Location: Leeds
Top Things to do in Leeds
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Things to do in Leeds, England: The Best Architectural Buildings
Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England, was one of the leading centers of industry in Victorian England. The Leeds City Museum is a great place to brush up on local history, and many TripAdvisor travelers say no visit to town is complete without exploring the Royal Armouries. You’ll also find lovely parks and a lively restaurant scene, with many eateries specializing in international cuisine.
Restaurants in Leeds
1. Leeds Minster
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 102 reviews
Welcome to the Leeds Minster - a place of worship and service for the fast-moving modern city of Leeds. Leeds Minster is one of England's best-loved Parish Churches and at our heart is a sacred choral tradition. Our origins date back to the greatest of the Victorian Vicars of Leeds, Dr Hook. It was during his 22-year incumbency that today's Minster Church of St Peter at Leeds was built - an astonishing building consecrated with great ceremony on 2 September 1841 in the presence of a vast congregation including the celebrated Florence Nightingale. In 2012 we were granted Minster status. Today you can visit the Minster for worship - whether for a few minutes of calm contemplation at a mid-week Choral Evensong or for the richness of a Sunday Choral Eucharist. We invite all to walk around and soak up the atmosphere of a building rich in history and heritage, light a votive candle, listen to the famous organ and round it all off with an enjoyable light lunch in our Refectory. If you do have not the time for an extended personal visit, but happen to pass the Minster on foot, by train, by bus, or in your car, do listen out for the Bells and do pray for us as we pray for you.
2. Thornton's Arcade
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 250 reviews
Reviewed By SharonJT67 - Durham, United Kingdom
Worth a visit, filled with lots of small independent retailers, don’t forget to look up & admire the gorgeous glass canopied ceiling, so pleasing on the eye!
3. Leeds Town Hall
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 320 reviews
Reviewed By Big_Jeff_Leo - St Helens, United Kingdom
Leeds Town Hall was built between 1853 and 1858 to a design by architect Cuthbert Brodrick. Imagined as a "municipal palace" to demonstrate the power and success of Victorian Leeds, and opened by Queen Victoria in a lavish ceremony in 1858. The Town Hall is one of the largest town halls in the UK and is Grade I listed. With a height of 225 feet, the distinctive clock tower is very impressive and is currently under restoration. The highlight is of course the absolutely magnificent main hall which is now used for concert and civic events such as weddings and other ceremonies. The ceilings are amazing and a well worth the visit alone. I visited on spect and went up to receptions and asked could I have a look around to which the answer was yes the staff even pointed out some highlights including the long corridor which is full of wall plaques to the local fallen of the World Wars. A magnificent building that sits proudly on the roster of the cities premier locations.
4. Leeds Civic Hall
5. The Great Yorkshire Shop
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 13 reviews
Hand picked fine gifts exclusively from ourselves and other local independent makers, artists and designers of Yorkshire! Find us at the Leeds Corn Exchange or Shop Online.
Reviewed By F8840MZpatriciam
Great shop for quirky gifts with a Yorkshire theme. Posters can be framed on site for a very reasonable rate. Well worth a look.
6. Harewood House
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 1,341 reviews
From the moment you arrive, Harewood captures your imagination and feeds your curiosity. It's a place filled with art, culture and heritage which continues to develop and thrive today. One of the Treasure Houses of England, the historic Georgian property sits within "Capability" Brown designed landscape with remarkable views from the award winning Terraces. Come inside and you'll be blown away by rare Chippendale furniture and jaw-dropping interior designs in the State Rooms. Make sure you leave time to explore the well-trodden corridors of Below Stairs. A place where young kitchen hands can get hands on with history, dress up and discover life a servant or you can enjoy a changing programme of contemporary art exhibitions in the Terrace Gallery. With bags of space to run around, a massive adventure playground, penguins, flamingos and parrots there's no shortage of adventure for kids of all ages
Reviewed By singhasam - Weymouth, United Kingdom
A VISIT to Harewood House offers a feast of history, lovely walks and beautiful landscaping. There is also a host of attractions from parrot aviaries, penguins and an adventure playground to a little ferry, a Farm Experience and even a Buddhist stupa, stepping stones and a walled garden. The difficult part when we arrived – it cost £33 entry for two -- was deciding where to start, so we began with coffees in the Courtyard Cafe, one of four sites at Harewood to have public toilets. The others were the main house the car park and the walled garden. All the ones we used were very well kept. Refreshed, we strolled out to explore, enjoying colourful macaws, enthusiastic penguins shooting through the water at feeding time, an ice house, an arboretum and a flock of flamingoes next to the little chain ferry which took us across a lake to a productive walled garden full of flowers and vegetables. The ferry was disabled friendly as was much of the site. Some of the greenhouses which were in the walled garden were disused and down to their bare frames. They were taped off and seemed to be destined for some future project, hopefully restoration. We even saw a pheasant pecking off raspberries and swallowing them with evident enjoyment! Then we just followed the shoreline along to the Himalayan Garden, passing a cascade to a Buddhist stupa before carefully picking our way across stepping stones in a water feature before returning to the Courtyard Cafe for lunch. There we enjoyed, soup, sausage rolls, quiche and jacket potatoes all washed down with ginger beer, tea or water. The bill was less than £20. Very reasonable. In the afternoon we tackled Harewood House itself where we began with the lovely gardens with their tight hedges, floral decorations and hidden away fountains. Then it was inside where visitors find a very well run operation with lots of knowledgeable staff on hand in every state room and every nook and cranny right down to the below stairs areas where servants used to work daily miracles to keep the house running and fed. We saw library areas, music room areas, formal dining areas, bedrooms and a superb kitchen area where displays included original copper jelly moulds and a gleaming array of copper pots and pans. This year also sees the launch of Harewood Biennial celebrating craft and craftsmanship with displays in every room on the State Floor and Below Stairs. I’m sure some people must have enjoyed the modern displays, but we didn’t because we felt they were an unwelcome clash with the historic surroundings, lovely paintings and furniture. It made the place feel a bit cramped and destroyed some of the atmosphere of this historic house.This is a personal opinion but we met others who felt the same way Pretty soon it was time to go but there was just time to drop in to the second hand bookshop on site and do a bit of browsing. We bought four books. As we walked to the car we wondered where more than five hours had gone because we had enjoyed ourselves so much that time had just flown by. Don’t miss a chance to come and enjoy this wonderful historic site. It is a lovely day out and we really recommend it.
7. Georgian Bathhouse
8. Morley Town Hall
9. Stank Hall and Barn Beeston
Stank Hall is the oldest house in Leeds, It is a 14thc house, originally in one piece until the beeston mining disaster in the 1830's. Stank Hall Barn is a fifteenth century tithe barn in Beeston, Leeds. It is Grade II* listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The barn is open on selected dates only
10. Temple Mill
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 1 reviews
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