Leeds

Sister cities

• Louisville
• Colombo
• Brno
• Siegen
• Dortmund
• Lille
• Brașov

History

Leeds developed as a market town in the Middle Ages, as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution, it became a co-ordination centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, and white broadcloth was traded at its White Cloth Hall. Leeds handled one-sixth of England's export trade in 1770. Growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the creation of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 (with major additional works in the 18th century), and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816. In the late Georgian era, William Lupton was one of a number of central Leeds landowners, some of whom, like him, were also textile manufacturers. At the time of his death in 1828, Lupton occupied the enclosed fields of the manor of Leeds, his estate including a mill, reservoir, substantial house and outbuildings. Mechanical engineering, initially supplying tools and machinery for the textile sector, rapidly became a diverse industry. The railway network constructed around Leeds, starting with the Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834, provided improved communications with national markets and, significantly for its development, an east–west connection with Manchester and the ports of Liverpool and Hull giving improved access to international markets. Alongside technological advances and industrial expansion, Leeds retained an interest in trading in agricultural commodities, with the Corn Exchange opening in 1864. Marshall's Mill was one of the first of many factories constructed in Leeds from around 1790 when the most significant were woollen finishing and flax mills. Manufacturing diversified by 1914 to printing, engineering, chemicals and clothing manufacture. Decline in manufacturing during the 1930s was temporarily reversed by a switch to producing military…

Geography

At (53.799°, −1.549°), and north-northwest of central London, central Leeds is located on the River Aire in a narrow section of the Aire Valley in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. The city centre lies at about above sea level while the district ranges from in the far west on the slopes of Ilkley Moor to about where the rivers Aire and Wharfe cross the eastern boundary. The centre of Leeds is part of a continuously built-up area extending to Pudsey, Bramley, Horsforth, Alwoodley, Seacroft, Middleton and Morley. Leeds has the second highest population of any local authority district in the UK (after Birmingham), and the second greatest area of any English metropolitan district (after Doncaster), extending from east to west, and from north to south. The northern boundary follows the River Wharfe for several miles but crosses the river to include the part of Otley which lies north of the river. Over 60% of the Leeds district is green belt land and the city centre is less than twenty miles () from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which has some of the most spectacular scenery and countryside in the UK. Inner and southern areas of Leeds lie on a layer of coal measure sandstones. To the north parts are built on older sandstone and gritstones and to the east it extends into the magnesian limestone belt. The land use in the central areas of Leeds is overwhelmingly urban. Attempts to define the exact geographic meaning of Leeds lead to a variety of concepts of its extent, varying by context include the area of the city centre, the urban sprawl, the administrative boundaries, and the functional region.{{blockquote|Leeds is much more a generalised concept place name in inverted commas, it is the city, but it is also the commuter villages and the region as well.…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,751
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,409
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,514
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,689
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,066
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,654
• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  9,583
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,556

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2025-12-03
  0 km ESE of Carnforth, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2023-06-28
  2 km SE of Cheadle, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2020-01-23
  1 km NW of Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2014-10-28
  2 km NNE of Hucknall, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2011-01-03
  5 km S of Masham, United Kingdom
• M 3 — 2009-04-11
  5 km ENE of Goxhill, United Kingdom