Visiting Leeds during Unfold? Contemporary art aside, there are excellent places to go, eat, drink and shop during your stay. Discover them with our handy guide.
With British Art Show 8 in town until January, Unfold’s programme of exhibitions, public art, film screenings and talks, and the city’s fantastic annual Christkindelmarkt adding some warmth to the streets, it’s a good time to hop over to Leeds for a weekend visit.
Just 40 minutes on the train from Manchester – via a beautiful stretch through Huddersfield and Dewsbury – a trip to Leeds is easily be manageable in a day. Alternatively, extend it into an overnight stay to make the most of the city’s galleries, theatres shops and eateries without rushing. Let our guide to Leeds help you in the right direction.
Things to do
The Hyde Park Picture House, in the city’s student area, is a cosy little arthouse cinema swathed in as much red velvet as you might expect from one of the oldest picture houses in the country. With an Edwardian balcony and original gas lights, this is a proper cinema for whiling away dark nights.
Back in the centre of town, head to Kirkgate Market where you can buy pretty much whatever your heart desires. There are over 800 stalls groaning with fresh fruit and flowers, Turkish Delight, kente shirts, One Direction bookmarks and falafel, as well as a bustling row of traditional cafés, butchers and fishmongers, which is good for people watching. It’s not artisan, and there’s relief in that. (Photo Kirkgate Market)
Around the corner on Quarry Hill is West Yorkshire Playhouse, not the most beautiful of buildings, but the heart of the city’s home contemporary theatre, while Leeds Grand Theatre is a couple of minutes up on New Briggate, and home to both Northern Ballet and Opera North. (Photo: Leeds Grand Theatre)
Wakefield is just a 12 minute train ride away from Leeds. Head to Hepworth Wakefield for contemporary art, Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a bracing country walk punctuated by land art, and a pint or two at the excellent Fernandes Brewery Tap and Bier Keller, hidden away on Avison Yard, just a few minutes from Wakefield Kirkgate station. (Photo: Hepworth Wakefield)
Eating and drinking
If there’s one thing that the Leeds food scene has in abundance, it’s multi-purpose spaces combining eating, drinking art, gigs and pop-up record fairs. Head to the art-deco fronted Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen; set across three floors, you can eat pizza by the slice, take a yoga class, and enjoy the roof terrace in warmer months. Street food and art market The Belgrave Feast takes place monthly, on the second Saturday. (Photo: Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen)
Newly opened sister-venue Headrow House is a more grown-up affair with a restaurant, cocktail bar and beer hall, while The Brunswick is a friendly watering-hole with a gallery space and the occasional film screening. (Photo: Headrow House)
For Yorkshire tea under a beautiful mosaic ceiling, head to the Tiled Hall Café at Leeds Art Gallery. Discerning coffee lovers like Laynes Espresso, a small outpost around the corner from Leeds Station, which fills up quickly. Next door is Friends of Ham, an excellent spot better-suited to lingering with a charcuterie board and a bottle of red. Leeds foodies swear by Bundobust, an Indian street food kitchen on the opposite side of the road with, naturally, a well-stocked accompaniment of craft beer bar. (Photo: Friends of Ham)
Whether you’ve a sore head from the night before or want to spread out with the newspapers and the kids, modern British pub and dining room The Reliance is exactly where you’d want to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with a restorative roast. (Photo: Bundobust)
Shopping
Shopping is Leeds is good – and unlike so many of the UK’s city centre shopping centres, doesn’t feel like a grey hell of one-legged pigeons and empty units. Victorian Quarter on King Edward Street is a well-kept traditional arcade full of high-end shops like Reiss, Whistles, Kiehls and Harvey Nichols. (Photo: Bon Bon’s of Leeds)
Thornton Arcade is nearby, and worth visiting for Tallboys Beer Market, a modest but well-stocked bottle shop, with Noonshine Café upstairs stocking homemade doughnuts, sandwiches, fresh bread and salads. A few doors down is Bon Bon’s of Leeds, a confectionary shop that puts Thornton’s to shame. Village Bookstore and Gallery, the city’s go-to for independent books, zines and arty magazines has recently relocated to the arcade. (Photo: Tallboys Beer Market)
Crash Records on the Headrow has been selling vinyl to Leeds for 30 years, and is well-placed next to a tempting old shop full of gentleman’s smoking and shaving paraphernalia. If stationary, photography books and anything that would look at home on Pinterest if your bag, then head to Colours May Vary on Duke Street. Keep an eye out too, for their small pop-up shop pod at Leeds Station throughout Unfold. (Photo: Colours May Vary)
Where to stay
While there are plenty of affordable chain hotels in the city centre, 42 The Calls is a boutique hotel with soul in a former corn mill on the Riverside. If you’re more at home with Airbnb, Leeds has plenty of offerings across the city, from a Shepard’s Hut in the suburbs to cosy doubles in family homes. (Photo below: 42 The Calls)
Holing up in the country is particularly appealing when circular stone almshouse Beamsley Hospital and medieval Calverley Old Hall are available to rent with The Landmark Trust, if you don’t mind a longer drive into the city.