And it's all thanks to the stops on our Blue Plaque Trail.
Leeds holds a wealth of history, you don't need to tell us that twice. From building the first steam locomotive to bringing the world inventions like Cluedo, housing the UK's last remaining gas-lit cinema and not to mention founding major UK supermarkets...
Thanks to new research from the UK’s largest delivery service, Evri, Leeds has been recognised as one of the most 'heritage rich cities' in England.
The research analysed the amount of heritage plaques in each city across the UK, and naturally with 180 blue plaques around the city, Leeds has been revealed as one of the places with the most.
Placing a respectable fourth place, Leeds only lost out to the likes of Norwich, Liverpool and (unsurprisingly) London, who held the top spot with an incomparable 987 blue plaques.
The top ten cities, according to the study, were as follows:
CITY
NO. OF HERITAGE PLAQUES
London (Incl. Westminster)
987
Liverpool
295
Norwich
260
Leeds
180
Brighton + Hove
151
Coventry
142
York
135
Newcastle Upon Tyne
125
Wolverhampton
98
Birmingham
96
To decipher these numbers, the study counted the number of heritage plaques from official sources of every city across the UK, such as civic society websites and city council websites. Where these sources weren’t available, plaques were taken from the website, Open Plaques, which lists every heritage plaque within the city postcode. Duplicates were then emitted and cities were ranked highest to lowest to reveal the ranking.
The study from Evri noted that the original blue plaque scheme started in the capital by English Heritage, placing plaques honouring the likes of actor, Charlie Chaplain, novelist, Charles Dickens and prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill but since then, heritage plaques have been dotted across the country. They're known to highlight historical landmarks and give passersby an insight to the famous faces and historical moments that happened in the same spot they're standing, years ago.
Leeds has a grand total of 180 heritage plaques, honouring the likes of Sir Charles Wilson MP, J R R Tolkien CBE and Leeds Corn Exchange, many of which feature in The Hoot's series Short Stuff, where we uncover some of the best hidden gems in the city, or pay homage to important bulidings, faces and inventions that have made Leeds the cultural city it is today.
To find out more about Leeds blue plaques and see for yourself why Leeds has been named as such a heritage rich city, visit the Leeds Civic Trust website.
After closing for the entire second day, The Warehouse stage at Leeds Festival has once again been forced to evacuate.
One of the most anticipated dance acts of the day has been cancelled due to health and safety concerns just moments before the set.
Sheffield DJ Silva Bumpa was due to take to The Warehouse stage today at 1:30pm, but the set was cancelled due to overcrowding.
It's not the first time this has happened at Leeds Festival 2026, as yesterday Omar+'s set was cancelled due to the same issue and the stage was subsequently closed for the rest of the day.
The Warehouse stage is completely new for this year, and supposedly is designed specifically for dance music...which is quite ironic.
Announcing the news to Instagram, Silva Bumpa said: "So so sorry Leeds Fest but due to over crowding my set was cancelled last min I was just behind the stage and got told right before such a massive shame."
Prospa, another prominent DJ who's set was cancelled at Reading on Friday afternoon, spoke up on the situation: "We are disappointed in The Warehouse stage closure at Reading Festival. We were told it wasn't possible to play whilst on the way. This was due to too many people outside the stage.
"We have seen this happen before at larger festivals in the UK. It's time to double the capacity of tents or put dance music on the main stage."
It comes after another dance stage, LS23, was closed mid-set last night due to a health and safety hazard when all the lights suddenly switched off and ravers were forced to evacuate.
If yesterday is anything to go by, we wouldn't be surprised if The Warehouse was closed for the rest of the day which means anticipated sets from Rossi and Mall Grab will also be cancelled.
‘Actually lost for words’ – huge artist speaks out as Leeds Festival set is cancelled due to overcrowding
Clementine Hall
For the second day in a row, a huge set has been cancelled due to overcrowding at Reading and Leeds Festival.
Day two of the festival and there's some pretty disappointed ravers hanging their head as one of the biggest dance music sets of the day is cancelled.
Omar+, a rising British electronic DJ and producer, was due to play on the brand-new Warehouse stage at Reading yesterday and Leeds today.
Yesterday's set was cancelled last minute due to overcrowding, and low and behold the same has happened here in Leeds.
Announcing the sad news to his story, Omar+ said "Actually lost for words. My Leeds set has been cancelled due to overcrowding."
He then went on to show a screenshot of a text message, reading: "I've never seen something like this in my entire life where two shows back to back are cancelled due to overcrowding."
The Warehouse stage is completely new for this year, and supposedly is designed specifically for dance music...which is quite ironic.
Prospa, another prominent DJ who's set was cancelled at Reading yesterday, spoke up on the situation: "We are disappointed in The Warehouse stage closure at Reading Festival. We were told it wasn't possible to play whilst on the way. This was due to too many people outside the stage.
"We have seen this happen before at larger festivals in the UK. It's time to double the capacity of tents or put dance music on the main stage."
It comes after another dance stage, LS23, was closed mid-set last night due to a health and safety hazard when all the lights suddenly switched off and ravers were forced to evacuate.
Sophie Smith -
15th September 2022 
