Kirkgate Market and the Corn Exchange

The legacy of Leeds' wealthy Victorian and Edwardian industrialists, retailers and developers is a rich supply of stunning Victorian buildings that continue to provide lively shopping and market spaces. Not far from the luxury shopping arcades of the Victoria Quarter, Kirkgate Market presents luscious displays of food, piles of everyday market goods, and gourmet foods. The recently restored Corn Exchange was meant to provide the foodie's answer to every need. Unfortunately, however, it's completion coincided with the 2008/2009 credit crunch and, by August of 2009, it was still virtually empty, but for a restaurant on the ground floor. Sadly, a host of lower rent, alternative boutiques had been turfed out to make way for the renovations. Go there, not to shop at the moment, but to see a stunning work of Victorian architecture and a living example of how pride goeth before a fall.