Email this guide
Print the full guide
What to see in Leeds
Leeds Attractions
For those who love to shop, Leeds is pure paradise. The city's retail areas include the Victoria Quarter, Corn Exchange, The Core, and Trinity Leeds, all packed with top-quality, big-name stores. With development ongoing, shopping opportunities are continually getting bigger and better.
For cultural enthusiasts, Leeds offers major national and international theatre, dance, opera, and music events in a variety of top-class venues, as well as a major art gallery housing an important collection of traditional and contemporary British art.
Among the city's dozens of museums there is the intriguing Thackray, offering a vivid insight into Victorian medical practices; the Amley Mills, housed in an old woollen mill and demonstrating industrial and railway history; and the Royal Armouries, the oldest museum in the UK, containing a fascinating collection of ancient weaponry and torture instruments.
Plenty to see and do means there is never a dull moment in Leeds, and at night the action shifts to the hundreds of pubs, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Some of the live band venues, like Joseph's Well and The Wardrobe, are internationally renowned. Leeds is also recognised as one of the UK's clubbing capitals.
Abbey House Museum
The entertaining Abbey House Museum is contained in the gatehouse of the picturesque, ruined Kirkstall Abbey, dating from 1152. Abbey House allows visitors to walk around the streets of 1880s Leeds,…
Armley Mills Industrial Museum
The Armley Mills Industrial Museum was a working cloth mill until 1969, when the City Council turned it into an award-winning industrial museum. In fact, it was once the world's largest wool mill.…
Leeds Art Gallery
In the heart of the city, the Leeds Art Gallery offers a feast for art lovers, its collections covering everything from traditional prints, watercolours, paintings and sculpture to weird and wonderful…
Royal Armouries Museum
This fun, lively museum contains ten themed galleries, filled with interactive displays, dramatic interpretations, action scenarios, and some really exciting exhibits. The themes include Hunting, Oriental,…
Thackray Museum
There is surely no more interesting day out in Leeds than a visit to the Thackray Museum, which tells the story of medical advances through the ages. A recreated Victorian street, complete with sights,…
Become our Leeds Travel Expert
We are looking for contributors for our Leeds travel guide. If you are a local, a regular traveller to Leeds or a travel professional with time to contribute and answer occasional forum questions, please contact us.
