Brian Clarke's glass roof
Roughly 749 square metres of stained glass over Queen Victoria Street since 1990, the largest work of its kind in Britain and the best photograph you will take in Leeds.
The largest piece of stained glass in Britain is not in a cathedral. It hangs over a shopping street in Leeds. Brian Clarke's roof, roughly 749 square metres of it spanning Queen Victoria Street since 1990, throws shifting blues and reds onto the pavement and the shopfronts as the clouds move, and it is the reason everyone here has a phone pointed upward before they have looked at a single window display. Either side of it run the County and Cross Arcades, built between 1898 and 1904 by Frank Matcham, a man who otherwise designed theatres, which explains why they feel more like an opera house than a market: mosaic floors, marble, glazed Burmantofts faience from the local pottery, and barrel-vaulted glass roofs that flood the whole passage with daylight. The arcades are Grade II* listed and are, without argument, the finest of Leeds's surviving Victorian arcades. Since 2016 the official name has been Victoria Leeds, which lumps the old arcades (the Victoria Quarter) together with the newer Victoria Gate block, home to John Lewis and a very large car park. Harvey Nichols opened its first store outside London here in 1996 and Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Vivienne Westwood and the rest followed, and the quarter now bills itself as the biggest luxury retail district in the north of England. Be honest with yourself, though: if you are not here to buy, the place is worth half an hour of walking and photographs and no more; if you are here to shop, you can lose half a day. Walking through the arcades and the glazed street is free and needs no booking. Shops open 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday and 11:00 to 17:00 on Sunday, and the arcades themselves stay open as a through-route after that. Everything is on one level and easy with a pushchair, the cafés in County Arcade make a decent short stop, and the Victoria Gate car park has 805 spaces open around the clock (4 pounds for the first hour, with a flat 6-pound evening rate after 17:00), which makes it the simplest option for anyone driving over from Manchester or York. From Leeds railway station it is a walk of about ten minutes; the main bus station sits right beside the complex. What lifts the visit is where it sits: squarely on the natural walking route through central Leeds. Briggate is two minutes away, historic Kirkgate Market, one of the largest covered markets in Europe, is straight across Vicar Lane, and the round Corn Exchange is five minutes on. String the four together and you have a two-hour loop that covers the best of the city centre. And in a wet English winter especially, this coloured-glass street is the best place in Leeds to spend the short midday hour without getting soaked.
Roughly 749 square metres of stained glass over Queen Victoria Street since 1990, the largest work of its kind in Britain and the best photograph you will take in Leeds.
Frank Matcham's 1898-1904 arcade with its mosaic floors, glazed faience and glass barrel vaults, the finest of Leeds's Victorian arcades by some distance.
Two minutes to Briggate, Kirkgate Market across the road and the Corn Exchange five minutes on: a two-hour walk that covers the best of Leeds.
County Arcade, between Briggate and Vicar Lane, Leeds LS1 6AZ
Yes, but for half an hour only. The glass roof and County Arcade deserve a walk-through and a few photographs, and it is already on your way between Briggate and Kirkgate Market. Do not make a separate trip for it; fold it into a walk around central Leeds.
Very well. The passages are level with no steps, and the Victoria Gate car park (805 spaces, open 24 hours, 18 family bays) opens straight onto the complex at 4 pounds for the first hour and 6 for two. Sunday is quieter, but shops do not open until 11:00.