Leeds Facts

The worlds biggest wedding

In February 2015, local radio DJ Alex Simmonds married Amy Ewing in front of a huge number of their friends and family at Rudding Park. Nothing strange about that you might think, but 233 of those guests were part of the wedding party itself – 103 ushers and 230 bridesmaids. This is an official Guinness World Record, in fact.


Leeds kept rooftop sheep

The iconic Temple Mill building in Holbeck was once home to a flock of sheep, who were kept there to maintain the grassy roof, which was in turn used to maintain a level of humidity in the building itself, which in turn kept the wool yarns from separating.



Live at Leeds was going to be called Live at Hull

Live at Hull doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but that was nearly the name of one of music’s most iconic records, as Roger Daltrey’s mob were set to record the show at Hull University the day after that famous Leeds set. The story goes that a roadie failed to set up the recording equipment properly and the Leeds gig was consigned to greatness forever.



Houdini almost died here

Leeds folk have threatened to be the death of many a man over the years, but when the world famous escapist and illusionist Harry Houdini came to perform at The Tetley way back when, he nearly met a particularly sodden end. Vowing to break out of a case of finest ale, Houdini failed, and would have died had it not been for the intervention of his assistant.

Hippos once roamed the city centre

True story. Back in 1851, workers found enormous bones as they were digging out sections of Leeds for regeneration works of sorts. Upon closer inspection, archaeologists confirmed the bones to be that of ancient hippopotamus believed to have livd here around 100,000 years ago.


100,000 people pass through per day

It’s a whopping statistic, but over 100,000 people use Leeds Train Station every single day. That includes 900 trains, and makes it it by far the busiest UK train station outside of London.

We own the world record Sherlock dance session

And if that’s not something to be proud of, what the hell is? In 2014, an incredible 443 people dressed up as Sherlock Holmes and met at Temple Newsam. It gets weirder – they did a flash mob dance to The Bee Gee’s immortal classic ‘Staying Alive’. Whatever floats your boat.


Tourist hotspot

Not much to see, huh? But it’s true – Leeds is a tourism hot spot nowadays, attracting more Summer visitors than traditional British holiday destinations such as Torquay and Brighton. This is according to national tourism board VisitBritain, who damn well know their stuff.