 Academy Birmingham * O2 Academy Bournemouth * O2 Academy Bristol * O2 Academy Brixton * O2 Academy Edinburgh * O2 Acade ...

, the City Varieties, and the 13,500 capacity, entertainment focused

Leeds Arena The Leeds Arena (currently known as the first direct bank arena for sponsorship reasons) is an entertainment-focused indoor arena located in the Arena Quarter of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the first in the United Kingdom to have a fan ...

and the Leeds University Students' Union host concerts, and a smaller venue is also in operation at

Leeds Met Students' Union Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The univer ...

Music festivals

Leeds has been home to several music festivals throughout the years; these include

Party in the Park Party in the Park is the generic name given to music concerts organised by various radio stations and local authorities and groups in the United Kingdom, typically in large parks during the summer, however it is also used to refer to a family or ...

and

Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

. Leeds Festival has run at

and

Bramham Park Bramham Park is a Grade I listed 18th-century country house in Bramham, between Leeds and Wetherby, in West Yorkshire, England. The house, constructed of magnesian limestone ashlar with stone slate roofs in a classical style, is built to a l ...

since 1999. The Leeds Classical Music Festival ran from 1858 until 1985.

Theatre and performances

Leeds is one of the only English cities outside London to have its own repertory theatre, opera and ballet companies. Leeds has some of the finest theatres in the UK and offers a wide range of entertainment, from music hall evenings and pantos at the City Varieties, to West End plays and musicals at

and Leeds Grand Theatre. Leeds is also home to the internationally renowned and award-winning

and

. During the summer, open air performances take place at locations such as

and

and the Summer Series on

Millennium Square Millennium Square may refer to: *Millennium Square, Bristol *Millennium Square, Leeds *Millennium Square, Sheffield {{dab ...

. Playwright

hails from the city and many of his plays including his televised ''

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

'' were set in Leeds or areas surrounding the city. For film, there is the historic

Cottage Road Cinema Cottage Road Cinema is the oldest remaining cinema in continuous use in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Situated in the suburb of Headingley, Cottage Road was originally built in 1905 as a garage for the nearby Castle Grove mansion. Local news ...

, one of the oldest cinemas in the country, or Grade II listed

Hyde Park Picture House The Hyde Park Picture House is a Movie theater, cinema and Grade II listed building in the Hyde Park, Leeds, Hyde Park area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Built by Thomas Winn & Sons, it opened on 7 November 1914. It features many origina ...

: believed to be the only one in the world still lit by gas.

Sport

Leeds has teams representing all the major national sports.

Leeds United A.F.C. Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

is the city's main

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club.

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

(

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

Leeds Tykes Leeds Tykes (formerly Leeds RUFC, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire Carnegie) is an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the National League 2 North. The club was founded as Headingley FC, but renamed in 1991 when ...

(

Rugby Union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

) and

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

are also based in the city. Leeds is well known for hosting world-class sporting events, with unforgettable, international competitions being held in the city, including the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014,

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

2015 and the

ITU World Triathlon Series The World Triathlon Championship Series is an annual series of triathlon events organised by World Triathlon. The series is used to crown an annual world champion since 2008. Previously, the ITU (the former name of World Triathlon) world champi ...

Leeds in 2016, 2017, 2018.

Football

Elland Road panorama from the Revie Stand

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

are the only professional side in the city since

Farsley Celtic Farsley Celtic Football Club is a football club based in Farsley, West Yorkshire, England. The club was founded in 1908, but folded in 2010 and were reformed as Farsley AFC before returning to the name Farsley Celtic in 2015.

folded in 2010. Formed in 1919 they play at

Elland Road Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the List of foot ...

and currently compete in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. Other smaller teams include

Garforth Town Garforth Town Association Football Club is a football club based in Garforth, West Yorkshire, England. They are members of the and play at Wheatley Park. History The club was established in 1964 as Miners Arms, a Sunday league team based at ...

and

Guiseley A.F.C. Guiseley Association Football Club is a football club based in Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Nethermoor Park. History The club was established in 1909 and initially played in the Wharfedal ...

Rugby league

Leeds has two professional Rugby League teams.

play at the

Headingley Rugby Stadium Headingley Rugby Stadium (known as AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium due to sponsorship) is a rugby league stadium in Headingley, Leeds and shares the same site as Headingley Cricket Ground. It is the home ground of the Leeds Rhinos, and is the ...

and compete in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. In South Leeds there is also Hunslet R.L.F.C. There are many other professional Rugby League teams in areas surrounding Leeds.

Rugby union

The main Rugby Union team in Leeds is

, who play at The Sycamores in

Bramhope Bramhope is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England, north of Holt Park and north east of Cookridge. The village is north of Leeds city centre and it is in the L ...

, about outside the city centre. Lying just outside the city sprawl but within the Metropolitan District is

Otley R.U.F.C. Otley Rugby Union Football Club is an English rugby union club representing Otley in the City of Leeds, district of West Yorkshire. The club runs two senior teams – the first XV, the Saracens (2nd XV), as well as a full range of junior teams. T ...

Cricket

Yorkshire County Cricket Club's main ground is the

Headingley Cricket Ground Headingley Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in the Headingley Stadium complex in Headingley, Leeds, England. It adjoins the Headingley Rugby Stadium through a shared main stand, although the main entrance to the cricket ground is at the opp ...

, which backs onto the rugby ground.

Swimming

Leeds has a large

Olympic swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Championsh ...

situated at the

John Charles Centre for Sport The John Charles Centre for Sport is a multi-purpose sports facility in South Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It consists of the South Leeds Stadium (a rugby league, football, and athletics stadium), an aquatics centre, indoor athletics centre, ...

, which replaced earlier facilities at the

Film and television

Leeds is home to both

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

and

ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

(formerly

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

). Many television series have been set in Leeds, including ''

At Home with the Braithwaites ''At Home with the Braithwaites'' is a British comedy-drama television series, was created and written by Sally Wainwright (except for the final four episodes). The storyline follows a suburban family in Leeds, whose life is turned upside down ...

'', ''

The Beiderbecke Trilogy ''The Beiderbecke Trilogy'' is a trilogy of television serials written by Alan Plater and made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 1988. Each serial centres on schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin ( James ...

'', ''

Fat Friends ''Fat Friends'' is a British drama that aired on ITV from 12 October 2000 to 24 March 2005, consisting of 25 episodes over four series. Set in Leeds, the series explores the lives of several slimming club members, with a focus on the various ...

'' and ''

Married Single Other ''Married Single Other'' is a British six-episode comedy-drama television miniseries created and written by Peter Souter. The series is based on the lives of group of people who are either married, single or "other", other being defined as in a r ...

''. Several films have also been set in the city, such as ''

The Damned United ''The Damned United'' is a 2009 sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling 2006 novel '' The Damned Utd'' – a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Cl ...

'' and ''

Mischief Night Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children, teenagers and adults engage in jokes, pranks, vandalism, or parties. It is known by a variety of names including Devil's Night (particularly in Detroit), Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving ...

''.

References

External links

{{City of Leeds *