6 Te Travel Guide The new Leeds


Buoyed by a year-long festival of culture in 2023, Yorkshire’s economic powerhouse has become a hive of creativity, with shops, food and events that give a nod to the city’s industrial past while looking to the future. Words: Daniel Neilson


escaping from the roof of the County Arcade. Nearby, Leeds Civic Hall looks like it’s in the throes of an alien invasion, as electrical pulses flicker up the spires. In Playhouse Square, a huge slinky


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tumbles across shipping containers and disappears into the shadows. A wave of onlookers is trailing a particularly dazzling drum troupe and the streets are thrumming with wandering families, whose children are whooping at the displays for Light Night Leeds — an annual celebration of illuminated art installations. In the run-up to Leeds 2023, the city’s self-proclaimed year of culture, this highly creative assault on the senses feels like a small preview of the festivities that are to come. Politicians talk about Leeds as a


powerhouse, the engine that drives the economy of the North — and it’s long been so. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a major trading centre for wool and a significant mill town powering the Industrial Revolution. But today, Leeds is also an important cultural hub in the north of England. Northern Ballet and Opera North are both based here, and Channel 4 has made Leeds its new national headquarters. Yorkshire-born Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is also planning to open a National Poetry Centre in the city, describing Leeds as “future-minded, community-aware and committed to cultural regeneration”. Heading to Leeds Art Gallery, I find


Armitage’s words embodied in an exhibition that celebrates the artwork of the hugely diverse communities of Leeds while re-examining the biases of the current collection. Along with the Henry Moore Institute next door, the gallery is a lynchpin of the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle. Te tone here is set by the interior’s colourful geometric stairwell mural by Lothar Götz, installed in 2017 to give a contemporary edge to a Victorian institution. Although sometimes


overshadowed by Manchester and


espite the cold and the dark, the people of Leeds are out in force. A giant octopus appears to be


Liverpool, Leeds is a city that will challenge and wow those who make the effort to get to know it. “Tere’s a vibration about it,”


says local musician Jonny Firth, singer and songwriter for the band Knuckle, which formed in Leeds in 2013, and founder of Wild West Yorkshire Co clothing. “Back when I started, I felt like I was in the New York punk scene or London in the 1960s. Leeds is a hotbed of creativity and a younger generation is now creating their scene.” Grit and graft have always been


a part of the city’s soul. You can see it on the mural-wrapped streets of Leeds, where old warehouses and mills have been ingeniously converted into brewery taprooms and boutiques. And you can feel it in the grassroots gig venues and entrepreneurial restaurants that dish out some of the country’s best contemporary British food. Meanwhile, the area south of the


River Aire is being developed to double the size of central Leeds over the next decade, with new shops, apartments and a large park. As Leeds 2023 takes hold, the creative vibrations are palpable.


SEE & DO Royal Armouries Centrepiece of the rejuvenated Leeds Dock, this museum is almost overwhelming in its scale. It holds a large part of the national collection of arms and armour, consisting of more than 4,500 items including battle suits made for Henry VIII and elephant chainmail. Te exhibitions cleverly contextualise war and weaponry in culture, including as film props and in art, and holds child- friendly combat demonstrations. It’s free to enter. royalarmouries.org


Leeds Dock and Water Taxi Running off the River Aire, Leeds’ busiest dock area now houses offices, restaurants and the excellent North Star Coffee Shop. Grab a coffee made with beans roasted in the city and find a riverside perch. Afterwards, jump in the yellow water taxi that pootles between the dock and Granary Wharf. leedsdock.com


Water taxi ferries residents and visitors between Leeds dock and Granary Wharf. PHOTOGRAPH: KYM GRIMSHAW


Leeds Art Gallery Te city-centre art gallery opened in 1888 and was purpose-built to house the collection of the Leeds Fine Art Society. Among the collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, sculpture is an important focus and the gallery forms part of the internationally significant Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle. Yorkshire-born sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth feature alongside Auguste Rodin and Antony Gormley. Te gallery’s Tiled Cafe is a beautiful, little-known spot. museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk


The Tetley Formerly the headquarters of the Tetley Brewery, this art deco, redbrick building has been repurposed as a contemporary art gallery, bar and restaurant. Participation is a central facet of the creative spaces. Tere’s an outdoor Makers Lab for families, and a range of workshops and courses. Round off an afternoon here with a pint or a Sunday roast. thetetley.org


Kirkstall Abbey Hop on a bus from the city centre and take the half-hour ride out to Kirkstall Abbey, a crumbling riverside relic founded by Cistercian monks more than 800 years ago. Tere’s a new audio guide linked to QR codes at key points around the site, delving into the monastery’s history. Visitors can take a stroll through the riverside grounds, then delve into the Abbey House Museum of social history across the road. Regular events include a popular makers’ market between March and November. yorkshire.com


The grounds of Harewood House PHOTOGRAPH: KYM GRIMSHAW


Victoria Quarter shopping arcade PHOTOGRAPH: KYM GRIMSHAW


Whitelock’s Ale House, the oldest pub in Leeds PHOTOGRAPH: KYM GRIMSHAW


First published in the April 2023 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).


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