The seventh part of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. Our last part in this series concluded with the arrival of Irish migrants to Leeds in the 1840s and 1850s. many…
A Brief History of Leeds #6: The Early to mid-19th century
Part six of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. Our previous step in this history looked at the place of the industrial revolution in Leeds, noting in particular the growth in…
Youngmans Restaurant
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…
We Smile: Photographs of Modernity
This week Librarian Antony Ramm offers a sequel to an article first published in 2017. Readers of this blog who are also readers of the Public Domain Review website (if you’re not, do think about subscribing; it’s a fantastic and always-intriguing look at long-forgotten printed texts) may have seen a short article by Hunter Dukes…
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…
A Brief History of Leeds #5: The Industrial Revolution
The fifth part of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. Part four of this series finished with a suggestion that the writings of 18th-century Leeds antiquaries such as Thomas Wilson and…
The Leeds Arts Club
This week we hear from Library and Digital Assistant Ruairí Lewis who talks us through the fascinating history of the Leeds Arts Club through library stock and collections… Among our local history collections are a few volumes on the history of the Leeds Arts Club, and its fascinating founder, Alfred Orage. Very little has been…
Rare Book Round Up – Aquatic
Each week our Collections Manager Rhian, brings you our ‘Rare Book of the Week’ on our social media accounts. Too good to be lost in the daily deluge of tweets and Instagrams we wanted to bring you a round-up of some of our favourites. This week we’re going aquatic. Starting with the two youngest, ‘Tortoises,…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 