What things do you like & dislike about Leeds ?...

[Urban Wurzel]

What things do you like & dislike about Leeds ?...

Mine are...

Likes
1. The impressive skyline
2. The compact city centre
3. People here from all over (fairly multicultural etc)
4. The music/nightlife scene
5. The close proximity to the Yorkishire Dales
6. The Leeds/Liverpool Canal
7. The free museums
8. The accents!

Dislikes
1. Dodgy people who hang around Kirkgate
2. The Merrion Centre & Wade Lane (very dull)
3. The main shopping area. Just feels souless (I'm sure it's nicer @ Xmas etc)

[Leeds No.1]

Unlike you I think Leeds has a far more characterful shopping district than its main counterparts. Equally, I dislike many of Leeds' accents, although not all of them.

I like:
-The vibrancy
-The people
-The multiculturalism
-The variety and distinctiveness of each area
-Proximity to great scenery- not just the Dales but so much just on the edge of Leeds
-The parks

Dislike:
-The people. There are loads of nice people in Leeds, but there are so many who have no respect for others, walk around smoking, swearing and generally being anti social, littering, causing havoc (Leeds football fans were named some of the worse in the country today)...
-The state of The Headrow
-The transport network
-The airport
-The shopping centres (not including The Light or VQ)
-The disregard for beautification and quality of public realm- not just by the council but by residents. Yes, some areas may be deprived but this is no excuse for not keeping them clean and tidy.

[Urban Wurzel]

The light & VQ are fine, it's just the main shopping area around Brigate I'm not too mad on. Just feels like any other high street shopping area you'd find in your average UK city...

I'm sure Trinity will help change that though.

[STOPGO]

The Light as hardly any shops in it, to me it's more of a lesiure destination.

Not sure what's wrong with the Headrow, it is what it is a thoroughfare for the buses tootling up and down. Although I think it lost something when Alders/lewis department store closed, and also when the Odeon went the same way.

I don't notice any difference in accents from one part of Leeds to another, everybody clips the last word in the sentence [ prime example Mel B ]

The transport network is alright, as long as your not driving in and out of the city centre at peak time. I use the train, it takes about 8 minutes from jumping on to getting off. Apart from that there are umpteen buses in and out.

Lastly thought LBA was one of the great sucesses of recent years, with passenger numbers up year on year.

[Suburban Knight]

LBA is a success, but it badly needs the expansion and refurbishment work to be carried out - at the moment it feels a bit like a small motorway services, but without the choice available at one... and the toilets are awful!

[Leeds No.1]

Accents around Alwoodley are noticeable different to those in Morley or Middleton.

Never say "it is what it is". Nothing is that. If you believe that, nothing will ever improve. Leeds has only prospered because its leaders refused to sit back and be content with the fact it was an average northern city that was suffering industrial decline. If people believe The Headrow is what it is- ie a bus lane, it will remain like that forever.

It was built as a grand thoroughfare; supposed to be the flagship boulevard of the city. Why has it been run down to a mere bus lane?

[STOPGO]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

Accents around Alwoodley are noticeable different to those in Morley or Middleton.

Never say "it is what it is". Nothing is that. If you believe that, nothing will ever improve. Leeds has only prospered because its leaders refused to sit back and be content with the fact it was an average northern city that was suffering industrial decline. If people believe The Headrow is what it is- ie a bus lane, it will remain like that forever.

It was built as a grand thoroughfare; supposed to be the flagship boulevard of the city. Why has it been run down to a mere bus lane?

Still not sure about the accents, I don't know anybody from Awoodley so can't make that judgment. All the people I know speak the same, a number of celebs from Leeds also speak the same, Mel B, Gaynor Faye, Beverley Callard.

I said " it is what it is " as a sound bite, I could have said " it does exactly what it says on the tin " it was just a way of illustrating what it is and as far as I know what it as always been.

It's a bus lane, because Leeds runs so many buses and they have got to go somewhere, that and the bus depot being located at bottom of the Headrow [ I call the end near the market the bottom ] plus most it as two lanes. I don't see a problem with buses using it, a large amount of the city centre is traffic free, I think it works okay. I was thinking the only way round it would be to get rid of the Bus station, and site it in another part of the city centre. The only place I could come up with was the Tetley Brewery site, but I guess buses would still have to use the Headrow to ferry shoppers about.

[Urban Wurzel]

I personally think the Criterion Place site would be best suited for the Bus Station.

The Location is perfect!

[Leeds No.1]

It's not necessarily about removing buses though, it's about making The Headrow a street worthy of being in 21st century Leeds.

Why are people content with it being a dirty, congested and run down street? There are a mish-mash of paving styles along the whole street- most of which are cracked and uneven. The lanes are not a constant width and so neither are the pavements. The crossings are not fit for the amount of people using them... It needs a complete redesign.

[STOPGO]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

It's not necessarily about removing buses though, it's about making The Headrow a street worthy of being in 21st century Leeds.

Why are people content with it being a dirty, congested and run down street? There are a mish-mash of paving styles along the whole street- most of which are cracked and uneven. The lanes are not a constant width and so neither are the pavements. The crossings are not fit for the amount of people using them... It needs a complete redesign.

Yes, but there are worse parts of the city centre than the Headrow. How many people use the Headrow from the market/bus station end ? I don't go in that direction but to me most of the footfall seems to be from the top of Briggate to the Town hall or across from Briggate to the Merrion Centre.

[Leeds No.1]

The markets end of The Headrow (ie Eastgate) is the best kept part of the street. The busiest part between Primark and Victoria Gardens is the most run down part.

[MattN]

Difficult to sum up what I like but I'll have a go, in the order I think of them, not a rank.

1. The Barley Corn/ Scholes
2. My relatives and very long standing family history with the place
3. Leeds Fish and Chips
4. The city centre, especially the less corporatised bits around the edges etc.
5. The old industrial buildings
6. The back-to-backs and terraces
7. The tower blocks
8. Leeds Brewery and its pubs
9. Some of the old pubs, especialy those 'corridor' pubs for the interest value
10. The Chevin
11. The countryside in general
12. The red brick
13. The city in general nuts::
14. The grit, the grime, the glitz, the glamour
15. The parks
16. Some of those ridiculously ugly and/or highly-engineered roads
17. The accent
18. The waterways
19. The old churches, and their tendency to be soot-blackened while little else is.
20. The peppering of woods throughout certain parts of the city (though not the littering and anti-social behaviour that seems to go with it sometimes)
Quite a lot, in other words! Just the place in general

What I don't like:

1. The anti-social behaviour
2. The floundering when it comes to transport investment
3. The abandonment of places like Trinity
4. The obliteration of lots of old and interesting buildings over the years and any plans to continue this process, and the waste it laid to some areas
5. The shameful neglect of places like Temple Works and Hunslet Mills
6. The insufferable snobs
7. Unpleasant dogs

Hmmm...

[STOPGO]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

The markets end of The Headrow (ie Eastgate) is the best kept part of the street. The busiest part between Primark and Victoria Gardens is the most run down part.

So are you saying that only part of it is run down, and the other half Eastgate is fine as it's not used nearly as much.

[Suburban Knight]

There is no such thing as an 'Alwoodley accent' compared to a Morley one. It's more likely a matter of social class and education. A lot of people in the richer suburbs won't be from Leeds either.

[STOPGO]

Originally Posted by Suburban Knight

There is no such thing as an 'Alwoodley accent' compared to a Morley one. It's more likely a matter of social class and education. A lot of people in the richer suburbs won't be from Leeds either.

Again a well made point, I was actually thinking of making that point earlier myself, but I thought I would be shot down. If people have moved about a bit and/or gone to a uni away from Leeds then there accents will be more flatened.

[Leeds No.1]

It's not about how busy it is.

A random mix of uneven surfaces, forever changing lane/pavement widths, traffic lights that need replacing and lamposts you'd expect to see on a radial route not a city centre street.
image hosted on flickr


Compared to Eastgate, where although the buildings are lower quality, the pavements/lanes are consistent design and widths and the lamposts are painted and higher quality.
image hosted on flickr

[STOPGO]

But surely the pavements are wider to make it easier and safer at crossing points. I agree the Eastgate part does look better, but the other end isn't in my eyes as bad as some other areas of the city centre. I maybe wrong but I don't think many people will be bothered about the quality of finish on the lamposts. I'm not too fused about the paving ether, it seems like the council have spent decades ripping up and replacing paving, goodness knows how much money as been spent on it.

[Leeds No.1]

There's no real evident reason as to why the pavements are constantly changing width though. It can't be to make it safer for crossing because many of the wider parts of pavement are where there are no crossings. I think the lanes are wider at some points to try and provide some sort of bus layby, but of course they are very ineffective.



You say that, but of course people are bothered. When asked, they might not think they're bothered but it's about the overall look of a street. It's the small details like lamposts, paving, street furniture etc that make places more pleasant. The Headrow demonstrates this- Eastgate is more pleasant despite having far lower quality buildings than the main part of The Headrow.

[STOPGO]

I like the photo shows all the buses using the Headrow. What about my idea of resiteing the bus station at Tetleys Brewery, it would ideal getting to and from the South of the City. I know your interested in changing driving routes around the city, is there anyway it could work from there. Ofcourse that would free up the space where the station is now, and that space could be used to work alongside the Eastgate scheme and maybe revitalise the bottom end of the market.

[MattN]

I imagine that terminating all the buses at Tetley's would be a disaster, it's quite far away from most of the city centre, it would just put people off buses I think. I don't know whether freeing up more land around Eastgate would actually be a good thing anyway, given how it's failed to take off in its current form.

It would be easier to follow if you could consistently refer to the bus station as a station not a depot lol, my mind keeps wandering down to the other end of Hunslet when you say that .