Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Celebrate the past, present, and future at Leeds Beckett Heritage Open Days
England's largest community led festival of history and culture, Heritage Open Days brings people together to celebrate community, heritage, and history. Involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations, history is brought to life through storytelling and exploring traditions.
Leeds Beckett University’s diverse programme brings together our rich heritage and close ties to the community. You can look forward to engaging creative writing workshops, a history of visual technologies in Leeds, walking tours that will allow participants to discover the history and evolution of the Leeds music scene and venues, a fanzine workshop and more.
- 8 September: Wordsworth Donisthrope and the great what if? The story of Leeds inventor Wordsworth Donisthorpe, who went to extreme lengths to try and fund his patented motion camera. This illustrated talk by a local historian asks if the history of cinema would have been different if Wordsworth had been better at blackmail.
- 9 September: Waddington's board games at the Discovery Centre. Almost every home in the UK has either Monopoly or Cluedo, but did you know about their role in helping British POWs in World War Two to escape? Come and learn more at Discovery Centre of Leeds City Museums and Art Galleries.
- 12 September: Can't see the wood for the trees. A fun and friendly creative writing class on setting and story led by published writer Ali Harper at Headingley Campus.
- 14 September: A celebration of the life and legacy of Elaine Cooper (1926-2020), an undiscovered treasure who studied at Leeds Art College during WWII and devoted her life to art, both as a working artist and a teacher at Leeds Polytechnic.
- 17 September: Popular music in Leeds: histories, heritage, people and places. How much do you know about Leeds’ musical history? Join a guided walking tour of the city’s musical histories, heritage, people, and places, with Dr Paul Thompson from Leeds Beckett University.
- 17 September: The F club reborn. A hands-on fun workshop about the history of Leeds' grassroots music and politics of the 1970s and 1980s. Based in the Fenton, create a fanzine and inlay for mix tapes, as you learn more about the city’s punk and post-punk music scene.
All events are free and part of Leeds Beckett University's partnership with LEEDS 2023. As a principal education partner of LEEDS 2023, we’re letting culture loose. The Creativity Unwrapped theme of this year’s Heritage Open Days adds to this celebration of everything Leeds has to offer.
Book your place on our Heritage Open Days events here.
