Leeds City centre in the 80's and early 90's was a very different place to the glossy, consumer paradise it is today. An grimy layer of post-industrial black soot stained the buildings and parts of the city centre were no-go areas to any but the most hardened drinker or punter on the look out for trade in the red light areas around Boar Lane and the Corn Exchange. The suburbs of Headingley, Meanwood, Burley and Woodhouse, offering cheap and sometimes free housing, were populated by students, squatters, musicians and artists existing alongside more permanent residents. This served to create a vibrant community living in the cramped back to backs, grubby bedsits and crumbling terraces and produced a perfect breeding ground for musical and artistic talent and political radicalism. These shots serve to portray the times and aspects of the alternative culture that existed then.
All images shot on either Ilford HP5 or FP4 film using a Pentax ME Super with 28mm lens.

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Burchett Grove
Woodhouse

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Sisters Of Mercy/Goth Convention
Astoria, Leeds

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Sisters Of Mercy/Goth Convention
Astoria, Leeds

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Sisters Of Mercy/Goth Convention
Astoria, Leeds


Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Hartley Avenue
Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Hartley Avenue
Woodhouse

Stop The City
1984

Kensington Terrace
Headingley

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Anti Election Graffiti
Hyde Park

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Melville Place
Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Kensington Terrace
Headingley

Sisters Of Mercy/Goth Convention
Astoria, Leeds

Meanwood Road

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Huddersfield

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Sisters Of Mercy/Goth Convention
Astoria, Leeds

Kensington Terrace
Headingley

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Hartley Avenue, Woodhouse

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Squat eviction
Woodhouse

Woodhouse
Leeds

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Poll Tax demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

After The Gig

Dunfermline

Stop The City Demonstration
Leeds

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Backstage

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Punks Picnic 1988
Hyde Park

Two Trees Festival
Doncaster

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Woodhouse
Leeds

Poll Tax Demonstration
Leeds Town Hall

Anti War Squat Demonstration
Rates Building, Leeds

Dunfermline
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