Blog City Leeds The Heart of Yorkshire

Leeds was one of the last great British cities to arrive on the scene. At the writing of the Domesday Book a millennia ago a mere two hundred people were estimated to live on the lands now occupied by the city. In the following centuries growth remained slow, retarded by the logic of medieval settlement whereby towns grew up around castles and readily defensible places and not the other way around. In this respect West Yorkshire was already well served by castles at nearby Pontrefact and Wakefield. Over the succeeding centuries a town did gradually grow in an area roughly bounded by Kirkgate, Briggate and the River Aire. By the time of the English Civil War Leeds was evidently large enough to merit a garrison, and as a Royalist stronghold (the town's motto, Pro Rege et Lege, means 'For King and the law') it was eventually stormed by Parliamentarian forces. All this time the monks at the Kirkstall Monastery just upriver had quietly been drawing income from the cultivation of sheep and their wool. Though the Monks were dispossesed of their abbey during the dissolution of the monasteries, the wool and cloth trade they began around Leeds continued to accelerate in volume and intensity until by the 18th Century Leeds had become a renowned centre for the trade and export of this valuable resource. The town was therefore well placed to take advantage of the new technologies revolutionizing the textiles industry, the breahtaking Cloth Hall a symbol of the wealth accumulated by this burgeoning industry. The construction of a network of canals, and later railways, knitted the Midlands together and caused the population of to explode. The city's industry contributed massively to ultimate victory in both World Wars. But the tragedy of the Great War was felt in every home when Pals' Battalions raised in Leeds were scythed down by machine guns on the Somme. As the 20th Century wore on Leeds could not avoid the deindustrialization that affected most British cities, but active and energetic leadership from government and private enterprise have allowed the city to make the difficult transition to a service economy from a manufacturing-based one. Today Leeds is one of the economic engines of the British Isles with a growing population and rising international profile. For the purposes of this essay it is worth noting that large tracts of the city were radically redesigned during the Inter-War period. Streets were widened, slums cleared, alleys abolished. This made finding some spots quite difficult and some of these photos represent my best guesses at where the original was taken. The Then Photos are reproduced courtesy of, Leodis, Leeds' Online Photographic Archive. I took the Now photos in March 2015.

Then and Now Photos