Leeds city centre

Mackemansj1

Mackemansj1

Striker
Really shows you what a busy popular city centre shopping experience can be. It blows away Newcastle and I won't even bring our city centre into it as you could fit our shopping experience in a few streets in Leeds. Was there for a few hours before a gig and you can really feel the buzz not many boarded up shops massive malls etc covered, beautiful old buildings everywhere. It really made me sad at the state we find ours in , I know we've improved it somewhat in the past few years with plans for more and I know population wise Leeds according to goggle anyway is more than twice the size of the city of Sunderland, but I thought all high streets everywhere were fucked, Leeds was like stepping back into the 90s with a thriving shopping scene, again the old buildings man what a beautiful place.
 


I was of the impression most cities are dumps these days. I was in Edinburgh last month and Princes Street was nearly all cheap tourist tat shops and about 5 Poundlands before you got to the St James Quarter. Next is gone, Debenhams is gone, Jenners is gone.

We used to park at Ocean Terminal and get the bus up to the centre when we’ve been through in the past but stopped about a year ago because OT is like a ghost town.
 
googleboogle said:
Loads of the little shopping centres were empty last time I was in Leeds.

The center one is decent but it killed all the others.
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I spent about four hours walking around and maybe just with it being Christmas but I can't remember seeing an empty shop, not like we have down town where large chunks of it are shut. It was heaving too, was like a blast from the past.
 
Apples and oranges.

I was in Soho yesterday and had a wander up Oxford Street and popped into Selfridges. But I was back home The Bridges was empty. Makes you think.
 
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PeteFTM said:
Not comparable to Sunderland or even Newcastle unfortunately as there’s a lot more money floating round in Leeds with many big businesses having their northern HQ there.
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You can tell mate, was packed and seems like alot is central it's great and that huge hotel is like something you'd see in London.
MackneyHackem said:
Apples and oranges.
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Tbh I'd only ever been to Leeds for football and stuck to the area around Elland road so always had the impression of Leeds as a similar place to Sunderland or Newcastle, it's really nowt like either like and I didn't know Leeds had that sort of population makes it even more odd they get smoke blown up their arse for getting 35k etc and good away crowds f***ing city is massive.
 
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PeteFTM said:
Not comparable to Sunderland or even Newcastle unfortunately as there’s a lot more money floating round in Leeds with many big businesses having their northern HQ there.
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having worked down there 1-2 days a week a little while ago its an eye opener to see the difference at either end of the A1, there's money generally floating around Leeds that there isnt once you're in the North East.
 
It boils down to there being more jobs in Leeds. It's a place of better paid employment too.
I'm looking for work at the moment and there's next to nothing coming up around here for what I do but plenty in Leeds. More people with good income means more investment in to the area.
You need the jobs to kick start the rest. We have been on bottom rung as long as I've known.
 
Mackemansj1 said:
You can tell mate, was packed and seems like alot is central it's great and that huge hotel is like something you'd see in London.

Tbh I'd only ever been to Leeds for football and stuck to the area around Elland road so always had the impression of Leeds as a similar place to Sunderland or Newcastle, it's really nowt like either like and I didn't know Leeds had that sort of population makes it even more odd they get smoke blown up their arse for getting 35k etc and good away crowds f***ing city is massive.
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Large portions of that population will live in highly impoverished areas or in outlying villages.

And the ones that do live in the centre probably aren’t from Leeds.
 
Bob Fleming said:
It boils down to there being more jobs in Leeds. It's a place of better paid employment too.
I'm looking for work at the moment and there's next to nothing coming up around here for what I do but plenty in Leeds. More people with good income means more investment in to the area.
You need the jobs to kick start the rest. We have been on bottom rung as long as I've known.
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It's crazy it's so close yet it almost feels like Leeds is as far north as the money travels. Like I said for some reason I always had Leeds down as a similar city to Sunderland and Newcastle, it didnt feel at all like either.
 
They did a cracking job with the Trinity centre and are improving the surrounding streets as well. John Lewis and the new developments round there are nice and still plans developing. The street alongside the market is being turned into a hotel…. Speaking of which, if you find yourselves looking for some nice reasonably priced bait, the indoor bit of the market has loads of small vendors who are mostly immigrants knocking out nice food for a fiver or so. The fish mongers started selling oysters straight from the counters as well.

There’s still a few down at heel sections and the St John centre and Merion centre are dedicated for low quality shops but overall I think the council are doing a great job.
Bob Fleming said:
It boils down to there being more jobs in Leeds. It's a place of better paid employment too.
I'm looking for work at the moment and there's next to nothing coming up around here for what I do but plenty in Leeds. More people with good income means more investment in to the area.
You need the jobs to kick start the rest. We have been on bottom rung as long as I've known.
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That’s it, can have all the cafes and wine bars in the world but you need a population earning good enough money that they’re willing to buy a £4 coffee or a £9 cocktail.
 
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Jabberwocky said:
They did a cracking job with the Trinity centre and are improving the surrounding streets as well. John Lewis and the new developments round there are nice and still plans developing. The street alongside the market is being turned into a hotel…. Speaking of which, if you find yourselves looking for some nice reasonably priced bait, the indoor bit of the market has loads of small vendors who are mostly immigrants knocking out nice food for a fiver or so. The fish mongers started selling oysters straight from the counters as well.

There’s still a few down at heel sections and the St John centre and Merion centre are dedicated for low quality shops but overall I think the council are doing a great job.
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I was blown away mate, I noticed all the work going on too. I think it's called trinity centre?? With the big glass covered roof, that look pretty amazing as it was getting dark and you could see all the Christmas lights and tree outside etc.
 
Mackemansj1 said:
You can tell mate, was packed and seems like alot is central it's great and that huge hotel is like something you'd see in London.

Tbh I'd only ever been to Leeds for football and stuck to the area around Elland road so always had the impression of Leeds as a similar place to Sunderland or Newcastle, it's really nowt like either like and I didn't know Leeds had that sort of population makes it even more odd they get smoke blown up their arse for getting 35k etc and good away crowds f***ing city is massive.
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Sunderland and Newcastle aren't comparable either.
 
Mickdundee said:
I was of the impression most cities are dumps these days. I was in Edinburgh last month and Princes Street was nearly all cheap tourist tat shops and about 5 Poundlands before you got to the St James Quarter. Next is gone, Debenhams is gone, Jenners is gone.

We used to park at Ocean Terminal and get the bus up to the centre when we’ve been through in the past but stopped about a year ago because OT is like a ghost town.
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Nottingham’s a bit of a dump nowadays.
 

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