• By Ross Horsley, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library

Climb to the top of the Bridgewater Place building, Sky Plaza or Pinnacle and you’re going to get some pretty great views of our fine city – as well as a stitch. But there’s also plenty of easily accessible places offering equally impressive fresh takes on familiar sights. Today we’re taking you to the top of Trinity Leeds shopping centre, where a visit to Primark customer services will give you a lovely close-up of a particularly interesting clock.

The Griffin pub stands on the corner of Boar Lane and Mill Hill, and takes its name from the hotel that opened there in 1872. It’s this name you’ll find encircling the clock’s face, with the twelve letters that spell GRIFFIN HOTEL taking the place of the usual hourly digits of the day. Legend has it that a meeting held in the Griffin in 1919 led to the formation of Leeds United. Today you’ll find a selection of real ales and a traditional but funky design that harks back to the hotel’s heyday, including a section modelled on an underground train station from the Edwardian era.

We’ll leave you with a view of the building from 1928, taken from our Leodis website. September of that year saw the city’s ‘Civic Week’, a celebration of local spirit and pride, so you’ll notice bunting, streamers and a large crown – as well as the Griffin and its clock in the background. Also visible is a well-known chemist that still has branches all over the city today. Check back for future midweek mini-posts as we view more unexpected perspectives of Leeds over the coming weeks.