Harehills
| Harehills | |
| Yorkshire West Riding | |
|---|---|
 Banstead Park, Harehills | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SE326345 |
| Location: | 53°48’24"N, 1°30’19"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Leeds |
| Postcode: | LS8/LS9 |
| Dialling code: | 0113 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Leeds |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Leeds East |
Harehills is an inner-city area of eastern Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is approximately a mile north east of Leeds city centre, sitting between the A58 (towards Wetherby) and the A64 (towards York).
There are two main shopping streets, Harehills Lane and Harehills Road which join at the junction of Roundhay Road (A58 road) leading to Oakwood. Also, heading half a mile up Harehills Lane towards the A64 York Road at the junction with Compton Road, is Harehills's other main shopping area. St James' University Hospital is situated in Harehills.
Since the 1890s, cheap housing has made it attractive to immigrants, with the result that it has a considerable cultural and ethnic mixture. Harehills has high levels of unemployment in relation to Leeds and the rest of the United Kingdom.[1]
Name
The name Harehills is first attested in 1576, as Hayr Hylls. Scholars agree that the second element of the name Harehills is the topographic term 'hill'. There has been some debate about the first element, however. Eilert Ekwall, in his influential Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, thought that the name came from the Old English word har ('grey').[2] However, the subsequent research by A. H. Smith for the English Place-Name Society concluded that, as the modern spelling would suggest, the name does originate from hare, and thus originally meant 'hill characterised by the presence of hares'.[3][4]
History
In the early 19th century, the area covered by Harehills existed as woods between Leeds and the village of Chapel Allerton. Leeds had developed in the west, north and south but not much to the east.[5] The area began to be developed from the 1820s, when people sought to escape the overcrowding in the centre of Leeds, wide streets and detached houses were envisaged in a plan titled 'New Leeds'. However, it was closely packed back-to-back housing for workers that came to be built in the 1890s.[6] Expansion happened very rapidly. Harehills was on the route of the [[Leeds Corporation Tramway to Roundhay and Chapeltown opened from 1891.
In 1913, Sydney Kitson designed an Anglican church called St Wilfrid's in the Arts and Crafts style although it was not started until 1927.[7] Jewish refugees from Russia and Poland formed a community around Spencer Place in the 1920s. The Third Church of Christ Scientist on Easterly Road was designed by Davidson, Son & Sherwood in 1927; it became the home of the Pentecostal New Testament Church of God in 1984 after the group had met in private homes in Leeds since 1959.[8] The Catholic church of St Augustine was designed by Gribbon, Foggit and Brown in 1937 in a more modernist style notable for its open interior structure, replacing the early 20th century temporary church on the site.[9] In 1958–9, Geoffrey Davy designed the Anglican church of St Cyprian with St James on Coldcotes Avenue; it is designed in a Corbusier style around an organ from St James church in the city centre and has typical contemporary stained glass used by Davy in several churches.[10]
After 1921, Montague Burton's established the largest textile factory in the world on Hudson Road, where 10,000 people worked, producing 3,000 suits a week; the factory had a large canteen.[11][12] Following Second World War, Greek Cypriots and Eastern European immigrants settled in Harehills; there has been a Lithuanian supermarket there since the 1970s. In the 1950s, invited workers arrived from the West Indies, particularly Saint Kitts, and in the 1960s, immigrants arrived from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The arrival of many people from the West Indies in the 1950s led to a growth of Pentecostal communities. The Greek community bought a former Methodist church on Harehills Avenue in 1966 and renovated it to make a church and accommodation for social and schooling activities, consecrating the church of The Three Hierarchs in 1985. Since Second World War, the manufacturing industry in the area has declined to be replaced by small shops and restaurants reflecting the vibrant ethnic mix of the area. Many pubs have closed because of the change in population with many Muslims in the area; the Clock cinema has become a shop.
Society
On the August Bank Holiday the Leeds Carnival is held with a procession through Harehills and Chapeltown.[13]
Many community groups seek to combat youth crime by running cultural and sporting activities and organise such community events like the Harehills Festival in 2018.[14]
Churches
- Church of England:
- St Aidan's Church, the oldest church in the village, built in 1894
- St Wilfrid's
- Baptist: built on 1928
- Methodist / URC: Trinity United Church built in 1983
- Pentecostal: New Testament Church of God (a congregation of mainly African or Afro-Caribbean origin)
- Greek Orthodox: The Three Holy Hierarchs (in a former Methodist Church, built in 1906)
- Roman Catholic: St Augustine's, built in 1937
Mosques
- Jamia Masjid Bilal Mosque, built in 1996
Pictures
-
Banstead Park -
Terraced Housing -
Clothing Shop -
Jewellers -
Delaney's Bar -
Persian Tea-house -
Fish and Chips -
One of many fast-food shops -
Leeds Carnival 2008
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Harehills) |
- IMPaCT Community Website
- BBC Guide to Harehills
- Appeal after take-away shooting
- "The Ancient Parish of Leeds". GENUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Leeds/index.html. Historical and genealogical resource for area including Harehills
References
- ↑ "Leeds Observatory - Economy & Employment (Harehills)". https://observatory.leeds.gov.uk/economy-and-employment/report/view/be81be7caefd4e388af63237aac6d053/E02002382/.
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Name Society, 30–37, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961–63).
- ↑ Harry Parkin, Your City's Place-Names: Leeds, English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017), p. 51.
- ↑ Minnis, John (2007). Religion and Place in Leeds. English Heritage. pp. 5. https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/religion-and-place-in-leeds/religion-and-place-leeds/.
- ↑ "Walking tours of the back-to-back houses, Harehills". 20 September 2017. https://secretlibraryleeds.net/2017/09/20/walking-tours-of-the-back-to-back-houses-harehills/.
- ↑ Minnis (2007). Religion and Place in Leeds. pp. 22.
- ↑ Minnis (2007). Religion and Place in Leeds. pp. 52.
- ↑ Minnis (2007). Religion and Place in Leeds. pp. 25–27.
- ↑ Minnis (2007). Religion and Place in Leeds. pp. 43.
- ↑ "The full monty - Montague Burton". BBC Leeds. 24 September 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2005/07/05/local_history_montague_burton_feature.shtml.
- ↑ "Clothing to Corona, the Life and Legacy of Sir Montague Burton of Leeds". https://celebratingjewisharchives.org/news_feed/clothing-to-corona-the-life-and-legacy-of-sir-montague-burton-of-leeds/.
- ↑ "Parade Route - Leeds West Indian Carnival". https://www.leedscarnival.co.uk/visitor-info/parade-route/.
- ↑ "Leeds families enjoy Harehills Festival". Yorkshire Evening Post. 23 September 2018. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/leeds-families-enjoy-harehills-festival-251118.