- world's biggest cycling race
- brought a host of cultural and sporting events to Leeds during the run up, encouraging more interaction throughout the city with
- took place on Sat 5th July 2014
- 18 teams, 198 riders
- Showed the spectators what "God's own county" is all about
First ever moving picture filmed in Leeds
- in October 1888, by french inventor Louis Le Prince
- 'The Roundhay Garden Scene'
- 2 years later whilst on a train through France, on his way to America to publicly exhibit his work he completely disappeared?! Deemed the 'forgotten inventor of moving pictures'
Marks & Spencers established in Kirkgate Market
M&S traces its history back to 1884 when Michael Marks, a Russian-born Polish refugee, set up a stall at Leeds Kirkgate Market. Thomas Spencer joined him in 1894 to create Marks & Spencer.
LCA, Leigh Francis / Keith Lemon
- Leigh Francis (now known by his stage name - Keith Lemon) actually studied at Leeds College of Art once upon a time! One of his first comedic characters was called 'Avid Merrion' - it was thought this was after the Merrion shopping centre in Leeds but its not.. Francis' former lecturer at LCA was called Laimonis Mierins and this is were his inspiration came from.
Looking at Mierins work my initial idea was to combine the style of his work with a large, bold centre piece of Lemons face!
Festival of Britain in Leeds, 1951
- took place in Hyde Park / Woodhouse Moore
- one of the stops for the festival, also visited Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham.
- was designed to promote Britain and show signs of post-war recovery (look into the war propaganda - reverse this to post-war propaganda showing how we've grown)
- the 'Land Travelling Exhibition' was in Leeds through June/July - was within a 35,000 square foot marquee, holding 5,000 exhibits which reflected the growth of Britain over the ages and more specifically after the war - how the development of technology and discovery was starting to shape the future.
- "The Festival of Britain of 1951 gave the British public a chance to revive a nation still haunted by war. Held 100 years after the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival was a celebration of Britain’s progress."Further research from - http://leeds.festivalofbritain.woodhousemoor.com/191-2/
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| The main entrance to the Exhibition on Woodhouse Moor. Searchlights pierce the sky. |
It was opened by the Princess Royal (the sister of George VI), accompanied by the Lord Mayor and other civic dignitaries.
- reflection of how celebratory the event was, a true milestone to British history and moving forward as a united society.
The Exhibition was held on Monument Moor in a canvas marquee fronted by an impressive façade of steel and plastic upon which were mounted 21 red, white and blue searchlights directed at the sky. The marquee covered 35,000 square feet and housed 5,000 exhibits worth £250,000. 10 lorries had to make 100 trips to bring the Exhibition from Manchester to Leeds. In the entrance foyer, there was a grouping, 12 feet high, of three plaster statues by Fiore de Henriquez entitled “The Skill of the British People” representing Industry, Communications and Effort. From the entrance foyer, you proceeded along the Corridor of Time to a domed Arena.
People walking along the Corridor heard a recording of actor Valentine Dyall telling of British achievement and history. Suspended from the Corridor’s ceiling were 16 motor-driven swinging pendulums, each containing an illuminated display of Britain’s progress through the ages. The walls of the Corridor were mirrored, making it seem endless. Once you reached the domed Arena, you could choose to enter sections devoted to:
People walking along the Corridor heard a recording of actor Valentine Dyall telling of British achievement and history. Suspended from the Corridor’s ceiling were 16 motor-driven swinging pendulums, each containing an illuminated display of Britain’s progress through the ages. The walls of the Corridor were mirrored, making it seem endless. Once you reached the domed Arena, you could choose to enter sections devoted to:
- Discovery and Design
- People at Home
- People at Play
- People at Work
- People Travel.
The People at Play section included a fully automatic miniature theatre, and a fashion theatre in which plays were performed by mannequins using mime.
The army exhibition included demonstrations of tanks being loaded onto tank transporters.
The RAF exhibition included a Lancaster bomber and a Vampire jet.
Across Rampart Road on Low Moor, there was a funfair on the site on which the Woodhouse Feast has been held for many years.
The Exhibition received 144,844 visitors, which was more than any of the other three cities it visited. The Festival organisers were unsurprised as they considered the Leeds site to be the best of the four. The Festival’s Director-General, Gerald Barry, in a speech congratulating the Council on its choice of site, and the work that had been done to beautify it, said that the city would always have the site as a memorial to the time that Leeds had hosted the Land Travelling Exhibition.
- vintage colour palette
- constructivist style
- same logo appears consistently
- Coloured film showcasing the festival
Celebrating the history of Headrow House
- Built in the early 1900s
- It is a former textile mill located in one of Leeds' historical yards within the vibrant city centre
- After 10 years of neglect Headrow House got transformed, by the same guys behind one of the city’s hippest hangouts, Belgrave Music Hall. They decided they were going to transform the building into a venue fit for Leeds in the 21st century. The result was an 11,000 square foot multi use events and arts space extending up 4 floors tall - 3 bars, 1 restaurant (The Ox-Club), 1 beer hall, 3 outdoor areas (incl. 2 roof terraces), 1 cocktail bar (Redondo Beach) and a 150 capacity events room.
- Its new launch was end of November 2015.
- Headrow House blends the former penny arcade and mill’s unique architectural characteristics, something they’ve done well to preserve where possible.
- Before the 10 years of neglect the building once housed "Big Lil’s Saloon Bar" and the nightclub "Spooks", which were once two notorious drinking spots before closing down.
First up is the beer hall, which boasts booths wrapped around the perimeter of the room, long communal tables in the centre of the room and an imposing brass topped bar at the front. The main focus, however, will be on the four huge copper beer tanks in the middle of the room. They’ll be filled with unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell, which is driven over twice a week from the Czech Republic and finished off at the venue itself. On offer is one of the largest beer menus in the city - “I think the beer range at Belgrave is quite good, but this was an opportunity to really go to town with it,” Stevens told us. “We’ve doubled the number of beers available in here, we’re up to 72 packaged lines and then 8 draught. So there’s a lot of weird and wonderful Trappist beers coming in."
Next door to the beer hall will be the Ox Club restaurant, inspired by a trip to Portland were they discovered an amazing grill by a company called Grillworks - calling all steak lovers."Ben was already playing with a restaurant concept, it just felt like a nice fit with the rest of the building – to do that grill based restaurant offering. It’s just great, working with Ben, getting excited and getting his first real proper restaurant.”
Another floor up is where Headrow House really set themselves apart from the rest. This is where you’ll find the Redondo Beach cocktail bar, a sleek Scandinavian style watering hole that’s dressed up in fancy wallpaper and funky plants.Simon explained in the article just why they’ve decided to go with a cocktail bar in Headrow House, “We all love going to the Belgrave, but sometimes when you’re out on date night and stuff from midnight to 4 o’clock at Belgrave, it’s pretty pumping and rowdy which is all good, but sometimes you just want somewhere where you can sit down and talk and escape from that a bit. So Redondo Beach is our attempt to do that, somewhere a little bit more low key, where you can still get great drinks, it’ll be good music without it necessarily being super intense Friday and Saturday night.”
As with Belgrave, the cherry on the top, is actually on top of the building. And at Headrow House, they’ve gone one better. The Redondo Beach roof terrace is the first one you’ll come to, with decking and plenty of tables, catered for by its own cask, keg bar and a Fu Schnickens shack. When the sun’s out, it’s an amazing spot to chill at, tucked away off the streets but still bang in the middle of the centre, looking out over the city.
There’s a staircase in the middle of the first roof terrace which leads up to a second, more exclusive, and more luxurious one called Kennedy Meadows. It could be the coolest beer garden in the city, with a paradise-esque getaway just minutes from Briggate.
The trick with having all these distinctly different places is to find a way to tie them all together, and Headrow House enlisted the help of some of the city’s coolest arty folk to do just that.
Lightboxes, installations and neon signs have been provided by the likes of East Street Arts, Duke Studios and Ben Craven, but they also try to chop and change the artwork regularly to allow other artists and groups to show off their skills too.
The result is that Headrow House has managed to take numerous elements, including a restaurant, two bars, a gig space and two rooftop terraces, and tie them into something that will become a real destination. It’s another forgotten building that seems to have found a worthy new purpose after a decade of decay – here’s hoping Headrow House stays that way for a long time to come.
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| Lightboxes by Alphabet |
The result is that Headrow House has managed to take numerous elements, including a restaurant, two bars, a gig space and two rooftop terraces, and tie them into something that will become a real destination. It’s another forgotten building that seems to have found a worthy new purpose after a decade of decay – here’s hoping Headrow House stays that way for a long time to come.
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