TdF comes to God's Own County

lotus49

Rolf F wrote:

lotus49 wrote:

I don't like Leeds or Bradford much either, but they are a tiny part of Yorkshire and we have York and England's most beautiful countryside to make up for it.

What's wrong with Leeds? I'll concede that Bradford is a dump of it's own making (it really ought to have been very nice but the planners just keep getting it wrong) but Leeds is really quite nice - a pretty well preserved Victorian Northern industrial city with a lot of rather nice architecture (if not so much really outstanding) and a bit of feel good without the horrific destruction that poor old Manchester has had inflicted on it in the last 15 years.

I'm certainly glad I ended up living in Leeds rather than York!

The reason I don't like Leeds (and I know Leeds very well) is that the attractive Victorian architecture it does have is scattered rather widely and the road system cuts up the city in a thoroughly unappealing fashion. I also don't think that Leeds has the cultural variety of a city like Manchester (and this is coming from a Yorkshireman). Leeds didn't even have its own museum until about three years ago whereas Manchester must have at least six, including a couple of excellent art galleries, some which are at least a century old.

York, on the other hand, is an architectural gem and home to my favourite building in the whole world, namely York Minster. It is easy to walk around and fascinating at every turn. It's my favourite small city in the UK and it has a cultural life to match.

lotus49

verylonglegs wrote:

Why do you get so defensive over an area you happen to live in? It's a trait of many people that I find rather odd!

I'm not defensive, I'm proud - it's not the same thing.

rolf_f

lotus49 wrote:

The reason I don't like Leeds (and I know Leeds very well) is that the attractive Victorian architecture it does have is scattered rather widely and the road system cuts up the city in a thoroughly unappealing fashion. I also don't think that Leeds has the cultural variety of a city like Manchester (and this is coming from a Yorkshireman). Leeds didn't even have its own museum until about three years ago whereas Manchester must have at least six, including a couple of excellent art galleries, some which are at least a century old.

York, on the other hand, is an architectural gem and home to my favourite building in the whole world, namely York Minster. It is easy to walk around and fascinating at every turn. It's my favourite small city in the UK and it has a cultural life to match.

You have a very good point about the cultural variety of Leeds. Even simple things like public access to the top of (the truly hideous) Beetham Tower in Manchester wasn't repeated in Leeds (rather less hideous) Bridgewater Place. And the museum is crap (though not as crap as the Workers Museum (or whatever it's called) in Manchester. The Leeds Art Gallery is nice though. Ultimately, for all Manchester has, it is a ruined mess and the redevelopments of recent years have generally been negative. It's a shame.

Not sure what you mean about the road system - the Ring Road isn't at all noticeable being in a cutting or tunnel under the edge of the centre and the rest of it is the historic street plan largely untouched. You'd have to go back to the 1700s to have much of a chance of changing that!

But Leeds Victorian architecture is not remotely scattered. The gaps are remarkably few and some of the more hideous bits of 1960s concrete have been disposed of in recent years. Whilst it did suffer in the 70s, Leeds Victorian heart is very well preserved with few of the cringing eyesors that ruin Manchester and Birmingham (though they do have a rather more impressive scale of civic architecture - Leeds buidings always look curiously small to me compared to them). Don't forget that there is just as much 1960s nastiness in York - York has been terribly treated by the planners. And there are far better Cathedrals in the UK than York - try Wells, Canterbury or Lincoln for example if you get the chance.

Are you really sure you've been here?

Drumlin

V disappointed that they're not visiting God's Own Country. Now I have the dilemma about whether to swallow my pride and travel down to Englandshire to see it. The answer would be a definite yes if they were having a prologue, I could simply take the train to Leeds, watch the event and take the train home. But the start and finish of a road stage has less appeal.

lotus49

Rolf F wrote:

[...]
But Leeds Victorian architecture is not remotely scattered. The gaps are remarkably few and some of the more hideous bits of 1960s concrete have been disposed of in recent years. Whilst it did suffer in the 70s, Leeds Victorian heart is very well preserved with few of the cringing eyesors that ruin Manchester and Birmingham (though they do have a rather more impressive scale of civic architecture - Leeds buidings always look curiously small to me compared to them). Don't forget that there is just as much 1960s nastiness in York - York has been terribly treated by the planners. And there are far better Cathedrals in the UK than York - try Wells, Canterbury or Lincoln for example if you get the chance.

Are you really sure you've been here?

I have worked in Leeds for 12 years so yes, I have. I have never been a huge fan of Victorian architecture (high Gothic is more my thing) so perhaps I just haven't looked all that carefully but no amount of looking will make me prefer Leeds to York. It's true that there are some carbuncles in York (eg the older of the two Aviva buildings, which is ugly beyond description) but there are so many lovely ones, particularly in the area around the Minster that I am prepared to overlook them.

I am a big fan of churches and I know Wells, Canterbury and Lincoln Cathedrals well having visited all three of them several times. They are all very fine buildings but I much prefer York Minster. The BBC ran a survey a few months ago to establish England's favourite building. Sadly Durham Cathedral beat York Minster into second place but none of your cathedrals made the short list (beautiful as they all are).

lotus49

Drumlin wrote:

V disappointed that they're not visiting God's Own Country. Now I have the dilemma about whether to swallow my pride and travel down to Englandshire to see it. The answer would be a definite yes if they were having a prologue, I could simply take the train to Leeds, watch the event and take the train home. But the start and finish of a road stage has less appeal.

Isn't Edinburgh still in the running for Le Grand Départ 2016?

Good luck, I hope you get it. A sprint finish along the Royal Mile would be something to see.

stickman

T'our de France.

nickel

As i'm hoping to do a PhD at Leeds Uni starting in 2013 this couldn't be more perfectly timed!

Crispyapp

Fevmeister wrote:

Been leeds born and moving back there in the new year I can't wait! Wonder what the routes will be

The proposed routes were on calendar news a few months ago. Stage 1 is Leeds to brid. Stage 2 is York to Sheffield. Stage 1 will go thought the Yorkshire dales and 2 will go through the Calder valley of Halifax.
As I live in Leeds I cannot wait. Well looking fwd to it.

neeb

lotus49 wrote:

I am a big fan of churches and I know Wells, Canterbury and Lincoln Cathedrals well having visited all three of them several times. They are all very fine buildings but I much prefer York Minster. The BBC ran a survey a few months ago to establish England's favourite building. Sadly Durham Cathedral beat York Minster into second place but none of your cathedrals made the short list (beautiful as they all are).

Lincoln is perhaps my favourite in England. York is amazing but the lack of a proper stone vault in the nave has always slightly spoiled it for me (it has a wooden ceiling, decorated to make it look like a stone vault) . The whole point of gothic is the problem of how to support a heavy stone vault while also allowing the window spaces to be as large as possible (while at the same time being completely insane and believing that sacred geometric ratios will keep the roof up).

DevonClimber

Gods Country, Meh.

Just another County in our Country with pretty parts and not so pretty parts, and with what seems to be a disproportionate amount of natives who go on about it all the time, ad nauseum and usually follow each statement with something about southerners and shandy or something, again ad nauseum.
On a personal note, my Brother lives just under Sutton Bank, so hopefully a free spot to watch if it follows that route.
Enjoyed my time living up there in 'Gods' Country, but the Yorkshire clone types do tend to bore you a bit.
I might start calling Devon Jesus land or something, or being an Atheist maybe Maybe Darwinsville....No wait a minute, I will just call it Devon as I really don't care that much.

neeb

I lived in Hull for a year once. If that's god's own country it explains quite a lot about his general incompetence as a supposed omnipotent deity, or else his taste in décor leaves a lot to be desired.

LegendLust

DevonClimber wrote:

Gods Country, Meh.

Just another County in our Country with pretty parts and not so pretty parts, and with what seems to be a disproportionate amount of natives who go on about it all the time, ad nauseum and usually follow each statement with something about southerners and shandy or something, again ad nauseum.
On a personal note, my Brother lives just under Sutton Bank, so hopefully a free spot to watch if it follows that route.
Enjoyed my time living up there in 'Gods' Country, but the Yorkshire clone types do tend to bore you a bit.
I might start calling Devon Jesus land or something, or being an Atheist maybe Maybe Darwinsville....No wait a minute, I will just call it Devon as I really don't care that much.

Well said. There's nowt worse than a professional Yorkshireman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY4tD2Hbg_A