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…
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New Armley Research Guide
This week Josh Flint will discuss the new Local and Family History Research Guide on Armley. This Research Guide will be of great use to anyone with an interest in the history of Armley and how that history is represented in the Leeds Central Library Collection. This article will examine interesting images highlighted in this…
The Leeds Club
The Leeds Club (est. 1852) Albion Place Founded in 1849, moved into premises on Albion Place in 1852. Said to have been the equal of “any clubhouse out of London,” the Club ensured exclusivity with a very high annual subscription fee: approximately £6 a year, while the Leeds Radical Universal Suffrage Association, a working-class Chartist…
Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism (1977) Leeds Polytechnic (Beckett University) Rock Against Racism (RAR) was the umbrella name for a series of concerts aimed at combating racism in 1970s Britain. The first RAR gig took place at the Princess Alice pub in London during late 1976 – while Leeds was home to the second, in 1977. Organised…
The 1981 uprising
The week we welcome guest author Miriam White, who is currently a PhD student at the University of Leeds. Here Miriam discusses the social and political environment that led to the 1981 uprising In Chapeltown, with first hand accounts from the people there. You can find similar articles on our heritage trail page: Power and…
Fake News 21st July 1924
Fake News is a new project, by Tim Knight, which uses Local and Family History’s newspaper archive to publish a fictional front page every month. Curated from cuttings of The Yorkshire Post and The Yorkshire Evening Post—Leeds’ oldest continuous newspaper—Fake News will explore the goings-on, mishaps and miscellany of Yorkshire through the ages. Today’s edition, hot…
Hiding in plain sight: my search for the old cinemas of Leeds
This week our guest writer is Dr Laura Ager, Academic researcher and Creative Engagement Officer at the Hyde Park Picture House, who is writing about the history of old cinemas in Leeds. Before the era of the corporate multiplex cinema began, Leeds used to have many different and unique small cinemas. I have read that at…
Bramhope Tunnel: Conquering the Ridge
This Friday we hear from Local and Family History Librarian, Louise Birch, on the monumental engineering (and human) feat that was the construction of Bramhope Tunnel… When the York & North Midland Railway leased and closed the Leeds-Selby Railway line (1940) in order to funnel regional rail travel through York they angered the manufacturers and…
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