Woodhouse Moor Hidden Histories Tour - accessible version

This page is an accessible version of the Woodhouse Moor Hidden Histories Tour (PDF, 3MB).

It includes the history of seven locations on the Moor and directions for how to find them, with Google Maps and What3Words links.

This tour uses level paths and does not involve any steps, but does involve crossing a busy road twice, using pedestrian crossings.

Location 1: Woodhouse Moor

Where to start the tour

Our start point is located near the centre of the park where the main paths into the park meet, just south of the bandstand which is the next location on the tour.

About Woodhouse Moor

Woodhouse Moor, or Hyde Park, as it is known by many, became Leeds first public park, after being bought by Leeds Corporation in 1857 for £3,000. Prior to its purchase it was originally moorland - hence its name.

An uncultivated area on the edge of Leeds, it was used for grazing, hunting and latterly military gatherings. During the 1870s the Moor was first formally landscaped, with many features you can still see today; the tree-lined walkways, seating, a bandstand and fountain. In 1902, ornate arches with gas lamps were added to pathways to facilitate evening Edwardian ‘promenading’, that no longer exist today. A photo from around the time, held by Leeds Libraries, shows one such path, with smaller sapling trees, compared to the mature trees that line paths today. The pathway leads to the fountain in the distance.

Location 2: The bandstand

Directions

To find the site of the bandstand from the start point, while facing north, take the path to your right, heading in a west-north-west direction for around 20 metres. Turn left to join a path heading north-east for around 20 metres, then take a right onto a path heading in a north-west direction. Travel along this path for around 100 metres.

About the bandstand

In 1879, a bandstand and ornate drinking fountain were presented by Alderman William North and situated in the park. A photo from around that time, held by Leeds Libraries, shows the original bandstand was surrounded by gas lamps, flag-poles, green hedges and flagged paving. 

During the 1800s for two days every week, in June and July, the bandstand was home to free music concerts, attended by local working class audiences, sometimes in their thousands, and likely often financed by Alderman North. They were extremely popular events, attended by children and adults alike. 

The bandstand was removed during World War Two, to be melted down to supply metal for armaments for the war effort. It is suspected that the fountain also met the same fate.

Location 3: Pavilion Darkroom

Directions

The pavilion darkroom is now Akmal’s Tandoor Bistro. To find it from the bandstand, travel down the path that runs for approximately 100 metres in an east-south-east direction to the Queen Victoria statue. From there, turn left and take a short path which brings you to the pavement that runs alongside Woodhouse Lane. Turn left again and, heading in a north-west direction, travel along the pavement for approximately 50 metres and the building is on the left.

About Pavilion Darkroom

Where Akmal's Tandoori Bistro now stands, once stood the UK’s first ever women’s photography centre. Originally built as a park refreshment pavilion, The Pavilion Women’s Photography Centre, opened a gallery and darkroom space there in May of 1983. Run by graduates from the Fine Art Department at the nearby University of Leeds, Pavilion worked with local working women, teaching them how to make photographs and use equipment and resources not usually available to them.

Over the course of the next 10 years, Pavilion would run a programme of events, exhibitions and workshops. They exhibited work that sought to examine issues around the representation of women in media - the ‘politics of representation’, and highlight areas of women’s lives that were often hidden or ignored, like domestic labour, child-rearing and working. Pavilion still exists as an arts organisation in Leeds today, but as a visual-arts organisation, quite different from its roots as a Feminist Photography Centre. In 2014 they commissioned a 70-minute film exploring the origins of The Pavilion Photography Centre.

Location 4: Women in Revolt!

Directions

Head south-east along the pavement that runs alongside Woodhouse Lane to the Library Pub and use the pedestrian crossing to cross over the road. Turn left and walk approximately 50 metres, then turn right and take a short path onto Monument Moor. 

About ‘women in revolt’ on Woodhouse Moor

Woodhouse Moor has a long history as a site of feminist and working class protest. On July 28th, 1908, Woodhouse Moor was the site of the UK’s largest Women’s Liberation rally in the North of England. Led by the Women’s Social & Political Unions (WSPU), 100,000 women marched from The Town Hall, to a demonstration on Woodhouse Moor, advocating for ‘Votes for Women’. 

Major figures of the Women’s Lib movement at the time, including Adela Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst) addressed the demonstration. A photo held by Leeds Museums and Galleries taken on 28th July 1908 shows a group of women carrying placards and banners as they take part in the march.

There was also the Clothing Strike of 1970, that saw 20,000 textiles workers, the majority of them women, begin an unofficial strike. Striking workers marched from factory to factory gaining more support as they went, and the strike snowballed. The strike lasted about two weeks, and saw workers appealing a decision to reject a shilling pay rise. On the 25th February 1970, 5,000 workers gathered on Woodhouse Moor to reject an offer of negotiations, on condition they immediately returned to work.

From 1977 women in Leeds began the ‘Reclaim the Night’ protests, which would go on to become a worldwide movement advocating for women’s right to safety in public space. The Leeds group was formed in response to the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders that were happening across Leeds, and the police response, which was to tell women not to go out at night - effectively imposing a curfew on them.

The Leeds Revolutionary Feminist group called for women to march in cities across the UK on the night of 12th November 1977, against rape, and for a woman’s right to walk at night without fear. They advertised this in national newsletters and publicised it to women’s groups. In Leeds two groups marched, one from Woodhouse Moor, and a smaller one, from Chapeltown, into the city centre with placards and flaming torches.

Reclaim the Night has a legacy still relevant today, highlighting gender-based violence, and the ways in which our policing and justice system enacts and enables gender discrimination and violence.

Location 5: Party and…

Directions

From Monument Moor, turn around and head back to the pavement that runs alongside Woodhouse Lane. Turn right and travel in a north-west direction for around 150 metres to the junction with Rampart Road. Cross over and turn right, and travel for around 50 metres down Rampart Road. Turn left and follow the path into Cinder Moor.

About parties on Cinder Moor 

Woodhouse Moor has long been a place for large social gatherings and celebrations. As early as the 1800s the Woodhouse Feast was an annual event, that took place on the Cinder Moor, and saw music, performances, stalls and later fairgrounds. 

A photo held by Leeds Libraries shows the 7th Lord Mayor’s Annual Parade, 1980. The Parade took place each June, set off from Woodhouse Moor, walking into the city centre, before returning to The Moor. Over 300,000 people, and over 70 floats took part, with a theme of ‘Leeds into the 80s’ Another photo shows a young woman dressed in 18th century costume offering sweets to toddlers.

In 1997 the Moor was home to ‘Hyde Out’, the precursor to what we now know as Leeds Pride. The daytime celebration organised by LGBTQIA+ volunteers, featured AIDS awareness, LGBTQIA+ Charities & community groups, performers and live music. More recently, Unity Day champions diversity and community, with an annual event, started in response to the 1995 local riots.

Location 6: Play!

Directions

Continue along the path through Cinder Moor until you reach Cliff Road. Turn left and head south-west along the footpath until you reach Cliff Road. Turn left again into Cliff Road and after a few metres you will reach Woodhouse Lane again. Turn right and travel along the pavement to the shops and cafes at Hyde Park Corner. Use the pedestrian crossing to cross over Woodhouse Lane. Head down Hyde Park Road for around 50 metres. At the junction with Moor View, take the path back into Woodhouse Moor, heading in a roughly southerly direction. After about 100 metres, the skate spark is on your left and the playground on your right.

About the Woodhouse Moor playgrounds

Leeds’ first children’s playground, and outdoor gymnasium, was located on Monument Moor and is shown in a photo held by Leeds Libraries from 1888. For a time, this area was known as ‘Swing Moor’, as a result.

The swings and playground were relocated during the Second World War, to make way for an Air Raid Shelter.

A photo held by Leeds Museums and Galleries, taken in 1945, shows children playing on another more recent playground, which bears a closer resemblance to today’s playground. Wrangthorne Church is in the background, and the park contains a slide, roundabout, and spinning frame known as a ‘Witches Hat’ in the foreground. 

Location 7: Air Raid Shelters 

Directions

Continue along the path until you come to another path joining to the right. Turn right onto this path and travel around 100 metres towards Hyde Park Road. Before you reach the end of the path, turn left onto another path that runs alongside Hyde Park Road inside the park. Travel along the path for around 50 metres until the junction of Brudenell Avenue is on the right. The location of the air raid shelters is on the left.

About the air raid shelters

During the Second World War, large public air raid shelters were built all over the city, including under Woodhouse Moor. After the war, these shelters were sealed up and the entrance ways fi-lled in after the war. Some evidence of the air raid shelter on Hyde Park Road still exists today...can you find it?

The shelter would have been accessed via a main doorway facing out onto Hyde Park Road, at the junction with Brudenell Avenue - now visible mostly as a large mound of earth under the green grass. The shelter would have been laid out with seperate sections for men, and women and children, and several escape hatches to the ground above. One such of these hatches is visible still, now concreted over, and easy to overlook amongst the grass. Each of the tunnels were lined with benches for people to sit to wait out an air raid.

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