Tag: Briggate

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Briggate, Leeds

Picture of Briggate in the heart of the shopping district of Leeds, Yorkshire.

Briggate is one of the oldest streets in the city of Leeds and was founded in 1207 when the road began on the north side of the Leeds Bridge over the River Aire. The name ‘Briggate’ derives from ‘the road to the bridge’.

Today Briggate is a pedestrianised shopping street with most of Leeds department stores on it, including Harvey Nichols. There are also banks, restaurants and cafes along Briggate, there are also some old alleyways leading to old public houses including The Packhorse.

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Ballet on Briggate, Leeds

Picture of dancers from Northern Ballet performing on Briggate Leeds.

On Friday Northern Ballet came to the people of Leeds by performing on a stage in Briggate in Leeds city centre.

In the above photo are dancers Ben Chapman and Isabella Gasparini performing from a piece called We Can Play. The young girl at the edge of the photo was lost in the world of ballet and that is what this event is all about. Hopefully some of the people in the audience will perhaps go and see these dancers perform at the wonderful new home here in Leeds that Northern Ballet share with Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Along with Northern Ballet there were also dancers from Phoenix Dance Theatre and the Northern Ballet Academy.

Randy said…
What a great shot. A little girl with dreams of the future.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 3:55 AM
Paul in Powell River said…
Nice shot – I like your perspective!

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 4:32 AM
PerthDailyPhoto said…
Beautiful shot Paul, you and I both had ballet in mind today!

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 4:18 PM
Winchester Daily Photos said…
Nice to have a little bit of culture pop up unexpectedly in the middle of the city centre. I’ve never been to see a ballet, but I would have stopped to look at this

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 6:12 PM
Gerald (Hyde DP) said…
Great shot – lovely how you’ve captured the onlooker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 9:25 AM
Stephanie said…
Another good one…love those expressions and how you included the young lady!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 9:07 PM

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Busking in the Leeds Sunshine, Yorkshire

Picture of busker on Briggate in Leeds city centre, Yorkshire.

This last few days the weather here in Leeds has been very sunny and warm too.

Here on Briggate I said hi to someone I have not seen for some months, Holoman who hails from the US but now is part of the Leeds music scene. Here in the city of Leeds we have I think some of the best street musicians around and in my view Holoman is up there with the very best.

Holoman has a great voice and knows how to give a good performance and on this sunny afternoon there were quite a few people stopped to catch some of his songs.

Dianne said…
Good to see the sun shining in Leeds! Street artists add so much atmosphere to a City.

APRIL 10, 2011 11:46 PM
RedPat said…
It looks like it is a wonderful day to be singing on the street!

APRIL 11, 2011 1:27 AM
TheChieftess said…
Looks like a fun day!!!

APRIL 11, 2011 4:25 PM

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Borders Bookshop Briggate, Leeds – Closing Down

Anyone who thinks that the current economic climate is anything but chilly (Gordon Brown for example) only need look at the high streets of our towns and cities.

This photo shows the entrance on Briggate, Leeds of the Borders bookshop a few days back, the white A4 notices on the doors say that the company went into administration last Thursday. Borders the book group run 45 bookshops around the UK and although the administrators say they are trying to sell them as a going concern it does not look good for the company and especially the 1,150 employees.

Here in Leeds city centre the Borders store is holding a closing down sale as can be seen by the new signs by the entrance in the photograph above. I took this photograph on Monday and for a book lover like me this is a sad day. If and when this Borders bookshop closes for the final time there will be only one major bookshop in Leeds city centre and that is Waterstones.

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Sebastian John and Fans in Leeds

Sometimes the picture you get is not quite the one you first thought of.

This photograph of Leeds singer songwriter Sebastian John started out with a few girls sitting on the cold pavement on Briggate, Leeds listening to his music. They were joined by more friends, then Sebastian joined them and this photo is the result.

The original Photograph of Sebastian John performing on Briggate, Leeds this early evening with the Christmas lights in the background can be seen above.

I love real music performed by people live and here in the city of Leeds we are I think fortunate to have many talented musicians like Sebastian. I am pleased to be able to feature them on the Leeds in Yorkshire daily photo.

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Hannah Trigwell – Leeds Singer-Songwriter

The girl in the photo is Leeds singer songwriter Hannah Trigwell busking on Briggate in Leeds city centre.

I think Hannah is probably the youngest regular busker that I have photographed for this blog, by several years I think as she is 18. I have heard Hannah play guitar and sing several times over that last few weeks and I do like her sound.

I am pleased that I did not get round to doing this post about Hannah till now because since I took this picture she has uploaded a new video onto Youtube. I think you will get a better idea of her talent from this than some of the earlier ones.

Leeds has several good regular buskers in the city centre, like many towns and cities Leeds has a permit system in place. Now I know there are people that disagree with this but I think it is certainly a factor in the quality of the musicians on the street in Leeds.

Mo said…
A bright future ahead of her

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 10:57 AM
Leif Hagen said…
I love the live singer postings! My wife called me from a favorite, local ice cream shop and told me about the live singers! Darn, I was somewhere else and couldn’t get a blog photo!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 12:26 PM
Lois said…
She’s very talented!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 2:24 PM
Anonymous said…
I think I’m in love.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 7:33 PM
Steffe said…
Nice candid portrait. I will have a look at her video.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 12:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Hannah Trigwell, you are amazing.

OCTOBER 18, 2009 7:24 PM
jonathan said…
She is amazing!

Sends chills down my spine everytime I hear her.

Does anyone know if she has any performances coming up?

OCTOBER 20, 2009 2:56 PM

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Smiling in the Rain

Picture of students in the rain on Briggate, Leeds.

I thought it rained quite a bit here in Leeds yesterday, but today the rain was if anything heavier.

Walking along Briggate in the shopping district of Leeds I saw these two young women out shopping. It turns out that these two girls are students at the University of Leeds. One volunteered to appear on my blog and the other then agreed also but only if they could be anonymous. You would not guess it from their smiles but they really did need the umbrellas in the rain.

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From Cannon to Post Box

This photograph shows a double post box used by the Royal Mail which stands on Briggate, Leeds close to the John Dyson building I posted about when I first started the Leeds photo daily.

This is a standard double mail box seen in most cities around the UK, the thing that caught my eye was the inscription at the bottom of the photo “Carron Company Stirlingshire”. I am interested in the military of the Napoleonic era, and know that Carron produced cannon for both the British Navy and the British Army during that time. Indeed the Carron company produced a type of cannon called a “Carronade” that was part of the armament of Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory.

This week my internet connection will be connected again at my flat, so my posts on this blog should be a lot simpler. I have taken lots of photographs in and around Leeds over the past few weeks but posting them onto the Leeds daily photo has involded using friends broadband connection.

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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….

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Automatic Number Plate Recognition

Picture of Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera on police ARV in Leeds.

Brig brother is here right now in Leeds and other towns and cities across the UK. I was talking to a police firearms officer on Briggate about the ARV that he and his colleague were using when I noticed the camera fixed to the roof.

I knew a little about the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) having seen it on TV and knew that many police traffic cars had it installed. As can be seen in the above photo it is also installed on some of the West Yorkshire Police ARV cars too.

Now I am quite sympathetic the the idea that the police need all the help they can get to catch the various baddies that exist in our country. ANPR is a great tool enabling the police driving around to be alerted when they pass a car flagged by the system.

ANPR can also be used to monitor car parking, not by the police but by private companies like ASDA the supermarket. Many cities across the UK have ANPR cameras fixed and watching main roads and motorway access and exit roads. Bradford has ANPR cameras across the city and it was using this network that the police were enable to track the getaway car used in a hold up at a travel agents in the city where police constable Sharon Beshenivsky was shot and killed and her colleague Teresa Millburn was seriously wounded.

Put the public (police and security service) and the private (car parks) ANPR cameras together and anyone with access to the information can build up a pretty good picture of the movements of a vehicle and its owner.

The Nazis and the various regimes of the communist run countries of the former Eastern block would have loved a system like ANPR. I suggest anyone interested in how a state can monitor and control its subjects should get and watch the film The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen). A drama about the devastating effect of the secret Stasi police force on ordinary citizens in East Germany. I saw this film at the cinema on release and it is a good movie and regardless of the subject I would recommend it.

None of the above is meant to imply that our police here in west Yorkshire are in any way comparable to the the STASI or the GESTAPO, they do not make the rules or policy.