History of Leeds Part I

S Leeds received city status back in 1893 and before that, Leeds was a very prosperous centre that was full of industry and commerce. Leeds was in a very strategic position to take advantage of the rivers and canals and roads for transportation as well as being in a great area that was close to the great sheep farming areas of the dales, Leeds was just perfectly located to engage in the manufacture and trade in cloth.

The Railway also sprung up here with the opening of the Middleton Colliery Railway, which was the worlds first commercial railway, and in 1770, the opening of the Leeds and Liverpool canal springboarded Leeds into the big league of industrial centres of the world. Although this brought great prosperity to Leeds, it also lead to over crowding and inadequate drainage as well as poor ventilation brought many deaths. Also the conditions in the yards and lanes where the majority lived was extremely poor, especially in Briggate and Kirkgate where conditions were so bad that life threatening diseases like cholera and typhus caused many deaths in these areas.

Even Charles Dickens remarked that Leeds was one of the nastiest places he had ever witnessed. Still the town prospered and new public buildings were built such as the Italianate Post Office and the impressive library, as well as the University and some of the present day shopping centre arcades were built around this time.

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