LEEDS

a city in West Yorkshire , England. In the 16th century it began to be an important centre for the production of woollen cloth, and later became a centre of the Industrial Revolution . The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was opened in 1816. It remains an important industrial city. Its famous buildings include the Town Hall (1853–8), the City Art Gallery (1888) and Armley Mills, a museum of local industrial history. The Royal Armouries Museum opened there in 1996 and Thackray’s Medical Museum in 1997. The Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, open to professional piano players under 30, was started in 1963 and is held in the city every three years.