Leeds tourist information
| Climate
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Jul
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| Daily highs (°C)
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7 |
7 |
9 |
12 |
16 |
18 |
21 |
21 |
17 |
13 |
9 |
7
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| Nightly lows (°C)
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2 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
10 |
7 |
4 |
3
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| Precipitation (mm)
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87 |
64 |
68 |
63 |
56 |
67 |
51 |
64 |
64 |
74 |
78 |
92
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See the 5 day forecast for Leeds at the
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Leeds (derived from the Celtic area Leodis) was voted UK's favourite city in Condé Nast's Readers' Traveller Awards 2003. It was a market town that became an industrial powerhouse and grew and developed into a service-based city economy with an attractive, smart centre.
Roman Leeds was an important strategic fort, ford and small settlement on the York-Chester road. Recorded in the Domesday book of 1086, it became a thriving market town in the Middle Ages, gaining its town charter from the King in 1207. The medieval city was based around Briggate, Kirkgate, Swinegate and The Calls. (The ending "-gate" came from the old Norse for 'street'.) It was a trading centre in the West Riding of Yorkshire for cloth and wool; from Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield to the port of Hull, east along the river Aire and the 1699 Aire & Calder Navigation canal. Whilst the town grew rapidly (population over 30,000 in the eighteenth century, when the gracious Georgian West End was built), it was for a long time economically overshadowed by nearby York.
The industrial revolution brought about massive change as it became a huge manufacturing centre of wool and textiles and a major trading centre (with over half the country's export passing through for a period). Leeds became known as the city of a thousand trades and by the middle of the nineteenth century the population had passed 200,000. Bolstered by the 1816 Leeds-Liverpool Canal and the Leeds-Selby railway in 1835 (The Middleton Railway was the world's first commercial railway, 1758 Railway Act, from The Middleton colliery to coal-staithes (sidings) at Meadow Lane just south of Leeds Bridge), the city continued to grow and prosper rapidly, with grandiose architectural manifestations of the Victorian city's wealth built in abundance, and expanding affluent suburbs to the north. Leeds University was created around the 1880s, bringing an intellectual dimension, and Leeds was served by one of the world's most extensive tram systems (sadly later replaced by buses). Leeds Bridge was the location of the world's first moving images, filmed in 1888 by Frenchman Louis le Prince (who later disappeared in mysterious circumstances), and Leeds was the first city in the world to have a modern traffic light system, the first of which were situated at the junction of Park Row and Bond Street. Leeds was granted city status in 1893.
By the twentieth century, Leeds's population was approaching 500,000. Whilst Leeds suffered far less than many other large UK cities from the WWII blitz, it was affected by the mass industrial decline of the country in the post-war period, and became characterised by unemployment and huge council estates. Versatility enabled it to survive and it began to prosper in the 1980s, when renovation of the centre and waterfront, and demolition of some of the worst estates began. By the 1990s the city was reborn with wealth based on service industries and commerce, the financial and legal centres making it the most important city in the UK in these areas outside London. With the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Royal Armouries, restoration of the Victoria Quarter and Corn Exchange, the clean up of major historical buildings, the new Harvey Nichols store and new bars, shops and restaurants - all in the mid 90s, the city was truly on the move. The most recent Census (2001) shows Leeds with a population of just over 715,000.
Today, Leeds is still one of the most cosmopolitan, fast-growing, innovative and prosperous cities in the UK with developments springing up by the week and new bars, boutiques, clubs and restaurants seemingly more often, the two universities adding to the vibrancy, and international eateries and shops. Today it is one of the most multicultural cities in the country, with people of many different origins almost totally in harmony.
Leeds Visitor Centre is at The Arcade, Leeds City Station.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Leeds
