Leeds Club

The Leeds Library is the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in the UK. It was founded in 1768, following an advertisement placed in the Leeds Intelligencer earlier that year. The first secretary was Joseph Priestley. In 1779, James Boswell wrote, "In Leeds, where one would not expect it, there is a very good public library, where strangers are treated with great civility."The library moved twice before settling in the purpose built premises on Commercial Street, Leeds on 4 July 1808. This building is a grade II* listed Greek Revival building by Thomas Johnson with major 1880-81 extension to the rear by Thomas Ambler. As of June 2020 the library has over 1000 members who pay an annual subscription. The library is estimated to have a stock of over 140 000 titles with 1,500 new books being added annually. It also contains more modern items such as audiobooks and DVDs. The library's extensive collection is frequently used by researchers who are not members. The library holdings also incorporate the stock of the short lived Leeds Foreign Library. The Foreign Library was founded in 1778 and incorporated into the Leeds Library in 1814. The library is the setting for much of Frances Brody's 2014 novel Death of an Avid Reader.

Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is governed by a metropolitan borough named after the city, which is the third most populous city in the United Kingdom. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production centre, including of carbonated water where it was invented in the 1760s, and trading centre (mainly with wool) for the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a major mill town during the Industrial Revolution. It was also known for its flax industry, iron foundries, engineering and printing, as well as shopping, with several surviving Victorian era arcades, such as Kirkgate Market. City status was awarded in 1893, and a populous urban centre formed in the following century which absorbed surrounding villages and overtook the population of nearby York.Leeds is about halfway between London and Edinburgh and has multiple motorway links; the M1, M62 and A1(M). The city's railway station is, alongside Manchester Piccadilly, the busiest of its kind in Northern England. It is the county's largest settlement with a population of 536,280, while the larger City of Leeds district has a population of 812,000 (2021 census). The city is part of the fourth-largest built-up area by population in the United Kingdom, West Yorkshire Built-up Area, with a 2011 census population of 1.7 million.

Trinity Leeds is a shopping and leisure centre in the city centre of Leeds, England, named after the adjacent 18th-century Holy Trinity Church. Developed by Land Securities and designed by Chapman Taylor, it opened on 21 March 2013, with over 130,000 recorded visitors on opening day.The development is in two parts: Trinity East, a new build development on the site of the former Trinity and Burton Arcades, and Trinity West, the redeveloped Leeds Shopping Plaza. The development has a catchment of 5.5 million people offering a spend of £1.93 billion annually. It has lifted Leeds from seventh to fourth in the CACI UK retail rankings and has created over 3000 jobs. The combined scheme has 93,000 m2 (1,000,000 sq ft) of retail floor space for 120 stores anchored by the flagship Marks & Spencer and Topshop/Topman stores. These units existed as standalone stores and have been expanded and remodelled into Trinity Leeds. The shopping centre has a concept food area in named Trinity Kitchen, hosting both permanent tenants and rotating "pop-up" vendors. Everyman Cinemas opened a 3,700 m2 (40,000 sq ft) four screen art-house cinema in the centre, its first premises in the north of England.

Pinnacle (formerly West Riding House) is an 80-metre (260 ft) and 20 storey tall office building in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which was completed in 1973. It was the tallest building in the city until 2005 with the construction of Bridgewater Place. There are retail units on the ground floor of the building; it is located in the centre of the shopping district of the city. It was internally renovated in the early 2000s followed by a refurbishment of the lower floor retail space. Leeds City Council were originally the main tenants in the building but have since vacated their offices there. The building has a small multi-storey car park off Upper Basinghall Street to the rear. Until the 2000s the building stood out on the Leeds skyline, but the construction of taller buildings (including ones on higher ground than Pinnacle) have lessened its prominence. There is also a smaller West Riding House opposite Forster Square railway station in neighbouring Bradford. Albion Zion Chapel, later St. James' Chapel, was formerly at this location: see List of places of worship in the City of Leeds#City Centre 3.

Commercial Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is 0.2 miles (0.32 km) long.

The Headrow is an avenue in Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of the most important thoroughfares in central Leeds, hosting many of the city's civic and cultural buildings, including Leeds Town Hall, Leeds Central Library, Leeds Art Gallery, The Henry Moore Institute, and The Light. Some of the largest retail floorplates in the city are on The Headrow, particularly between Park Row and Briggate, where major chains have opened flagship stores. The Headrow is part of a longer axis that includes Westgate, Eastgate, and Quarry Hill. The Headrow forms a spine across the city centre between Westgate and Eastgate and is approximately ½ mile (700 m) long. It was widened between 1928 and 1932 in a redevelopment designed by architect Reginald Blomfield, primarily as a way of improving traffic flow through city centre. The area has an advisory speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h). The section between Park Row and Briggate is reserved for buses and taxis and cars/motorcycles are not permitted to use it between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Whitelock's Ale House is a pub in the city centre of Leeds, in England. The pub lies on Turk's Head Yard, on a narrow burgage plot off Briggate. The building it occupies was constructed in about 1700 as a row of cottages, and the easternmost of these was licensed as the Turk's Head pub in 1715. John Lupton Whitelock became the landlord in 1867, and in the 1880s he purchased the cottage, renaming the pub as Whitelock's First City Luncheon Bar.In 1895, John's son, William Henry Whitelock, commissioned Waite & Sons to remodel the pub. It was extended into the next cottage, a new kitchen was created, and the whole was redecorated with a scheme which largely survives. As part of the refurbishment, electric lighting and an electric clock were installed, supposedly the first building in the city to have these features. The pub was later further extended, to encompass the whole terrace of cottages.In the early 20th century, the landlord was Lupton Whitelock, a well known flautist, and under his management, the pub became popular with musicians, other artists, journalists and academics. Among its regulars was John Betjeman, who described as "the very heart of Leeds". Other regulars included Peter O'Toole, Len Hutton and Keith Waterhouse. Prince George once held a party in a curtained-off area of the pub. The pub was sold by the Whitelocks to Scottish Brewers in 1944. It was Grade II listed in 1963, and in 2022, it was upgraded to grade II*. It is also listed on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. In 2015, the western part of the pub, which had formerly been a function room, was converted into a separate pub, named The Turks Head.The building is built of brick, with stone dressings. It is mostly two storeys in height, with a cellar, although the western part is three storeys high. Some of the windows contain stained glass, mostly advertising the pub, although one above a doorway advertises an engraving business which was formerly based upstairs. In the main bar, part of which was formerly curtained off as a dining room, the walls are covered in mirrors and panelling. There are long bench seats, separated by baffles to form booths. The bar takes up half the rear wall, and has a tiled front, and a copper and marble top. The first floor former dining room also has panelling and mirrors, and retains a Victorian fireplace.

The Leeds City Varieties is a Grade II* listed music hall in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

Holy Trinity Church lies on Boar Lane in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church in the Parish of Leeds St George in the Diocese of Leeds. It was built in 1722–7, though its steeple dates from 1839. Holy Trinity is in the evangelical church tradition of the Church of England.

Briggate is a pedestrianised principal shopping street in Leeds city centre, England. Historically it was the main street, leading north from Leeds Bridge, and housed markets, merchant's houses and other business premises. It contains many historic buildings, including the oldest in the city, and others from the 19th and early-20th century, including two theatres. It is noted for the yards between some older buildings with alleyways giving access and Victorian shopping arcades, which were restored in late 20th century. The street was pedestrianised in the late-20th century.

The battle of Leeds took place during the First English Civil War on 23 January 1643, when a Parliamentarian force attacked the Royalist garrison of Leeds, Yorkshire. The attack was partly dictated by the need to maintain local support for the Parliamentarian cause; the Earl of Newcastle had recently shifted the balance of power in Yorkshire in the Royalists' favour with the addition of his 8,000-strong army, and sent one of his commanders, Sir William Savile to capture Leeds. The West Riding of Yorkshire relied on the cloth trade, and Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax sent his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax to bolster the defences of nearby Bradford, before agreeing to his request to attack Leeds. Savile, who had command of around 2,000 men in Leeds, built a trench on the western edge of Leeds, destroyed one bridge on the approach to the town and heavily fortified another. Fairfax attacked during a heavy snowstorm, bringing an army of roughly 3,000 men to attack Leeds in three places. The battle lasted around two hours before the Parliamentarians secured the town, and captured about 500 prisoners. Fairfax lost around 20 men during the attack, while the Royalists suffered roughly double as many fatalities.

The St John's Centre is an indoor shopping centre in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The centre is surrounded by The Headrow to the south, Albion Street to the west and Merrion Street to the north. The centre makes up the central shopping centre to a row of three, that run up through the northern side of Leeds city centre, The Core to the south and the Merrion Centre to the north. The centre has an annual footfall of ten million. Dortmund Square lies to the front of the centre. In early 2005 the centre was refurbished.