Where’s Leeds?

20130801_095118

At least twice a week as I’m walking across Victoria Bridge towards Neville Street and into town I get collared; “Excuse me … where’s Leeds?”

The people who ask this question are a fairly diverse bunch – this week a weary looking granny with a toddler practicing an escapology routine in his buggy, and a bunch of sunburn-striped ladies from Sunderland who appeared to be attired in garments fashioned from a single spool of bright pink ribbon between the six of them. But they have one thing in common, beside the distress of being lost in an unfamiliar city; they have all just walked from Leeds Central train station.

It’s always puzzled me why some people can’t find their way into town. Isn’t it obvious?

Well, it’s obvious for people like me who have lived here forever and could navigate the place blindfolded (in fact, that’s my customary mode of getting about, which generally worked until recently when the streets of Leeds suddenly became an obstacle course of so called “disabled phone boxes” – I’ve managed to blunder into five of them so far! One day they are going to do me a severe injury.)

This phone has gone mobile ... terrific advertising opportunity though, don't you think?
This phone has gone mobile … terrific advertising opportunity though, don’t you think?

But if so many people have trouble finding their way around – assuming my encounters are not singular instances that only happen to me, and that I’m not some kind of freak directionless person magnet – then maybe there’s a problem? What is it actually like for a new person in town? How would you know where you were and where you were going?

Yesterday I decided to have a look the exits to the train station as if I was new to the city. I took some pictures.

Currently the station has three exits, but the smaller two are generally used only by locals – for good reasons. At rush hour the exit next to Wetherspoons is lethal for the unwary or easily distractible.

20130801_094932

There’s a constant stream of taxis and cars dropping off and picking up and no pedestrian crossing, which makes getting across to the other side safely only slightly less death defying than crossing the Grand Canyon in a high wind without a net. Even if you do get to the other side without causing a traffic collision chances are that you actually don’t want to be on Whitehall Road and by the time you reach White Cloth Gallery you’ll be consulting your map and waving it in the face of a passing local.

The other side entrance is much better. There’s a pedestrian crossing and a map and sign post.

20130801_095113

The map is clear and helpful and the signs are straightforward. I’m not convinced that the information is aimed at the casual visitor who may be in town for a chance to explore all a new city has to offer, however. It’s good that you are pointed the way to the “shopping” (you knew Leeds has the odd few shops, right?) and knowing the direction of the “Waterfront” is nice, but even I don’t really know what the “Civic Quarter” is all about or why I’d want to visit, or how come “Park Row” gets a mention but not Briggate, “the Arena” but not the Town Hall. Still, you can cross the road quite safely and admire what was once one of the finest public squares in England over on the other side (admire City Square while there’s still a fraction left as public space before the whole lot gets fenced off as a beer garden for the fancy fish restaurants. John Harrison, one of our earliest mayors, is not looking happy.)

Is this public art any more? Behind a fence and hidden by the umbrella.
Is this public art any more? Behind a fence and hidden by the umbrellas.

The front entrance to the station has three means of exit. Oddly only two are mentioned on the signpost.

20130801_095914

The missing exit on the right down New Station Street is the one that takes you directly into the town centre (where the shops are), delivering the visitor smack into the jaws of the Trinity Shopping Centre. If the people who commissioned the signposts took the decision to pretend this exit doesn’t exist then I fully support their act of civic censorship. Leeds train station is the second busiest in the country, but it is served by an exit that wouldn’t be fit for purpose even in a derelict, weed-infested suburb. The path at its narrowest (this corner below) barely allows for a single stream of stressed commuters in both directions – and when they are knocking elbow against elbow, dragging holdalls and hauling large rucksacks, tempers can begin to fray very quickly.

20130801_095558

What is worse is that the station has designated this as the smoking area; technically I’m aware the sign says the smoking area is around the corner, but as we all know smokers don’t have the same capacity for rational thought required of the rest of us. Smokers may have had to suffer as much as a whole thirteen minutes of their commute deprived of nicotine, so when they see the sign “Smoking Area” they respond to the Pavlovian stimulus and light up with as much thought as a Labrador drooling when the dinner bell rings. So, not only is the new visitor to Leeds reduced to a grain of human sand jostling through the narrow bit of an egg-timer, but they emerge from the station into a permanent fug of stale Benson and Hedges; a nice touch to complete that first indelible impression of our lovely city.

20130801_100003

This is the next available exit. I’m not sure how useful the sign is even to most locals, but let’s just imagine you are a happy-go-lucky adventurous type and willing to plunge straight in to all the city offers. What’s in store for you? …

20130801_100009

Erm, okay …

20130801_100015

What the fuck!

20130801_100021

You really want me to go down there? Are you mad! It looks like the opening scene from a low budget slasher movie. What the hell are those people carrying in that suspiciously corpse-sized bag? Where is that eerie light behind them coming from? Who the fuck is responsible for this portal of Hades? I’ve seen more welcoming, inviting, safe looking station exits in … well, even in bleedin’ Hartlepool. And that’s saying something.

If you were a sane human being who valued your continuing existence and this was your first impression of a new city the reasonable thing would be to back away sharpish and grab a ticket to the nearest possibility of civilisation … Doncaster.

The obvious exit, and the one I’m sure the majority of new visitors use, is down toward City Square.

20130801_095520

When you get to the traffic lights at the bottom there are several possibilities. You could go over towards Park Row (which looks like there might be something interesting up there),

20130801_095325

Or you could turn right onto Boar Lane (them looks like shops!)

20130801_095338

Or you could head off down here (and doesn’t it look appealing!)

20130801_095311

I have to admit if I were new in town I’d much sooner head toward something called “Waterfront”, “Granary Wharf” and “Holbeck Urban Village” than “Financial and Legal Quarter” and “Civic Quarter”, so I suppose I can understand some people choosing to follow the signs rather than their instincts. If you were new to Leeds which way would you go?

20130801_095307

The point of all this is that we’ve got a year till the Tour de France hits town. I’ve been reliably informed that we can expect quite a few visitors for that event (I’ve heard people say that it’ll be bigger than a home match against Manchester United! Pull the other one.) I don’t know about you but I’d like to show the city in the best possible light and make sure our visitors have a great time – which means making it easy for them to get around and obvious which way they ought to go.

Right now I can see why some visitors do wonder, “Where’s Leeds?”

16 comments

  1. I am SO GLAD I’m not the only one who finds Leeds completely impossible to navigate from the starting point of the train station. And despite visiting pretty regularly I still have to double check my phone maps to make sure I’m not going in the wrong direction.

  2. First of all. Brilliant. Well done Phil – cogent, witty and a good read as always. Consider my writing hat well and truly doffed…

    Secondly, I have been asking ‘Where is Leeds’ for ages. We have the ROYAL Armouries, the WEST YORKSHIRE Playhouse, Opera NORTH, NORTHERN Ballet, CITY Varieties and now the FIRST DIRECT Arena… it seems the only people/buildings willing to admit to actually being in Leeds are the Universities and the hospitals…

    It is a feature of our attitude to visitors. Leeds is absolutely one of the most diverse, welcoming, open and engaging places I have ever been. However, we don’t make it easy for people to actually get here. Perhaps we are saying ‘Leeds welcomes you – especially if you have had the perseverance and fortitude to actually find us’. Is it like a kind of test?

    1. I like the idea of the Leeds Test … a bit like the Turing Test but it sorts out the genuine Loiners from the fakes.

      I’ve always wondered about the naming thing too – Leeds is one of the few places I know where there’s not a single pub with the city in the name, so it’s not just the big arts and cultural institutions … oddly though the opposite is true in social media and digital where everything is Leeds this and Leeds that. Why is that?

  3. Hah! So true. This happened last month when I brought a couple of American friends over for the day. I mean, I’ve been around Leeds a few times in the past and had instructions where to meet a friend but still managed to go in circles until eventually giving up and finding a landmark pub. Oh and it’s not just the signs, I asked two guys at newspaper stalls for directions and they literally pointed me right back to each other!

    1. What do you think should be signposted? Seems that the people I bump into who ask “Where’s Leeds?” want to be pointed to the interesting stuff – landmark pubs are great. But what else would you want to show them?

      1. Richard – To be fair to the newspaper guys you were asking for The White Rose, which is both the pub you walked right by in the station, but is much better known as the massive out of town shopping centre. 😉
        I know how tough the station is to navigate, so I make sure my instructions for visitors are as clear as possible. However if their phone battery dies and they’ve only half read the message, then they are going to get lost! Sorry Richard!

  4. Good article Phil.

    One question: does ‘Restaurant, Bar & Grill’ own/rent the area on City Square, or do they just put the tables out and hope everyone assumes they do? If they don’t, we could always have a mass picnic and reclaim the square as a common treasury for all!

    By the way, I think there’s a new “pub” opening in The Trinity centre called Leeds Tap so there’ll be one place with Leeds in the title. To find it, just turn left at the horse…

    Nick: never thought about your point before. All those institutions and not a ‘Leeds’ amongst them. Time for a few name changes?

    1. I don’t know what arrangement the restaurant has (need to ask @LeedsCitizen), have just noticed the inexorable creep to claim more space. And, of course, the building itself was once the city’s main post office.

      What’s most annoying is the treatment of the statues … where’s the civic pride here? Or is it stuff pride, let’s make some moolah?

      I won’t be going to any “pub” in a shopping mall. Proper pubs are in proper city streets and open to all. Glad they have used the name though.

      One of the big Leeds institutions has just changed its name. Leeds Beckett Uni … nobody likes it yet.

      1. Good stuff, Phil.

        I hope the peeps in charge of arrangements for the Tour (like the council’s director of City Development and Head of Leisure) will get to read it.

        It’s a good question about how come the Restaurant Bar & Grill gets to use City Square as an outside dining area. I’ve asked.

        1. I’m not against the restaurants using the space but it is a bit annoying that even when the place is empty they still section it off. And the enclosed space is definitely expanding.

          I do think the treatment of the statues is pretty shoddy … they can do what they like with James Watt (he shouldn’t even be there) but Priestly, Hook and Harrison are a big part of the city’s collective history, not some glorified garden gnomes in the outside area of a licensed restaurant.

          1. In case it’s still of interest, the council tell me that Restaurant Bar and Grill have held a Street Café Licence for the seating area since 2006/07.

            The licence sets the exact amount of space the restaurant can use, which is monitored by the … erm … City Centre Liaison Officers who patrol the streets daily.

  5. What a great blog, Phil.

    Jon has a point. How about doing a follow up feature on finding Leeds from the bus station?

    Another thought: how easy is it for a first time visitor to find one transport interchange from the other?

  6. Loved this. The weird tunnelly thing down to Bishopsgate just fills me with dread. It’s disgusting, the refurb couldn’t fix that, it should be opened out because it feels inherently unsafe.

    The squeeze into the most used entrance is irritating at best when groups take up the entire walkway, not to mention the way taxis go hurtling up that lane. I’m amazed there aren’t more accidents there really.

    Great article Phil!

  7. Excellent points. I’ve re-directed many a lost soul.

    You asked where signs should point. Bus station, obviously. Then, as well as usuals like Corn Exchange and shopping places, how about theatres, Town Hall (many people come for weddings), market, galleries, Armouries, library, M Square and courts – can’t imagine anything worse than coming for any kind of court appearance and not being able to find them. A different map showing all the colleges would be useful too – 6 weeks to get that up! Enjoy your bus station expedition.

Comments are closed.