Leeds: from textile mills to contemporary art

Former world capital of wool processing, Leeds has repurposed its Victorian textile mills into art galleries and cultural spaces.

The center, from former textile mills to contemporary art galleries, is comfortably explored on foot.

The Leeds Corn Exchange, a circular Victorian building once a grain market, today hosts independent shops under a spectacular glass and iron dome.

A short walk away, the Leeds Victoria Quarter, Victorian shopping galleries with original Art Nouveau skylights, remain among the most elegant in northern England, with luxury boutiques.

Continuing on, you visit the Royal Armouries, a free national museum displaying one of the world's greatest collections of weapons and armor, transferred from London in the 1990s.

Toward evening, the Granary Wharf district, along the canal, animates restaurants and venues in former industrial warehouses converted.

Leeds was among the world's leading centers of textile manufacturing during the British Industrial Revolution—a role that left behind dozens of Victorian mills now converted to cultural and residential uses.

The Royal Armouries of Leeds, free admission and less crowded than the historic site at the Tower of London, display armor ranging from European medieval times through Oriental and Japanese weapons.