Day 01
Historic Leeds Landmarks and Victorian Arcades
- We will start this walking tour at Leeds Town Hall and head to Leeds City Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute.
- Moving ahead, we will walk through some of the city's famous shopping arcades, including Thornton's, the first to be built in 1877. Then we will reach Briggate, the famous shopping street where the city started as a small town by a bridge on the River Aire in the early 1200s. Across this pedestrianised street, we enter the Victorian Arcades, said to be some of the finest in Britain and lined with upmarket shops set within sumptuous architecture.
- Out on the other side and across Vicar Lane, we have Kirkgate Markets. Indoors and outdoors, these are said to make up the largest European market. It is here that Michael Marks of Marks and Spencer started his business. On his stall, he had a sign: "Don't ask the price: it's a penny".
- From the open market at the back, we will be able to see the performing arts quarter, including the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Northern Ballet. Also here is the enormous Quarry House, the headquarters of the National Health Service, nicknamed "the Kremlin".
- Next, we visit the Leeds Corn Exchange, where wheat was once bought and sold. It has a rare oval-shaped dome and is now a boutique shopping centre, another place to shelter from sometimes troublesome Yorkshire weather. We will be close to an area named the Calls, a district full of bars and clubs that comes to life at night. On the other side of this small quarter is Leeds Bridge, which has existed since the 1200s.
- After crossing the bridge, we will have the option of choosing a direction. On one side, we have the famous Tetley Brewery and the Royal Armouries, a national museum of armour and weapons moved here from the Tower of London in the 1990s. On the other side, we will have the opportunity to walk along the River Aire to Holbeck, an old industrial quarter now restored with some of the city's finest industrial architecture, including Temple Works, which has what was once the largest room in the world.
