LEEDS!

I'm not one to subscribe to the damning notion that all 'is grim up north' but have to admit to an element of surprise and delight on a recent visit to the Knightsbridge of the North, formerly known simply as Leeds. Shopping malls around the world need to step up and pay attention please: I want vaulted domes, mosaics and dazzling stained glass with every purchase from now on!



But, actually, what I loved the most about it was the proximity between one shopping experience and another - Louis Vuitton cheek by jowl with Poundland and, just across the way from all this gilded opulence, a good old northern covered market offering dazzling displays of fish, spice stalls, bolts and bolts of dress fabric, cake stalls, haberdashery and a sweet shop I'm sure must be related: