for: City of Leeds

Leeds (pronunciation) is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England. It is the urban core and administrative centre of the wider metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds. The county borough of Leeds was awarded city status in 1893, but in 1974 this status was transferred to the larger new metropolitan borough named "City of Leeds". Thus Leeds, although commonly referred to as a "city", does not have this legal status unless the wider area is being discussed.

Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the recorded history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the Kingdom of Elmet was covered by the forest of "Loidis", the origin of the name Leeds. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a major industrial centre for the production and trade of wool, before emerging as a centre for commerce and higher education, being the location of the University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds Trinity and All Saints. Today the city is one of the largest financial and legal centres outside London.

According to the 2001 UK census, the population of the Leeds urban area was 443,247, whereas the wider City of Leeds metropolitan district has a population of 761,100 (mid-2007 estimate) and is one of the eight largest English cities outside London that form the English Core Cities Group. It is at the centre of the West Yorkshire metropolitan county with a population of over 2.1 million.

History

main: History of Leeds

The name "Leeds" is derived from "Loidis", a word of Celtic origin. Bede wote: "...regione quae vocatur Loidis"  region known as Loidis. This root also survives in the nearby place names of Ledston and Ledsham. Leeds was mentioned as "Ledes" in the Domesday Book of 1086, after which the name evolved into "Leedes" and finally "Leeds".

Leeds was an agricultural market town in the Middle Ages, and received its first charter in 1207. In the Tudor period Leeds was mainly a merchant town, manufacturing woollen cloths and trading with Europe via the Humber estuary. The population grew from 10,000 at the end of the 17th century to 30,000 at the end of the 18th. At one point nearly half of England's total exports passed through Leeds. At the time of the Industrial Revolution Leeds grew rapidly and the population rose to over 150,000 by 1840. The city's industrial growth was helped by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699, Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816 and the railway in 1848. In 1893 Leeds was granted city status. The industries that developed in the Industrial Revolution included making machinery for spinning, machine tools, steam engines and gears as well as other industries based on textiles, chemicals, leather and pottery. Coal was extracted on a large scale and the Middleton Railway, the first successful commercial steam locomotive railway in the world, transported coal from Middleton colliery into the centre of Leeds. The first permanent set of fully automatic traffic lights in the world were installed at the junction of Park Row and Bond Street, Leeds, in 1928.