Things to do in Leeds

Food · City centre, east of Briggate

The largest covered market in Europe — a 1904 hall of ironwork and dragons over fishmongers, butchers, spice stalls and a food court of small independent kitchens.

Local tip: Michael Marks opened his Penny Bazaar here in 1884 and there is a plaque marking the spot, which most shoppers walk past daily. Go before noon for the market proper, or after three for the traders clearing fresh stock at a fraction of the price.

Landmark · Between Briggate and Vicar Lane

Frank Matcham's 1900 arcades — mosaic floors, gilded ironwork and the largest stained-glass window in Britain, roofed over the old Queen Victoria Street in 1990.

Local tip: You do not have to shop to walk it, and most people never look up. Cross into the Grand Arcade and the Thornton's Arcade next door — they are older, scruffier and far more interesting than the polished one everyone photographs.

Nature · Four miles north-east of the centre

Around 700 acres of lakes, woodland and formal gardens — one of the largest city parks in Europe — with the Tropical World glasshouses at one edge.

Local tip: Louis Le Prince shot the Roundhay Garden Scene here in 1888, the oldest surviving film in existence, two years before he vanished from a train in France and was never found. The house is gone but the site is marked, and almost nobody who picnics here knows cinema started on that lawn.

Nightlife · The Calls, south of the centre

A short street of basement bars and record-shop-sized venues under the railway arches, with Cuthbert Brodrick's domed 1864 Corn Exchange at the top of it.

Local tip: Call Lane is where everyone goes and Belgrave and Merrion Street are where people who live here actually go. The Corn Exchange is a working building full of independent shops on weekdays, which is when to see the roof properly.

Culture · Kirkstall, three miles north-west along the Aire

One of the most complete Cistercian ruins in Britain, founded in 1152, standing free to enter in a riverside park with a museum in the old gatehouse.

Local tip: There is a large monthly market in the abbey grounds and the towpath alongside runs all the way into the city centre — walk or cycle in from here rather than driving, and you get the whole Aire valley on the way.

Culture · Hyde Park, near the universities

A 1914 cinema that never stopped showing films — and one of the last in the world still lit by gas, restored and reopened in 2023.

Local tip: The gas lamps are lit for evening screenings and the programme is genuinely good rather than nostalgic. It is a five-minute walk from Woodhouse Moor and most people who move to Leeds never find it.