Victoria Square, Leeds, Leeds, Guide du visiteur et quoi faire à proximité

Victoria Square is the open public space in front of Leeds Town Hall on The Headrow, in the centre of Leeds. It sits beside some of the city's best-known Victorian civic buildings, which makes it a handy place to start or break a walk through the centre.

The story behind it

The square takes its character from the building behind it. Leeds Town Hall was designed by the architect Cuthbert Brodrick and opened by Queen Victoria in 1858, when Leeds was one of the great industrial towns of northern England. The hall was meant to show how wealthy and confident the town had become.

The Headrow, the broad street the square faces, was widened in the early twentieth century, and the setting you see today comes from that long period of civic building. Today the square works as a meeting spot and a place to pause between the Town Hall, the galleries and the shops.

What to look for

• Look up at the Town Hall's tall clock tower, which rises above the whole street and is one of the landmarks of the Leeds skyline.
• Notice the grand columned entrance at the top of the Town Hall steps, a classical design that was typical of confident Victorian civic buildings.
• Find the stone lions that flank the Town Hall steps, which are a favourite spot for photographs.
• Walk to the edge of the square and look along The Headrow to see how the street's wide, formal frontage is lined with large civic buildings.

Tips for your visit

• Give yourself 10 to 15 minutes for the square and the Town Hall facade, longer if you want to photograph the building from several angles.
• The square is an outdoor public space, so you can walk through it at any time. Whether you can enter the Town Hall depends on events, so check current opening hours and access.
• Soft morning or late afternoon light works well for photographs of the stonework and the clock tower.
• Leeds Art Gallery, the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Central Library are all close by on the same street, so it pairs easily with a museum stop.

See it on a quest

The square is one stop in Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Leeds, a self-guided walk with a murder mystery theme. You reach the square on foot as part of a longer route through the city centre, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no set group to join.