Memorials of the Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851 was an extraordinary phenomenon. Such was its appeal that hordes of folk from all over the country and from all classes…
The Omnivorous Omnibus
Travel by bus, or “omnibus”, could be a hair-raising business in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Collisions occurred, axles broke, wheels came off, and horses fainted or bolted.…
Leeds Leylands’ Life
The Leylands has long since vanished as a distinct area of north Leeds, but it was once a densely-populated and vibrant district, lent extra colour by an influx of Jewish…
Wild Woodhouse Moor
Before it became a landscaped park, Leeds’s Woodhouse Moor was a wild, rough stretch of common land on the town’s North-Western fringe, scarred by disused quarries and coal-pits, bordered by…
Leeds Welcomes Suffragists
This year marks the centenary of women being granted the parliamentary vote in 1918 (though it was for the over-thirties only at first!). We may expect the media to dwell…
The Leeds Mummy
Leeds is an unlikely place to find a three-thousand year old Egyptian mummy. But the coffin containing the embalmed remains of Nesyamun, a priest of the ancient god Amun, was…
The Cardigan Arms
The Cardigan Arms, on Kirkstall Road, is the last of Tetley’s once much-vaunted Victorian “Big Three” Burley pubs to still be in business. Along with the Rising Sun (now derelict)…
A North Street Curio
The North Street area of Leeds is a bit of an inner city nowhere-land these days. Few people live there, and a recent visit one afternoon finds it largely bereft…
The People’s Cafe
I am not the first idler on his way into the Adelphi pub to notice that Leeds Bridge House bears a striking resemblance to the (rather more famous!) Flatiron Building…