48 Albion Street Leeds

Picture of 48 Albion Street Leeds.

Previously I have gone out of my way to ignore places like Starbucks on this blog about Leeds because they represent everything that is, in my view, wrong with our towns and cities.

This attitude is I think wrong in the sense that this building in the above photograph currently occupied by Starbucks, is I think rather a nice old stone built building.

This is the corner of Albion Street and Commercial Street in Leeds city centre, the light building on the far right of the photo is The Leeds Library of which I am a member.

I took the photograph a few days back on a nice bright and sunny day unlike today where it is 10/10 cloud and muggy here in Leeds.

Leeds Bus Station Clock

Picture of Leeds bus station clock.

This clock at the Leeds city bus station will be one of the first sights in Leeds that many visitors first see.

The clock is on a small brick tower in the middle of the yard where the buses maneuver into the bays to pick up and drop of passengers.

I took this photo some days back on a dull and damp day. The BBC Leeds building is on the left of the picture, behind the clock is a metal aerial like structure atop the DHSS building at Quarry Hill.

Intrepid Granny

Picture of Xie Houguo and bicycle in City Square, Leeds.

Walking across City Square when I noticed some young Chinese, possibly students photographing an older lady with a bike. I asked one of them what it was about and he said that this little granny had ridden her bike from China to England for the Olympics.

I thought wow, thats some trek for anyone but on further questions she had flown to Hungary and ridden the little folding bicycle from there apart from the ferry from France to Dover. No wonder these young people wanted to get a photo of this lady and her bike.

Xie Houguo aged 63, is a retired worker from the Chongqing Tap Water Company in China. Xie completed in 2007 a tour of China's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions after being seriously injured in a road accident. In 2008 Xie was a torchbearer at the Beijing Olympics.

In the background are from left the newly restored Majestic Cinema building, the former General Post Office building, Bond Court and lastly the much newer 1 City Square.

Renault Twizy

Picture of Renault Twizy on Briggate, Leeds.

Walking along Briggate in Leeds shopping district this afternoon I noticed a small track had been laid out. Renault the French car maker were giving free rides in their new electric car the Twizy.

The Twizy is described as an electric city car (legally clasiffied in Europe as a heavy quadricycle) and has a range of 60 miles with a 3 hour charge period.

I was tempted to have a ride but there were kids queuing and they would have far more fun from this than me. With no road tax I would think this would be quite a popular car for people who perhaps commute across a city.

The young woman driver and demonstrator I spoke to said she had great fun driving it around, I can believe that. As for charging it has a standard UK plug on the end of a coiled cable, so you could charge it up at the office.

Pandora Girls

Just about everyone on Briggate in Leeds city centre wanted get a look at the Queen who was visiting the city yesterday morning.

The Pandora store at the top of Briggate was close to where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were walking and chatting to people in the crowd. As I walked past the store I saw that the members of staff were standing on the staircase trying to get a view above the heads of the crowd. I asked if I could take a photo and they said yes....

Yorkshire Spitfire Team - Flugtag

Picture of Yorkshire Spitfire Team at Red Bull Flugtag Leeds.

At this weekends Red Bull Flugtag Leeds held at Roundhay Park there was a team from the Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron their team name was Yorkshire Spitfire.

The Yorkshire Spitfire team was Captain: Kristian Parry his team being Anna Christensen, Lewis Caswell, Euan McFalls. Each team member being a member of the Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron, hence the real flying outfits. The team pilot is Anna Christensen, seen here in the above photo, with both the "spitfire" and her team mates without whom there would be no flight. Although Anna is the team pilot the chap on the left is actually an officer and pilot who flies in the RAF.

Picture of Yorkshire Spitfire flying at Flugtag Leeds.

Despite the stirring music and a gallant effort the Yorkshire Spitfire was only airborne for a short while before crashing into the lake. In the above photo Anna can be seen in mid-flight on the "spitfire" whilst the chaps get ready to join her in the drink. Luckily Red Bull take the safety of the crew seriously and they were fished out and taken to dry land shortly after this photo was taken.