Here at Leeds Central Library, we recently hosted a treasure handling workshop to show off a few more of our botanical items that we could not fit in our current exhibition – Unearthed: The Power of Gardening – at Leeds Central Library until 29 October 2025. First up was Flora Londinensis by William Curtis. This…
Category: Leeds Central Library
Heritage Open Days 2025
This week we take an in-depth look at events at Leeds Central Library during the Heritage Open Days Festival 2025. Local History Open Day Running on Saturday 13 September, 11.00am – 2.00pm in the Local and Family History Library, the Open Day is a chance for librarians to exhibit some of our most cherished and…
Unearthed: The Power of Gardening
Unearthed: The Power of Gardening is a new, free exhibition at Leeds Central Library running from 10 September – 29 October 2025, exploring the transformative, enriching and sometimes radical power of gardening. Inspired by the British Library’s major exhibition and following successful visits to Armley, Rothwell and Compton Road Community Hubs and Libraries, Unearthed celebrates…
The Chimney Corner: Secret Books from the Secret Library #10
The latest in an occasionally-regular series exploring books and other items selected from our vast collections. In this entry Librarian Antony Ramm looks at a collection of materials illuminating a late 18th century election in Yorkshire… Our previous entry in this series looked at a slim 18th century volume of Yorkshire topography. In this current article we remain in the…
The Chimney Corner: Secret Books from the Secret Library #9
The latest in an occasionally-regular series exploring books and other items selected from our vast collections. In this entry Librarian Antony Ramm looks at a slim 18th-century volume of antiquarian musings… Titled ‘A Survey of Yorkshire,’ it is debatable, really, whether this is even a book at all: although bound like a book, it is quite clearly a chapter, one…
Victoria Square and War Time Spirit, Part 3: 1943
In the third part of this series, Librarian and Digital Assistant, Alexandra Brummitt, takes a look at how Victoria Square was used during the Second World War. Read part 1 and part 2. Over the past century the space outside Leeds Town Hall has been used for everything from memorials to protests to Christmas markets….
Treasures of the Central Library
We launched an updated edition of our Treasures of the Library leaflet this month, packed full of new information about key items from our Special Collections. Take a look by clicking on the cover image below – or read on for an excerpted lookback at how our collections came into existence. Please contact us if…
Victoria Square and War Time Spirit, Part 2: 1942
In this second part Librarian and Digital Assistant, Alexandra Brummitt, takes a look at how Victoria Square was used during the Second World War. Read Part 1 here. Over the past century the space outside Leeds Town Hall has been used for everything from memorials to protests to Christmas markets. During the Second World War…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 