A Brief Tour of Roundhay St. John Church

This week’s article is by researcher Irfan Shah, who illuminates the hidden history of a local Church, one that deserves much wider recognition… One of the jewels in the Central Library’s crown is the wonderful and unique Boyne’s Grangerised History of Leeds (a ‘grangerised’ book is one that has been added to and illustrated ‘by…

Learning to see Le Prince

This week on the Secret Library we are delighted to welcome back guest author Irfan Shah, who has previously written for us on Leeds’ contribution to the development of photography. In this article, roughly coinciding with the 130th anniversary of the disappearance of Louis Le Prince (September 16 1890), Irfan shares some exciting news about…

Measure of the Moon by Irfan Shah

This week we hear from researcher Irfan Shah on Leeds’ contribution to the development of photography.  When I started researching the story of Louis Le Prince – the French inventor who shot the world’s first films here in Leeds in 1888 – it soon became apparent that when he arrived in the town in 1866,…