Category: YORKSHIRE

Leeds struts across England’s urban stage like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, oozing the confidence that befits the favourite child of the New Urban Revolution, that unassailable force that has turned punch-drunk postindustrial cities into visions of the future. And the future round these parts is all about retail. For Leeds is the ‘Knightsbridge of the North’, the shopping mecca whose counter is just getting longer. Its heart is lined with busy pedestrianised streets, packed with shops, restaurants, upstanding Victorian edifices and stunning arcades. From cutting-edge couture to contemporary cuisine, Leeds will serve it to you on a plate… or in a stylishly designed bag. And when you’re through for the day, the night awaits, full of pubs, clubs and more restaurants to keep you fed and fuelled for more.

Wild, windswept and oh so interesting, the North York Moors – much of them protected by the boundaries of a national park – exist in isolated splendour; lonely, heather-clad hilltops staring down on steeply cut valleys and across to some of the most spectacular views you’ll see in the north of England. The ridge-top roads and high open moors afford terrific views of the dramatic countryside – where you will spot an isolated farm or village or come across the odd castle and ruined abbey – while to the east the moors suddenly give way to an even more dramatic coastline of sheer cliffs, sheltered bays and long sandy beaches.

The largest of Yorkshire’s four counties is also the most beautiful, if only because unlike the rest of northern England, mills and mines are nowhere to be found. Blissfully free of the landmarks of the Industrial Revolution, North Yorkshire has, since the Middle Ages, always been about sheep and the woolly wealth that they produced.

If Richmond was at the heart of the English tourist trail, you’d probably have to jostle for position with busloads of tourists and film crews, for this is surely one of England’s most handsome market towns. Radiating from the busy, cobbled market square are streets and alleyways (cobbled, naturally) lined with elegant Georgian buildings and photogenic stone cottages; between the gaps you can catch glimpses of the surrounding hills and dales. And if you want that panoramic view of the whole lot, climb the rocky outcrop overlooking the rushing River Swale and clamber about the ruins of the massive castle.

Handsome, unspoilt Beverley is one of the most attractive of Yorkshire towns largely on account of its magnificent minster – a rival to any cathedral in England – and the tangle of streets that lie beneath it, each brimming with exquisite Georgian and Victorian buildings.

At first glance, Yorkshire’s favourite seaside resort stands up quite well. It has a spectacular setting above two beautiful white-sand bays; it is graced by a host of handsome buildings built at various times during the reigns of Edward, Victoria and the four Georges; and is topped by the romantic hulk of a castle. It sounds inviting, but once you’re on the waterfront the seaside kitsch overwhelms what is left of Scarborough’s more genteel side: neon-lit amusement arcades and casinos draw punters away from the donkey rides and tacky souvenir stands.

Their suburbs are so close that they’ve virtually merged into one sprawling urban conurbation, but Bradford remains far removed from its much more glamorous neighbour, Leeds. Or so they would have you believe in Leeds. But even Bradford is getting a facial: much of the dour city centre is scheduled for a revamp which, according to town planners, will see it recast as an urban park with its very own lake in front of city hall. It sounds so promising, and a far cry from the kind of ‘ugliness that could not only be tolerated but often enjoyed, ’ as the city’s favourite son, the cantankerous JB Priestley (1894–1984), once described it.

Its Viking roots still present in the name, the East Riding of Yorkshire (from Old Danish Thriding, or third) was one of three administrative regions of the Danelaw created in the 9th century – west and north ridings are now the slightly less evocative West and North Yorkshire.