Leeds is a city in the northern English county of Yorkshire. On the south bank of the River Aire, the Royal Armouries houses the national collection of arms and artillery. Across the river, the redeveloped industrial area around Call Lane is famed for bars and live music venues under converted railway arches. Leeds Kirkgate Market features hundreds of indoor and outdoor stalls.
Leeds was a small manorial borough in the 13th century, becoming a major centre for the production and trading of wool in the 17th and 18th centuries, then a major mill town during the Industrial Revolution; wool was still the dominant industry, but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were also important. 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.
Leeds is the largest city in the county of West Yorkshire, England and the most populous in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area and the UK's fourth-most populous urban area with a reported population of 1.8 million in 2013.
