Part 1: Leeds Town Hall

I’ve recently managed to photograph two amazing clock towers and with a third one in the pipeline I thought I’d share them in a trilogy format of photo-blogs. The first in this series is Cuthbert Brodrick’s Town Hall which is truly one of the finest jewels of Victorian architecture at the heart of Leeds in my opinion. So when I noticed a ‘one-off’ tour was part of the Leeds Light Night festival recently it was our first port of call, but sadly this un-bookable event was already booked up when we arrived, but!!! to my delight a phone number was left for a catch-up tour for a few weeks later, so a quick call and our places were booked, and I’d finally get to see the hidden, secret side to this wonderful building.

On a glorious sunny Saturday morning with ❤Wifey on my arm and the trusty camera on the other, the Town Hall Clock Tower was our first port of call, the assent to the tower was by stairs (203 of them) and not for the faint hearted. Throughout the 90 minute tour our guide was Dr Kate Vigurs, an experienced and engaging historian who was very knowledgeable about the whole workings of the Town Hall clock; she also gives some quite insightful stories about the whole building, especially its courtroom and the characters of old that once stood in the dock.

It seem after that mornings tour of the historic clock tower, it’s now to become a permanent Saturday fixture in 2013, so with or without a camera I’d highly recommend this tour…but if you don’t take one, you’ll wish you had when you get out onto the parapets around the clock tower and witness the amazing vistas of Leeds that await you.

I hope you enjoy the gallery…I’ve also added some really interesting ‘Did you know’ facts about the Town Hall within each ones description… just click on any image to launch the Image Carousel 🙂