Leeds is the largest city in the county of West Yorkshire in Northern England, approximately 170 miles north of central London.[6] Leeds has one of the most diverse economies of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city. It also has the highest ratio of private to public sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities, with 77% of its workforce working in the private sector. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area, with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015.[5] Leeds is ranked as a High Sufficiency level city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[7] Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the West Yorkshire Urban Area.[8][9][10] Leeds is served by five universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and the country's fourth largest urban economy.[11]
Leeds was a small manorial borough in the 13th century, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it became a major centre for the production and trading of wool, and in the Industrial Revolution a major mill town; wool was still the dominant industry, but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were also important.[12] From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century, Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. It now lies within the West Yorkshire Urban Area, the United Kingdom's fourth-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.6 million.[13]
Today, Leeds has become the largest legal and financial centre outside London[5][14] with the financial and insurance services industry worth £13 billion to the city's economy. The finance and business service sector account for 38% of total output[5][15][16] with more than 30 national and international banks located in the city, including an office of the Bank of England.[14] Leeds is also the UK's third-largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city and is worth over £7 billion to the local economy.[15] The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology.[17] Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, and the creative and digital industries. The city saw several firsts, including the oldest-surviving film in existence, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), and the 1767 invention of soda water.[18][19]
Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds, and the second phase of High Speed 2 will connect it to London via East Midlands Hub and Sheffield Meadowhall. Leeds currently has the third busiest railway station[20] and the tenth busiest airport outside London
Toponymy
The name derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning "people of the fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire that flows through the city.[22] This name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century.[23]
Bede states in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History, in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria, that it is located in ...regione quae vocatur Loidis (Latin, "the region which is called Loidis"). An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin.[24] The term Leodensian is also used, from the city's Latin name.
The name has also been explained as a derivative of Welsh lloed, meaning simply "a place".[25]
Economic development
Leeds developed as a market town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy.
Before the Industrial Revolution, it became a co-ordination centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, and white broadcloth was traded at its White Cloth Hall.[26]
Leeds handled one sixth of England's export trade in 1770.[27] Growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816.[28] In the late Georgian era, William Lupton, Lord of the Manor of Leeds, was one of a number of central Leeds landowners with the mesne lord title, some of whom, like him, were textile manufacturers. At the time of his death in 1828, Lupton's land in Briggate in central Leeds included a mill, reservoir, manor house and outbuildings.[29][30]
The railway network constructed around Leeds, starting with the Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834, provided improved communications with national markets and, significantly for its development, an east-west connection with Manchester and the ports of Liverpool and Hull giving improved access to international markets.[31] Alongside technological advances and industrial expansion, Leeds retained an interest in trading in agricultural commodities, with the Corn Exchange opening in 1864.
Leeds from the Meadows by Joseph Rhodes, 1825.
Marshall's Mill was one of the first of many factories constructed in Leeds from around 1790 when the most significant were woollen finishing and flax mills.[32] Manufacturing diversified by 1914 to printing, engineering, chemicals and clothing manufacture.[33] Decline in manufacturing during the 1930s was temporarily reversed by a switch to producing military uniforms and munitions during World War II. However, by the 1970s, the clothing industry was in irreversible decline, facing cheap foreign competition.[34] The contemporary economy has been shaped by Leeds City Council's vision of building a '24-hour European city' and 'capital of the north'.[35] The city has developed from the decay of the post-industrial era to become a telephone banking centre, connected to the electronic infrastructure of the modern global economy.[35] There has been growth in the corporate and legal sectors,[36] and increased local affluence has led to an expanding retail sector, including the luxury goods market.[37]
Leeds City Region Enterprise Zone was launched in April 2012 to promote development in four sites along the A63 East Leeds Link Road.[38]
Local government
Leeds was a small manorial borough in the 13th century, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it became a major centre for the production and trading of wool, and in the Industrial Revolution a major mill town; wool was still the dominant industry, but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were also important.[12] From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century, Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. It now lies within the West Yorkshire Urban Area, the United Kingdom's fourth-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.6 million.[13]
Today, Leeds has become the largest legal and financial centre outside London[5][14] with the financial and insurance services industry worth £13 billion to the city's economy. The finance and business service sector account for 38% of total output[5][15][16] with more than 30 national and international banks located in the city, including an office of the Bank of England.[14] Leeds is also the UK's third-largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city and is worth over £7 billion to the local economy.[15] The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology.[17] Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, and the creative and digital industries. The city saw several firsts, including the oldest-surviving film in existence, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), and the 1767 invention of soda water.[18][19]
Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds, and the second phase of High Speed 2 will connect it to London via East Midlands Hub and Sheffield Meadowhall. Leeds currently has the third busiest railway station[20] and the tenth busiest airport outside London
Toponymy
The name derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning "people of the fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire that flows through the city.[22] This name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century.[23]
Bede states in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History, in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria, that it is located in ...regione quae vocatur Loidis (Latin, "the region which is called Loidis"). An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin.[24] The term Leodensian is also used, from the city's Latin name.
The name has also been explained as a derivative of Welsh lloed, meaning simply "a place".[25]
Economic development
Leeds developed as a market town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy.
Before the Industrial Revolution, it became a co-ordination centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, and white broadcloth was traded at its White Cloth Hall.[26]
Leeds handled one sixth of England's export trade in 1770.[27] Growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816.[28] In the late Georgian era, William Lupton, Lord of the Manor of Leeds, was one of a number of central Leeds landowners with the mesne lord title, some of whom, like him, were textile manufacturers. At the time of his death in 1828, Lupton's land in Briggate in central Leeds included a mill, reservoir, manor house and outbuildings.[29][30]
The railway network constructed around Leeds, starting with the Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834, provided improved communications with national markets and, significantly for its development, an east-west connection with Manchester and the ports of Liverpool and Hull giving improved access to international markets.[31] Alongside technological advances and industrial expansion, Leeds retained an interest in trading in agricultural commodities, with the Corn Exchange opening in 1864.
Leeds from the Meadows by Joseph Rhodes, 1825.
Marshall's Mill was one of the first of many factories constructed in Leeds from around 1790 when the most significant were woollen finishing and flax mills.[32] Manufacturing diversified by 1914 to printing, engineering, chemicals and clothing manufacture.[33] Decline in manufacturing during the 1930s was temporarily reversed by a switch to producing military uniforms and munitions during World War II. However, by the 1970s, the clothing industry was in irreversible decline, facing cheap foreign competition.[34] The contemporary economy has been shaped by Leeds City Council's vision of building a '24-hour European city' and 'capital of the north'.[35] The city has developed from the decay of the post-industrial era to become a telephone banking centre, connected to the electronic infrastructure of the modern global economy.[35] There has been growth in the corporate and legal sectors,[36] and increased local affluence has led to an expanding retail sector, including the luxury goods market.[37]
Leeds City Region Enterprise Zone was launched in April 2012 to promote development in four sites along the A63 East Leeds Link Road.[38]
Local government
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