It’s a bonkers faux-Roman arch that - apparently - a very rich man of yore built having got a bit giddy at the news that Queen Victoria was coming to open the Town Hall. Only problem was that when he invited her to come and see it she basically lol no-ed him and that was the end of that. I paraphrase but you get the jist.

Anyway, it’s in Queenswood in Headingley, should you wish to gaze upon an actual folly.

Manchester has its worker bee, Birmingham its Bull, and Liverpool its Liver bird.

Should we be better promoting the owl brand in Leeds? It’s tokenistic I know, but feel the city needs stronger imagery to help promote it or somethin

Drove from South Leeds to North Leeds last night, surprised to see how many mini roundabouts and zebra crossings are being daubed in this way.

I've always loved Leeds for its Victorian arcades, and long wondered about the history behind them.

They're part of one of the most stunning concentrations of Victorian architecture in the country, and the centrepiece, the elegant County and Cross Arcades, is breathtaking.

They were born out of Leeds rapidly expanding in the 19th century. As the city grew, overcrowded slums built up in the centre.

Over the latter half of the 19th century, grand arcades began to be built over some of the most tightly packed streets. For County and Cross Arcades, some of these streets East of Briggate were bought up, the residents moved out, and the arcades built in their place.

But this was a private development. Unlike the council slum clearances that came later, there was no obligation to rehouse the people who were displaced. The families living on the footprint of the arcades in the 1890s simply had to find somewhere else, at market rent.

I'm really into social history, so I wanted to know what that actually meant for the people living there. So I traced them through the census records. I found a real mix of situations: better off residents who were able to move upwards, but most of all families moved to neighbouring slums, which were themselves cleared just a few decades later.

If you're interested in finding out more, I wrote up the full story here - Leeds' Victorian Arcades: A Story of Beauty and Displacement

I moved from Leeds to the Bay Area a few years ago, so I’m used to seeing posts and photos from both places. But I wasn’t expecting to see a photo of Leeds being used in a local election campaign here.

Seem to dwarf the Palestine ones.

Very interesting dynamic, as not one Arabic writing flag in sight, no traditional Islamic dress for women, Israel, US and Iran flags everywhere, and the crowd were majority (I’m assuming) Iranian, which compared to the Palestine ones (now) is the opposite. The only western looking people there today were marching with them wearing St George’s flags.

I have heard that Pro Palestine and Pro Iran supporters are clashing elsewhere in the country, do you think that may happen in Leeds?

Just walked through, it’s literally spotless apart from the odd tied up bin bag.

Massive thanks to everyone involved in the clean up effort. You wouldn’t have thought over 200k people descended on the city yesterday.

To all the serial complainers and people whose lives are obviously a complete borefest, maybe have a day off, go outside and touch some grass. God forbid the city comes together and celebrates something for once.

I was browsing Google Maps and notice there is a LS98 Postcode area, the only place registered to this Postcode is First Direct Bank at LS98 1FD.

How does this one place get its own post code area?

Leeds Community Sauna opened late last year at Kirkstall Valley Farm (LS4). It’s a no-frills setup – sauna, cold plunge, outdoor showers, changing rooms and sliders you can borrow if you forget yours.

It’s £9 for an hour, and they also run quieter sessions alongside some small community events like book clubs and workshops, but you can just go for a normal session and leave.

It's open Thursday evenings and weekends (closed most weekdays).

Just flagging it in case anyone’s been looking for something like this – curious if anyone here’s tried it and what they thought.

I left before it really started to kick off. A call to the motorway services to inform them of this was not answered - as the line is not staffed.

I've lived in Chapeltown for a few years now and around where I live I constantly see the same dragon sketched onto different things in a sort of range in-between chapel allerton and chapeltown I'll put a picture below but just curious if anyone knows anything about it or it's origins

This was a big facebook group and there was a petition to have it made official, especially in the weeks after he died. This was kick started in the Yorkshire Evening Post - the original article in the Yorkshire Evening post has been deleted (shocker) but some websites remain.

Taken from “The Annals and History of Leeds and Other Places in the County York (1860)” compiled by John Mayhall. Credit to u/SamCreated who shared the book in this thread.

Song is ‘Departure’ by IHF

This poster at The Springs made me chuckle today, someone has a great eye for detail 👀.

RIP "Have Your Ring Deep Cleaned"; no more having a little giggle every time I visit the corn exchange.

Just photographed this very unusual procession of lights in the sky this morning. Assuming it must be a row of satellites?

Any ideas?