Leeds: The forgotten Big City?

[J-2739]

A few months ago, I was looking at the tourist side of the Guardian, and all the major cities of the UK were mentioned as a tourist destination. All, apart from Leeds.

Yes, I know that Leeds isn't very touristy (unless knife crime attracts you! ), but that doesn't mean there's anything there. There's that nice hotel near the railway station!

Also, Leeds is a pretty big financial centre, but when economically advanced areas are talked about, and I've seen sometimes on this forum, London, Birmingham, Manchester and even Liverpool are mentioned, but Leeds less common. The only city of Yorkshire that seems to be recognised is York, and that's not a big city.

Call me and this thread bonkers, but I find it a tiny bit emotional about it, as I am quite attached to Yorkshire now (after London maybe) and it would be nice for our largest city to be promoted a bit more.

 

[yorksrob]

A few months ago, I was looking at the tourist side of the Guardian, and all the major cities of the UK were mentioned as a tourist destination. All, apart from Leeds.

Yes, I know that Leeds isn't very touristy (unless knife crime attracts you! ), but that doesn't mean there's anything there. There's that nice hotel near the railway station!

Also, Leeds is a pretty big financial centre, but when economically advanced areas are talked about, and I've seen sometimes on this forum, London, Birmingham, Manchester and even Liverpool are mentioned, but Leeds less common. The only city of Yorkshire that seems to be recognised is York, and that's not a big city.

Call me and this thread bonkers, but I find it a tiny bit emotional about it, as I am quite attached to Yorkshire now (after London maybe) and it would be nice for our largest city to be promoted a bit more.

As someone who's lived in or around Leeds for about twenty years, I think that whilst its a big city with everything anyone who lives there needs, it does seem to lack a big iconic building. The town hall is marvellous, but I don't think its really in the national consciousness.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Two posts from Yorkshire based members and both fail to actually promote anything touristy in Leeds! Come on guys, you could have mentioned the Royal Armouries Museum. Well worth a visit, I've been there myself.

 

[yorksrob]

Two posts from Yorkshire based members and both fail to actually promote anything touristy in Leeds! Come on guys, you could have mentioned the Royal Armouries Museum. Well worth a visit, I've been there myself.

Ah yes, I have been there. It's quite an interesting afternoon. But for me, Leeds is the gateway to the Dales - no other city in England can beat that !

 

[Busaholic]

Roundhay Park's worth a mention, although I only had to travel about half a mile from sister-in-law's house! There's also a certain cricket ground called Headingley, scene of some great exploits, plus those of Geoffrey Boycott.

 

[fowler9]

I love Leeds, went to Uni in Bradford and visited Leeds a lot, also a good mate of mine lived in Leeds after graduation and once again I visited a lot, had a lot of good nights out. It is a great spot to take car and train trips out in to some stunning countryside. I would say though that without having lived near there or having a mate living in Headingley for a few years there is not a hell of a lot in Leeds that would make me want to tell foreign tourists or even friends from the UK that they have to go there.

 

[johntea]

Leeds is just...Leeds really! The actual centre is quite compressed, so doesn't take too long to get around where places like Manchester are a bit more 'spread out'. I think the main problem (well not a problem as such) with Leeds now is shopping wise you could probably be done and dusted with most of it just by visiting the Trinity Centre!

It did have it's own TV channel on Freeview at one point, not sure if that still exists. Streets Of Leeds was more compulsive viewing than any Game Of Thrones nonsense

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Ah yes, I have been there. It's quite an interesting afternoon. But for me, Leeds is the gateway to the Dales - no other city in England can beat that !

I suspect some in Bradford might dispute that claim...

 

[yorksrob]

I suspect some in Bradford might dispute that claim...

Well, you have to change trains to get from Bradford into the Dales, whereas you don't from Leeds, but hey - I didn't write the timetable.

 

[AlterEgo]

Leeds is incredibly unlovely.

I looked up the population of Leeds and it surprised me; it’s three times as large as Newcastle. Newcastle is a much more interesting place and is set up for tourism.

Leeds really is a forgotten big city. Bit like their football team.

 

[DarloRich]

Leeds can seem a very insular place. It speaks it mind bluntly. It doesn't, always, seem to want off comers to visit and is happy to keep it that way. it seems suspicious of their fancy southern ways. It is a very interesting city and actually quite vibrant with a well defined theatre, culture and music scene along with a great variety in food and drinking, especially drinking!

York is much more tourist focused and much more welcoming, at least initially.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Leeds is a lovely place, had connections there since I met my first wife in 1981, christ that's 37 years ago Great pubs, reasonable restaurants, been to many a great gig there too. Leeds also attracts it's fair share of stag/hen parties at weekends too.

 

[thejuggler]

Newspapers have limited amount of space and they will promote cities placing adverts.

Most UK cities are however now identikits - same shops, restaurants, pubs in different locations!

However I only have to walk around Leeds on Saturday to hear accents of visitors from far and wide and dominated by those from the north east, so it does get plenty of non resident visitors - the Arena has also helped in that regard.

On any Saturday Leeds United are at home you are also guaranteed to hear Norweigan too as the Leeds United Norwegian fans descend on the city.

The time for York is this time of year - well before the racing and tourist season starts!

 

[DuncanS]

Love Leeds, a wonderful place to go - been many times for the cricket. Its a far nicer destination than Birmingham or Manchester for my needs.

 

[Iskra]

Leeds doesn’t promote itself as well as many other Northern cities, and it is a little lacking culturally- I say that as a leodensian. We lack history as it’s only come to prominence as a city relatively recently.

But there is still plenty of tourism but it’s centred around around nightlife, it’s a very popular drinking destination, in particular attracting a lot of stag/hen do’s as well as the populations of the many towns and cities around it on a Saturday night.

I don’t think it’s that insular- I was speaking to a lovely Dutch couple who’d come for the day the other Saturday, they loved how friendly everyone was, how apologetic we are about everything and the hospitality- they got a free round at the bar as they tried paying in Euros. I myself got a free round later in the day.

LUFC does have a big international pull and having travelled the country following them, the crowds at ER are incredibly diverse comparable with only those at the ‘biggest’ clubs.

The only hostility I’ve ever picked up at Leeds tends to be towards the monied Southern student population who conduct themselves like they own the place. Leeds has a huge (100,000+) student population and I know that from my own university days there are some parts of society who don’t like students at all for various reasons.

 

[radamfi]

Leeds is incredibly unlovely.

I looked up the population of Leeds and it surprised me; it’s three times as large as Newcastle.

Looking at populations within individual city boundaries isn't particularly meaningful when comparing British city sizes. Better to compare the West Yorkshire and Tyneside urban areas. West Yorkshire is still considerably bigger, but not three times as big.

 

[DarloRich]

Leeds doesn’t promote itself as well as many other Northern cities, and it is a little lacking culturally- I say that as a leodensian. We lack history as it’s only come to prominence as a city relatively recently.

Off the top of my head:

• Leeds Grand
• West Yorkshire Playhouse
• City Varieties
• Opera North
• Northern Ballet
• Carriageworks Theatre
• First Direct Arena ( for the more chavvy popular music artistes )
• Leeds Art Gallery ( lots of Moore/Hepworth sculptures
• Leeds Symphony Orchestra

not bad for culture!

Leeds was a market town in the middle ages but it is correct to say Leeds, like many Northern towns, grew during the industrial revolution as a centre for weaving and textile sales supported by the canal network. However the industrial revolution enhanced that textile trade and drove the development of the modern city. As that grew the trade moved away from textiles and into manufacturing.

Worth noting that manufacturing gave a home to Matthew Murray who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive in Holbeck.

More importantly he had worked in Darlington before Leeds

I don’t think it’s that insular

thats becuase you are from Yorkshire

 

[70014IronDuke]

...

Call me and this thread bonkers,

You, and this thread, are bonkers.
I hope you feel better now.

...
but I find it a tiny bit emotional about it, ... .

Just a tiny bit? Why not let yourself go and be done with it?

Well, Leeds is ney Dewsbury, Rotherham or Scunthorpe like, and the quicker it realises that, the better.

Now, being serious - you make an interesting point. In a way, the Brits in general are the inverted epitome of France - and Leeds sounds like it is the centre of inversion.

I mean, France and the French make an enormous artistic-cultrual fuss about everything they can. Nobody else can call sparkling wine Champagne etc, even if it tastes better. If a band called Les Qui had made a record called "Live in Lille" in 1969 - and it was accepted as being one of the best live albums of all time - they would have a full-size statue of the band in the city centre, there would be "Live in Lille" festival days, special medals struck for Les Qui and I don't know what.

AFAIK, Leeds University has got a small plaque on the wall in the student union - and the chances are that 96% of the students and 99% of the profs today haven't got a clue what it's all about. IS there any other celebration of The Who in Leeds?

France was desperate that the Meridian Line should go through Paris and sought all sorts of ways to get it there. The Brits didn't defend it as such - they just drew up maps that worked and won the day. But if you go to Greenwich Museum for the meiridian, there's just some simple gate thingy where people stand with their feet either side of the line and take selfies. The French would have built some fantasmagorical construction to celebrate getting the line through Paris, and charged mug tourists EUR 25 merely to stand in it.

But I digress. As DarloRich posted - Leeds had (via Darlington, and before that Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Matthew Murray. Goodness me, the man was a genius ..... and nobody knows him. HAd he been French, Chinese or most other nations of the world for that matter, every child by the age of 5 would have his stamps in their stamp book and be able to recite his name, five most important inventions, date of birth and burial site.

If you want Leeds to be more recognised - get yourselves a Matthew Murray monument and get it put on the Unewsco World Heritage list. It's a load of old branding nonsense that just costs a lot of money and doesn't really 'protect' so much as a brick n the proverbial wall - but it attracts scores of mug tourists who just love to tick the box and say "I've been there."

 

[Gemz91]

Leeds doesn't need out of towners visiting, keep Leeds for ourselves. As the famous picture from the altered sign at the old Internation Pool says "Welcome to Leeds, now f**k off",

If you want Leeds to be more recognised - get yourselves a Matthew Murray monument and get it put on the Unewsco World Heritage list. It's a load of old branding nonsense that just costs a lot of money and doesn't really 'protect' so much as a brick n the proverbial wall - but it attracts scores of mug tourists who just love to tick the box and say "I've been there."

He did used to have a school named after him and you can visit his grave in Holbeck, but I'd hardly call it a tourist attraction.

 

[J-2739]

You, and this thread, are bonkers.
I hope you feel better now.


Just a tiny bit? Why not let yourself go and be done with it?

Well, Leeds is ney Dewsbury, Rotherham or Scunthorpe like, and the quicker it realises that, the better.

Now, being serious - you make an interesting point. In a way, the Brits in general are the inverted epitome of France - and Leeds sounds like it is the centre of inversion.

I mean, France and the French make an enormous artistic-cultrual fuss about everything they can. Nobody else can call sparkling wine Champagne etc, even if it tastes better. If a band called Les Qui had made a record called "Live in Lille" in 1969 - and it was accepted as being one of the best live albums of all time - they would have a full-size statue of the band in the city centre, there would be "Live in Lille" festival days, special medals struck for Les Qui and I don't know what.

AFAIK, Leeds University has got a small plaque on the wall in the student union - and the chances are that 96% of the students and 99% of the profs today haven't got a clue what it's all about. IS there any other celebration of The Who in Leeds?

France was desperate that the Meridian Line should go through Paris and sought all sorts of ways to get it there. The Brits didn't defend it as such - they just drew up maps that worked and won the day. But if you go to Greenwich Museum for the meiridian, there's just some simple gate thingy where people stand with their feet either side of the line and take selfies. The French would have built some fantasmagorical construction to celebrate getting the line through Paris, and charged mug tourists EUR 25 merely to stand in it.

But I digress. As DarloRich posted - Leeds had (via Darlington, and before that Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Matthew Murray. Goodness me, the man was a genius ..... and nobody knows him. HAd he been French, Chinese or most other nations of the world for that matter, every child by the age of 5 would have his stamps in their stamp book and be able to recite his name, five most important inventions, date of birth and burial site.

If you want Leeds to be more recognised - get yourselves a Matthew Murray monument and get it put on the Unewsco World Heritage list. It's a load of old branding nonsense that just costs a lot of money and doesn't really 'protect' so much as a brick n the proverbial wall - but it attracts scores of mug tourists who just love to tick the box and say "I've been there."

Haha, cheers

Perhaps the problem is that their footy team is not on the top flight and internationally recognised as say, Man United. But also, much of Leeds just seems to be council house fla, like they took some of London and pasted it into the north. But it does seem like that elephant in the room compared to other cities, and not all of Leeds is an absolute hole. Some of the suburbs are quite grand.

 

[Busaholic]

Leeds is a lovely place, had connections there since I met my first wife in 1981, christ that's 37 years ago Great pubs, reasonable restaurants, been to many a great gig there too. Leeds also attracts it's fair share of stag/hen parties at weekends too.

I prefer Leeds to Manchester, Metrolink excepted. I've ordered my hard hat!

 

[fowler9]

I think I was a bit harsh further up the thread saying I wouldn't recommend foreign tourists to go to Leeds. It is a lovely place and the people are great. It is also a cracking night out and there is lots of stunning countryside just outside the city. On the down side it was a pain getting home after a night out visiting my friend and I did prefer visiting him when he moved to New Zealand but that is hardly a massive criticism of Leeds. Some of the best nights out of my life have been in Leeds including another mates stag do and passing through there on the way to yet another mates wedding in Skipton. Saw System Of A Down at the Leeds Festival from whence my signature line comes from. It's a great place.

 

[96tommy]

Living bang in the middle of Leeds and York for the first 19 years of my life and now most summers, I go to Leeds more than I do York. These days I only go to York for the football, everything else I am Leeds bound. The Trinity Centre has really boosted the city centre and it is now a stop for most bands and comedians when they go on tour. Great venues such as the new Leeds First Direct Arena, the fabulous O2 Academy and smaller spots such as the Brudenell Social Club are all fantastic.

 

[fowler9]

Living bang in the middle of Leeds and York for the first 19 years of my life and now most summers, I go to Leeds more than I do York. These days I only go to York for the football, everything else I am Leeds bound. The Trinity Centre has really boosted the city centre and it is now a stop for most bands and comedians when they go on tour. Great venues such as the new Leeds First Direct Arena, the fabulous O2 Academy and smaller spots such as the Brudenell Social Club are all fantastic.

Another mate lived on Brudenell Road, I am guessing the social club is nearby. Small world.

 

[yorkie]

A few months ago, I was looking at the tourist side of the Guardian, and all the major cities of the UK were mentioned as a tourist destination. All, apart from Leeds.....

They are correct. Leeds has many facilities but is not a tourist destination. I admit a tourist spending a week or so in Yorkshire would find plenty to see on a daytrip to Leeds but that doesn't change the fact. York is a tourist destination.

Perhaps the problem is that their footy team is not on the top flight and internationally recognised as say, Man United.

Nope. While some tourists may go to watch a football game, this has nothing to do with whether a place is a tourist destination or not.

... Some of the suburbs are ...

The suburbs aren't really relevant here. However what I will say is that with York, a tourist could stay in a B&B in somewhere like Holgate (eg Acomb Road) or Dringhouses (eg Tadcaster Road) and have an easy and reasonably pleasant walk into town (or a very very short bus or taxi ride in), and I don't think that is going to quite apply to Leeds in the same way.

 

[Bantamzen]

As someone who commutes to Leess everyday I can say with all honesty Leeds is a magnet for stag and hen parties from the North East as well as..... erm..... ummmmm..... Well that is about it. Even the best drinking places in Leeds are not in Leeds as shown by increasing numbers finding their way along the Ale Trails, Aire Valley beer festivals and even, dare I say it Bradford's blooming indie pub trade!!

 

[telstarbox]

I love Leeds, went to Uni in Bradford and visited Leeds a lot, also a good mate of mine lived in Leeds after graduation and once again I visited a lot, had a lot of good nights out. It is a great spot to take car and train trips out in to some stunning countryside. I would say though that without having lived near there or having a mate living in Headingley for a few years there is not a hell of a lot in Leeds that would make me want to tell foreign tourists or even friends from the UK that they have to go there.

Most of the above applies to Sheffield as well - a great place to live but not really on the tourism radar.

 

[Howardh]

Love Leeds, a wonderful place to go - been many times for the cricket. Its a far nicer destination than Birmingham or Manchester for my needs.

Not if you're a Lancashire fan!!
Leeds suffers from the fact that everyone seems to go through it (ie train) or round it (M62/M1) so never get to see it. Whereas Manchester anyone could go for a variety of reasons, theatre, cinema, drinking, museums, gay village, Chinatown etc etc - Leeds probably has the same extent but keeps quiet about it?? Could actually benefit from NOT being on the tourist radar in the way towns in the Low Countries are far better off that the tourist honeypots...thing Amsterdam/Haarlem; Bruges/Mechelen etc. I much prefer the latter *local* towns to the tourist ones.

 

[DarloRich]

Even the best drinking places in Leeds are not in Leeds as shown by increasing numbers finding their way along the Ale Trails, Aire Valley beer festivals and even, dare I say it Bradford's blooming indie pub trade!!

that simply isnt true.

 

[nlogax]

Leeds lives long in my memory from student times. Had my first curry there at (what was) Nafees and somehow lived to tell the tale, had my best curry there (obviously not at Nafees), spent a lot of time at The Chemic in Woodhouse and the Dry Dock, and I even stayed in The Queens twenty years before it was refurbished. If you're familiar with that hotel now you may have a vague idea of how grim it could be back then. I'm always happy visiting Leeds. It's changed a great deal over the last twenty five years but occasionally I find myself in parts of the city that really haven't moved on much (here's looking at you Hyde Park)..it's like time has stood still.