Leeds

My home in Saltaire is, strictly speaking, part of the City of Bradford metropolitan area - and indeed many of my 'city' photos have been taken in Bradford. By train, however, it takes only a few minutes longer to get to Leeds than to Bradford. The two cities have always had a kind of rivalry and in Victorian times Bradford was a powerful metropolis, founded on wool. Leeds traditionally had a broader base and that served it well when the wool industry collapsed. Nowadays, Leeds is a much more cosmopolitan and vital place and Bradford has struggled to keep up. For shopping, Leeds is streets ahead (pun intentional!), ranked in the premier league when it comes to city centre shopping in the UK, and still investing in new shopping zones despite these recessional times. So it was off to Leeds at the weekend to start on the Christmas shopping (not my favourite activity; I wasn't 'born to shop'!) It all looked rather glorious in the cool autumn sunshine, and Leeds Town Hall, in particular, looked stately and imposing.  The building next to it, on the right, houses the city library and art gallery and a very nice Craft Centre and Design Gallery.