Leeds is a city of the county of the Yorkshire of the West, in the North of the England on the river Aire . Leeds off belongs to a metropolitan area baptized City Leeds .

According to the census 2001 the urban part of the city comprises 429.242 inhabitants and agglomeration 716.513 (the limits of the agglomeration however include detached zones of the city itself). The urban Aire of Leeds counts 1.880.000 inhabitants (estimate 2005).

An inhabitant is called locally a loiner , although this term is little utilisé.
Often the sporting clubs like to use the leodensian terms and leodiensian, of imaginary Latin inspiration.

History

The city was in the beginning an agricultural market with the Middle Ages, in 1207 it signed its first charte.
Under the Tudors it was mainly a wool market which made deal with all the Europe via the estuary of Humber, representing even at a time half of exports anglaises.
The known city very a demographic strong growth: it passed from 10.000 inhabitant in 1751 to 172.000 in 1851. The industrial growth of the city was supported by the opening of the channel of Liverpool in Leeds in 1816 and of the train in 1848.

The very first film was made in the city, by Louis the Prince in 1888.

The Newsam temple and the ruins of the abbey of Kirstall which date from the 12th century find in the suburbs of the city.

Industry and economy

The city is located at the crossing of the highways M1 and M62, an international airport the dessert.
These circumstances made of it a major center in the distribution, the bank and the finance.
As the remainder of the North of England, Leeds suffered from the recession of the the Seventies and 80 Indeed, the mines of the area closed gradually: L `mining industry having been the economic sector most important, and that since siècles.
In the the Nineties it attracted many centers of calls, in particular because of the " fiabilité" accent of the Yorkshire, this seems to be dried up with the delocalization of this employment towards places like Bangalore. Now, the economy is strong and still growing, and the trade became one of the most important parts of the economy of the city.

Sport

The city is an important sporting center: the Leeds Rhinos are a sure value of the English championship of Rugby to XIII, while the Leeds Carnegie (in the past Leeds Tykes) practice the Rugby with XV. The club of Football of the Leeds United FC , in spite of a glorious history recently left the elite following financial problems (2004). The city counts also one of the largest English clubs of Cricket, the Yorkshire CCC.

Music

Although less prolific than its neighbors Manchester, Liverpool or even Sheffield, Leeds all the same saw hatching some famous groups: The Kaiser Chiefs, The Mekons, Gang off Furnace , Sisters off Mercy , Software Concealment , New Order , The wedding Present, Chumbawumba and Cud. Also Corinne Bailey Rae was born in Leeds.

Tourism

Leeds was recently elected " favorite city of the Kingdom-Uni" by the magazine “Cop Nast Traveller.” The city is noted for its cultural offer, its stores, its night life and the architecture of the XIXe century. The airport Leeds Bradford serves several European destinations, including Paris, Toulouse, Nice, Bergerac and Chambéry.

Culture, museums and art

Leeds has full with museums, such as Royal Armories, Leeds City Art Gallery (with the best selection of British art of the XXe century apart from London), Thackery Medical Museum and the Institute of Henry Moore. The city is known moreover for the theater, and the most famous theaters are West Yorkshire Playhouse, Grand Theater (North Opera, one of the most famous groups operatic of the country, are based here) and The City Varieties.

Stores of Leeds

Today Leeds is perhaps known initially like fantastic destination to make races. The center town has a great pedestrian precinct and one can find more than thousand stores in a rather compact district. Briggate is most main street of center town, where all the British department stores are. Corn Exchange has several shops, and the beautiful galleries victoriennes shelter many the interesting stores. The Victoria Quarter is the most exclusive district to make races downtown. That includes/understands of the old buildings and two great spectacular passages which contain more than 70 stores such as Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood, Nicholas Deakin, Space NK, Diesel, etc And, of course, Harvey Nichols has a very popular department store in the district!

Education

Leeds has two universities, University off Leeds with 31.500 students full-time (52 000 of in progress temporary) and Leeds Metropolitan University with approximately 26.000.

External links

  • Leeds City Council Leeds City (Metropolitan) Council.
  • Leeds City Guides The Official Leeds City Guide.
  • “Leeds, Live it, Coils it” Official city website, for visitors, businesses, students and resident.

Simple: Leeds

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