Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England.
It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district 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. Leeds expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries by becoming a major production and trading centre. It was awarded a city charter in 1893 by Queen Victoria.
Getting to Leeds
- 01Leeds Bradford Airport
- 02Leeds Railway Station
Worth seeing
= = South across the river from The Call the area around Leeds Dock has some interesting development of cafés, restaurants, shops and apartments as wells as the Royal Armouries Museum and Salem Chapel. = = Home to the Town Hall, the fantastic Art Gallery, Henry Moore Institute and Millennium Square, this grand corner of the city is where many of the main tourist draws are to be found.
Things to do
There are four theatres in central Leeds providing a range of entertainment including opera, amateur dramatic and contemporary performance art. Leeds is a great place to see up-and-coming live music talent, and has seen the formation of successful bands such as Corinne Bailey Rae, Kaiser Chiefs and Sunshine Underground. The city is home to many live performances from big-name stars, mostly at outdoor concerts.
- 01The White Rose Way
Take several days, or spread each leg over a number of day walks to complete the 104 miles of the White Rose Way from Leeds to Scarborough Watch cricket at Yorkshire Cricket Ground in Headingley.
Where to eat
There are many restaurants in central Leeds that everyone can find something to their taste and budget. There are all the usual chains (many of which have several branches in the city) and a huge variety of one-off places, including many award-winners.
Getting around Leeds the local way
- Get inFerries sail overnight from Rotterdam (Netherlands) to Kingston upon Hull.
- Get inHull is an hour by train or car from Leeds, and the ferry port is 3 miles east of Hull city centre: buses run from there to the railway station.
- Go nextLeeds is a major transport hub, so many outlying attractions can be done as day trips.
From Wikivoyage: Leeds, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.