Yorkshire bucket list 2024: Best things to do in Leeds from playing the Great Escape Game to browsing Lotherton museum

Leeds houses some of the most popular arts and culture centres in the region including Leeds Art Gallery, which opened in 1888, and displays what is thought to be the best 20th century collection outside London, along with a colourful wall painting for the Victorian staircase by Lothar Gotz.

Neighbouring the art gallery is The Henry Moore Institute which hosts a yearly programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions presenting sculpture from around the world.

The city also has many large parks and open spaces, perfect for enjoying a nice picnic during the spring and summer months as well as grand theatres to visit.

It is also home to many pubs where you can organise a pub crawl with a group of friends to try out some of the best locally brewed beers, ales and lagers.

These are some of the most popular things that Yorkshire locals and visitors must do during their lifetime.

Best things to do in Leeds to tick off your 2024 bucket list

Royal Armouries

The Royal Armouries is a museum that houses the UK’s national collection of arms and armour and was once an important part of England’s military organisation. It became the country’s oldest museum and one of the oldest in the world, having been established in 1423.

If you enjoy history and the country’s military past, then this is the institution for you to visit in Leeds.

It has a rating of 4.7 stars on Google with 11,926 reviews.

Location: Armouries Drive, Leeds, LS10 1LT.

Roundhay Park

This park is one of the biggest city parks in Europe and covers more than 700 acres of parkland, lakes, woodland and gardens owned by Leeds City Council.

The park is also one of the most popular attractions in Leeds, with nearly one million people visiting every year. In the 11th century William the Conqueror granted the lands on which the park is situated to Ilbert de Lacy, who founded Pontefract Castle, for his support in the Harrying of the North in the winter of 1069-1070.

The park has a rating of 4.7 stars on Google with 13,331 reviews.

Location: Mansion Lane, Roundhay, Leeds, LS8 2HH.

Temple Newsam

The Grade I listed Tudor-Jacobean building in Leeds is named after the Temple Newsam ward of Leeds City Council and is one of nine sites in the Leeds Museum and Galleries group.

The stables are Grade II listed and was referenced in the Domesday Book of 1086, listed as Neuhusam, which means ‘new houses’.

It has a rating of 4.6 stars on Google with 4,915 reviews.

Location: Temple Newsam Road, Leeds, LS15 0AE.

Leeds Grand Theatre

This theatre and opera house in Briggate seats roughly 1,500 people.

It was designed by James Robinson Watson, chief assistant in the office of Leeds-based architect George Corson and opened on November 18, 1878.

The exterior is in a mixture of Roman and Scottish baronial styles, and the interior has Gothic motifs as fan-vaulting and clustered columns.

It has a rating of 4.7 stars on Google with 3,921 reviews.

Location: Leeds Grand Theatre, 46 New Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NU.

Thackray Museum of Medicine

This museum of the history of medicine is adjacent to St James’s University Hospital and opened in March 1997 as the Thackray Medical Museum and won ‘Museum of the Year’ in 1998.

The building is a Grade II listed building, a former Leeds Union Workhouse, which opened in 1861 as an accommodation for 784 paupers.

By the end of the 19th century, the buildings had become predominantly used for medical care of the poor, rather than workhouse and training. During the First World War it was named the East Leeds War Hospital, caring for armed services personnel.

The museum’s origins can be traced back to Great George Street where Charles Thackray opened a small family-run chemist shop in 1902.

It has a rating of 4.4 stars on Google with 1,335 reviews.

Location: 141 Beckett St, Harehills, Leeds, LS9 7LN.

Leeds Art Gallery

This museum includes 19th century and earlier art works and is a Grade II listed building, owned and administered by Leeds City Council.

Victoria Square is in front of the gallery, at the eastern end of which is the city’s war memorial. This square is regularly used for rallies and demonstrations due to the speakers’ dais provided by the raised entrance to the gallery.

The original concept of the gallery was initiated by an executive committee formed in 1876 for the purpose by Leeds Fine Art Society.

It has a rating of 4.4 stars on Google with 1,984 reviews.

Location: The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AA.

Tropical World

The butterfly house and animal attraction is a licensed zoo with membership of BIAZA and also features the largest collection of tropical plants outside Kew Gardens.

In 1911, a conservatory building, named the Coronation House, was built in the Canal Gardens of Roundhay Park and was later rebuilt in 1939 and modernised to its current state in 1984.

It has a rating of 4.3 stars on Google with 6,471 reviews.

Location: Princes Avenue, Roundhay, Leeds, LS8 2ER.

Lotherton

This majestic country house has been occupied from at least 1775, when it appears on Thomas Jeffrey’s map of Yorkshire.

It was owned by Thomas Maude.

It has a rating of 4.4 stars on Google with 3,324 reviews.

Location: Lotherton Hall, Off Collier Lane, Lotherton Lane, Aberford, Leeds, LS25 3EB.

Henry Moore Institute

This is a centre for the study of sculpture and is part of The Henry Moore Foundation, which is based at Moore’s former home in Hertfordshire and was set up by the artist in 1977.

The institute has a sculpture gallery for international sculpture shows, both contemporary and historical, as well as two other display spaces for sculpture study exhibitions.

It also features a sculpture archive and library, and looks after the sculpture collections of its neighbour Leeds Art Gallery.

It has a rating of 4.3 stars on Google with 236 reviews.

Location: 74 The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AH.

Go Ape

This venue is an outdoor adventure company which runs tree top ropes courses under the names Tree Top Challenge, Tree Top Adventure and Zip Trekking, as well as ground-based Forest Segway Safaris.

It has a rating of 4.7 stars on Google with 962 reviews.

Location: Go Ape Temple Newsam, Leeds, LS15 0AD.

The Great Escape Game

This concept was born when owners, Hannah and Peter, went travelling and stumbled upon a similar idea in Asia.

They went looking for their first site in 2015 and the Sheffield branch was created. In 2016 they found their site for the Leeds branch. All the profits were reinvested; they built a new team and introduced a bar, a kitchen and corporate area and hired prop designers.

It has a rating of 4.8 stars on Google with 1,504 reviews.

Location: Atlas House, 31 King St, Leeds, LS1 2HL.

Go Karting with TeamSport

This venue has the longest indoor circuit in Yorkshire, with more than 580m of racing tarmac, vicious hairpins and straights, it’s a fun challenge for all thrill seekers.

It has a rating of 4.5 stars on Google with 1,667 reviews.

Location: S Accommodation Road, Leeds, LS10 1NQ.