Youngmans Restaurant features as stop five in the Edible Leeds trail. Librarian Helen Skilbeck takes a closer look at the history of the restaurant and the family behind the name. Gerald Priestland famously called Leeds “the intellectual capital of fish and chips” – and he had a point, with the town’s love of the dish…
Category: Heritage Trails
Leeds & the Craft Beer Revolution
As part of our ongoing series of longer articles exploring stops on our Edible Leeds heritage Trail, Librarian Antony Ramm takes a look this week at the 20-year history of craft beer in Leeds… Leeds, of course, has a long and venerable history when it comes to brewing, stretching back to at least the brewery…
Two Extraordinary Banquets
This week on the Secret Library, Librarian Antony Ramm briefly explores the stories behind two quite amazing political banquets in 19th-century Leeds. These both form entries on our Edible Leeds heritage trail, designed for Heritage Open Day Week 2021. In this short tale of two extraordinary political banquets, we start with the most well-known: the…
A Brief History of Coffee in Leeds
Two coffee venues feature as entries on the Edible Leeds heritage trail, at numbers 4 and 20. Librarian Antony Ramm offers a very brief overview of those locations, bringing the story up to date with a more modern addition… We at the Secret Library don’t know exactly when the first coffee house in Leeds opened…
How do you solve a problem like a Michelin Star?
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Librarian Antony Ramm, who has been researching locations on our Edible Leeds heritage trail – published as part of our Heritage Open Day Week events. In this first entry in our series of longer articles exploring some of the people and places on that trail, he…
Edible Leeds Trail – HOD 2021
This year, to coincide with Heritage Open Days 2021, the Local and Family History Library have created an Edible Leeds Trail. The trail highlights past and present areas of the city centre connected to the food and drink industry and can be followed in order as a 45 minute walk. 1. Leeds Town HallThe Town…
The Black Freedom Struggle in Nineteenth-Century Leeds
On the Secret Library this week we hear from guest author Dr Hannah-Rose Murray from the University of Edinburgh. Hannah-Rose will be discussing her new book entitled African American Narratives and Speeches which will published in 2022. During the nineteenth-century, African American freedom fighters and survivors of U.S. chattel slavery made radical and politicized journeys across…
Exploring Leeds Central Library – The Basement
Over the next few weeks we’re going to take you around Leeds Central Library, down into the deep dark depths of the basement and up to the lofty glazed ceilings of the top floor. Because when you have your very own 137 year old building it would be a shame not to explore it to…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 