Down on Kirkstall Lane sits a sad-looking abandoned pub that was once the life and soul of the party.
Kirkstall Lites has lain empty for years, but at one point it was packed to the rafters with locals enjoying a pint together and maybe even a boogie.
The purpose-built pub and bar first opened as a Tetley House in the 80s, replacing the then-recently demolished Abbey and Sovereign pub. By all accounts, it was very popular with locals and was generally ram-packed with drinkers on the weekends.
However, for various reasons including the rise in the popularity (and affordability)of drinking at home, the pub eventually closed its doors for good in 2004 having suffered a long decline in the years leading up to its final shuttering.
Having lain empty for more than a decade now, it's become somewhat of a mystery to those who pass by its desolate, boarded-up exterior. Keen to discover what it was like inside, urban explorer Kyle Urbex recently made it inside.
His pictures give a unique insight into how the pub looks today, seventeen years later. From its heyday as a popular Tetley pub to the abandoned and decaying building it is today, Kirkstall Lites has definitely had a fall from grace.
Still, there are some remnants to be seen from its glory days - captured wonderfully by photographer Kyle, right down to the pictures still tacked onto the walls from years gone by.
It's not the only pub to have suffered such a fate, with neighbouring boozers the George IV and a W.M. club also closing their doors in recent years.
local photographer, Thomas Ackroyd, has said that the pub as it is now "mirrors the rest of the area round there and is looking very tatty and now the metal boards of doom have replaced the wooden ones"
That said, when Kyle managed to make his way in he said he was "surprised" to find memories of happier days still tacked on to the walls.
Speaking to Leeds Live he also registered his shock that so many of its features remained intact, such as the "stage area where CJ's music bar once hosted many happy and wild nights and bands."
Another urban explorer, who runs the Facebook page Lost Places & Forgotten Faces, also visited the pub in June and shared his not-so-positive thoughts in a post on social media:
"The place is an absolute wreck. Fire damage, weather damage and chav damage have all collaborated to transform Kirkstall Lites into a crumbling death trap.
"Under all the destruction, I could just about make out what actually looked like a once fun and vibrant establishment for locals.
"Some photographic memories of happier times are still somehow clinging to the walls, and the brickwork in parts, especially the old fireplace, is actually holding up. It won't be long now before this one is ripped to the ground. What a shame."
Take a look around the pub by exploring Kyle's images below:
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Georgina Pellant -
3rd September 2021 
