Things to do in Leeds right now
Leeds is a compact city with an outsized amount under cover: Victorian arcades, a covered market, free museums and the Royal Armouries all within a short walk. Beyond the ring road it turns green fast, with Roundhay, Kirkstall Abbey and the Dales within reach. This list is re-ordered for the weather and the time in Leeds right now.
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Royal Armouries
Leeds Dock
The national collection of arms and armour, with live combat demonstrations, free, on the dock.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Leeds Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute
The Headrow
A strong twentieth-century British collection and a sculpture institute next door, both free.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Roundhay Park and Tropical World
Roundhay
Seven hundred acres of lakes, woods and lawns, with a tropical glasshouse of butterflies and meerkats.
Go now, before the rain arrives. Free.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Park free; Tropical World cheap
Victoria Quarter and the arcades
Briggate
Marble, mosaic and stained glass: the Victorian arcades that made Leeds a shopping city.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen
Cross Belgrave Street
Three floors of pizza, burgers, gigs and a rooftop terrace in a former working men’s club.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Kirkgate Market
Kirkgate
One of the largest covered markets in Europe, where Marks and Spencer started, with a street-food hall.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Kirkstall Abbey
Kirkstall
The ruins of a Cistercian abbey in a riverside park, free, with a museum of Victorian streets over the road.
Go now, before the rain arrives. Free.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
The Leeds Tiger, an Egyptian mummy and the story of the city, free, in a converted institute.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
Leeds Corn Exchange
Call Lane
A Victorian domed trading hall full of independent shops, cafés and makers.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Elland Road stadium tour
Beeston
Behind the scenes at Leeds United, from the dressing rooms to the dugout.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- £10 to £25
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
- Fine in rain
- Good with kids
Hyde Park Picture House
Hyde Park
A gas-lit Edwardian cinema showing independent and classic films, restored and reopened.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Ilkley Moor and the Cow and Calf
Day trip: Ilkley
The moor from the song, half an hour by train, with rock climbing at the Cow and Calf and tea in Ilkley.
Go now, before the rain arrives.
- Under £10
- Outdoors
- A full day
Free; train fare
Thackray Museum of Medicine
Harehills
A recreated Victorian slum, a surgical theatre and a lot of interactive gore, for older children especially.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- £10 to £25
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Call Lane and the Corn Exchange quarter
Call Lane
The city’s densest run of bars and restaurants, from cocktail cellars to late-night rooftops.
Comes alive in the evening.
- £10 to £25
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
- Fine in rain
Harewood House
Harewood
A great Georgian house with Chippendale furniture, a bird garden and Capability Brown grounds.
- Over £25
- In and out
- A full day
- Good with kids
Temple Newsam
Whitkirk
A Tudor-Jacobean house in a Capability Brown park, with a rare-breeds farm children love.
- Under £10
- In and out
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Park free; house and farm cheap
Leeds Dock and the waterfront
Leeds Dock
A walk along the Aire and the canal from the station to the dock, with bars on the water.
Go now, before the rain arrives. Free.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Under 2 hours
Leeds Minster
Kirkgate
A grand Victorian parish church with a famous choir and Saxon crosses, free, beside the market.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Meanwood Valley Trail
Meanwood
A wooded valley walk from the edge of the city out to the countryside, with a farm and a pub on the way.
Go now, before the rain arrives. Free.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Otley Chevin
Otley
A forest park on a ridge above Otley with a view over Wharfedale and the airport’s planes.
Go now, before the rain arrives. Free.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Half a day
Trinity Leeds
Briggate
A glass-roofed shopping centre in the middle of town, with a food hall and a cinema.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills
Armley
Once the biggest woollen mill in the world, now a museum of textiles, printing and a tiny cinema.
Rain is due later, and this is under cover.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
Headingley
Headingley
The student suburb with the cricket ground, the pubs of the Otley Run and good cheap food.
- Under £10
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
Leeds Grand Theatre
New Briggate
A gilded Victorian theatre that is home to Opera North and the big touring musicals.
Comes alive in the evening.
- Over £25
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Leeds Playhouse
Quarry Hill
One of the country’s best producing theatres, with new work and big revivals on two stages.
Comes alive in the evening.
- £10 to £25
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours