The Light, Leeds facts for kids

The Light is a super cool place in the middle of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It's a big building where you can shop, eat, and have fun! You can find it between some main streets like The Headrow and Albion Street. What's really neat is that it was built over two old streets, Upper Fountaine Street and Cross Fountaine Street. Now, these streets are covered by a giant glass roof, making them part of the building. The Light also includes two very old and important buildings called Permanent House and the Headrow Buildings.

About The Light

The Light first opened its doors in 2001. It has a huge area for shops, about 32,515 square meters! That's a lot of space to explore. Just one year later, in 2002, this amazing building won two special awards from the City of Leeds. It won the "Altered Building Award" because of how cleverly old buildings were changed, and also "The People's Award," which means people really loved it!

The whole idea for The Light was to put a big glass roof over the old streets. This created a bright, open area, almost like a covered outdoor mall. They also built new parts with two levels. On the first level, you'll find a walkway with a big cinema that has many screens. Above the shops and restaurants on the ground floor, there's even a nightclub and a health club. DLG Architects designed this whole place.

Old Buildings Inside The Light

Two of the main buildings that are now part of The Light are Permanent House and the Headrow Buildings. These buildings are very old and important, so they are called "listed buildings." This means they are protected because of their history and special design. They both look similar, made from a light-colored stone called Portland stone and brick. A famous architect named Sir Reginald Blomfield helped design them, along with a local architect, C. W. Atkinson.

The Headrow Buildings face The Headrow street. They have five parts that step up, following the slope of the street. There's also a big archway over where Cross Fountaine Street used to be. These buildings used to have nine shops and four floors of offices.

Permanent House is on the corner of Cookridge Street. It's actually two buildings joined together by a bridge over Upper Fountaine Street. The main part of Permanent House was once the headquarters for a big building society called the Leeds Permanent Building Society. It opened in 1930. The other part, which opened in 1931, had shops and offices. Today, a restaurant called Browns Restaurant is in what used to be the main banking hall.

Images for kids

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  Permanent House, on the corner of Cookridge Street and The Headrow.

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  Permanent House, showing how the buildings are linked by an arch.

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  A blue plaque on Permanent House, showing its history.

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  The entrance to Cross Fountaine Street from the Headrow Buildings.

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  The entrance to Browns Restaurant and the Radisson Blu Hotel inside The Light.

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  The north entrance to The Light from St Anne's Street.