CITY LIFE LEEDS

Buoyed by a year-long festival of culture in 2023, Yorkshire's economic powerhouse has become a hive of creativity with shops, food and events that give a nod to the city's industrial past while looking to the future

- DANIEL NEILSON

Despite the cold and the dark, the people of Leeds are out in force. A giant octopus appears to be escaping from the roof of the County Arcade. Nearby, Leeds Civic Hall looks like it’s in the throes of an alien invasion, as electrical pulses flicker up the spires.

In Playhouse Square, a huge slinky tumbles across shipping containers and disappears into the shadows. A wave of onlookers is trailing a particularly dazzling drum troupe and the streets are thrumming with wandering families, whose children are whooping at the displays for Light Night Leeds — an annual celebration of illuminated art installations. In the run-up to Leeds 2023, the city’s selfproclaimed year of culture, this highly creative assault on the senses feels like a small preview of the festivities that are to come.

Politicians talk about Leeds as a powerhouse, the engine that drives the economy of the North — and it’s long been so. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a major trading centre for wool and a significant mill town powering the Industrial Revolution. But today, Leeds is also an important cultural hub in the north of England. Northern Ballet and Opera North are both based here, and Channel 4 has made Leeds its new national headquarters. Yorkshire-born Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is also planning to open a National Poetry Centre in the city, describing Leeds as, “future-minded, community-aware and committed to cultural regeneration”.