Back Via Leeds ~ A Pigeon Crossing, a Bug Hotel and the Homeward Hop from Yarndale

Hello Hello Hivers, Hivians and any other wonderful being who has stumbled onto this!

I am back with another another Wednesday Walk.

This one happened on Sunday 27th September on our way home from a weekend away in Skipton ostensibly to attend the yarn festival Yarndale.

After a cracking weekend away for Yarndale, eventually there comes that unavoidable moment when you have to point yourself towards home.
For us, that meant heading back through Leeds City Bus Station.

Now, a bus station might not sound like the most promising subject for a photo walk. You arrive, find your stand, sit down, complain that your legs hurt and wait for something large with wheels to turn up.

Or at least that's the theory.

However, Hive and my obsession with taking pictures of fluffing everything have different ideas!

Give me a camera and a little time to kill, though, and suddenly a bus station becomes architecture, trains, history, bug hotels, war heroes… and one particularly determined pigeon.

Welcome to Leeds ~ Leeds Metro clock, bus station and buses

The big Metro clock makes it fairly difficult to forget where you are.

We had some time before our coach, so rather than simply sitting in the bus station staring at the departure board, I started looking around. And I soon found that there is actually rather a lot packed into this wee corner of Leeds.

Leeds City Bus Station opened in its present form in 1996 and today handles thousands of departures every week.

Source: West Yorkshire Metro – Leeds City Bus Station

Close-up of the Leeds Metro clock

I rather like the Metro clock!
Being a Silver Blogger there's something satisfyingly old-fashioned about having a giant clock outside a bus station.

No unlocking your phone...No asking Google.

Just fluffing look up.

Although being an arse I still looked at my phone afterwards to make sure the clock was right!

Trains Above, Cars Below and Us Somewhere in the Middle

One of the things I liked about this area was how many different layers of transport were happening at once.
Cars underneath... Buses everywhere.
And trains rumbling across the old brick railway arches above us.
It's the sort of photograph where Leeds seems to have squeezed every possible way of getting somewhere into one frame.
Thankfully nobody landed a helicopter or a wee plane!

A Hotel… for Bugs

Then we spotted this...
At first glance I thought these rusty metal structures were simply pieces of public art outside Victoria Leeds.
Get closer though, and you'll find that they're much more useful than that...
Yep ... they're a bug hotel!!

And not some wee wooden box from the local garden centre either.
This is basically the insect equivalent of the Ritz hotel.
The structures were installed to improve biodiversity around Victoria Leeds and provide habitats for insects and pollinators.
The planting surrounding them includes flowers and plants intended to provide food and shelter for wildlife.
Source: ABM – Building a bespoke bug hotel for Victoria Leeds

Victoria Leeds Bug Hotel plaque

The plaque gives us another little piece of the story...
It says ... Victoria Leeds Bug Hotel
and explains that flowers were donated by Sonja Kalkschmidt, coming from the Best in Class Show Garden at Belvoir Castle, winner of the Duchess of Rutland Cup in 2021.

So even the fluffing insects are getting award-winning landscaping!
I tell you, some bugs have all the luck.

Close-up of the bug hotel

Unfortunately, if you look closely, there is something in there that definitely wasn't designed by Mother Nature.

A plastic coffee cup lid... I mean ... Seriously?
Somebody builds a lovely habitat for insects…and some fluffing bawbag apparently thinks: "Ah yes. A bin."

And there we have the human mentality summed up!!
Humans ... simultaneously clever enough to build hotels for bugs and stupid enough to put plastic rubbish inside them.
Still, cup-lid vandal aside, I thought this was brilliant.

Even the Building Looks Like Fabric

Behind the bug hotel is the striking Victoria Gate development.
Its exterior isn't just a random pattern. Oh no sir!
The architects took inspiration from Leeds's textile heritage, with parts of the façade designed to resemble woven material... It does to me, what do you think?

Considering we'd just spent the weekend at wool show Yarndale, this seemed oddly appropriate.

We go away for yarn... and eventually even the buildings start looking knitted.

It has been decades since I was last here for the Battle of Britain, when Rangers were the undisputed best team in British football and beat Leeds United home and away and realistically best in Europe but for Marseilles being caught cheating!

Suffice to say this was all new to me and definitely new to Mrs T who had never been to Leeds before.

Victoria Gate opened in 2016 as part of a major redevelopment of this part of Leeds.
Sources:
Visit Leeds – Victoria Gate
Archinect – Victoria Gate architecture

Leeds Playhouse

Across the road is Leeds Playhouse.
The theatre organisation dates back to 1970, while the current Quarry Hill theatre building opened in 1990.

And here is a piece of trivia I didn't know until researching these photographs.

One of the actors appearing in the very first Leeds Playhouse production in September 1970 was a young man called ... Tony Robinson...
Yes... Baldrick!

Long before Blackadder, Tony Robinson was appearing on stage in Leeds.

Source: Leeds Playhouse – Our History

Not something I expected to discover while killing time waiting for a fluffing bus home!!

Back to the Bus Station

And eventually we remembered why we were actually here.
We weren't on a sightseeing tour, we were supposed to be going home!
But before we could do that, something important happened.
A local resident decided to cross the road.

Why Did the Pigeon Cross the Road?

There he is... One pigeon... One road.
Absolutely no concern whatsoever about the traffic.
Which naturally raises one of mankind's greatest unanswered questions...

Why did the pigeon cross the road?
Well… because the chicken had gone to the wool show at Yarndale.

As Mrs T's YouTube channel is Yarn ChickHen, I admit I felt slightly cheated that Mother Nature hadn't provided an actual chicken for the photograph.

Percy the pigeon crossing the road!

Look at him go!!!
No panic... No hesitation... No frantic flapping.
Percy checked the road both ways, read the Highway Code and had an appointment at 1:30.
"Excuse me. Coming through. Important pigeon business."

I have no fluffing idea where he was going, but he sure as fluff looked more confident about his route than we were about ours.

The Strange Little Building on the Roundabout

Next up was this unusual little brick building... It was actually the reason that we walked this way as I thought it was kinda cute!

At first glance it looks almost like a tiny temple.
Maybe an old ticket office? A gatehouse? Somewhere a particularly eccentric Yorkshire wizard might live?

Nope. None of that!!
It was actually built as a petrol filling station.
Even better, it dates from around 1932 and was designed by architect Sir Reginald Blomfield.
The building is now Grade II listed. Which makes sense as it seemed to be closed off!
Source: Historic England – Former Filling Station
Imagine someone building a petrol station like this today.
Now we'd get a grey box, a Costa coffee machine and crappy £4.99 sandwiches.
Progress! Bollocks it is!

Zooming in a wee bit...

But standing beside it was something much more significant.
A monument that I'd photographed because it looked interesting ... and only afterwards discovered the story behind it.

Arthur Aaron VC

This is the memorial to Arthur Louis Aaron, a Leeds-born RAF pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross.

A big thank you Arthur for your service and helping keep out country free...

Aaron was just 21 years old when he died during the Second World War.

In August 1943 his aircraft was badly damaged during a raid on Turin and Aaron himself was seriously wounded.
Despite his injuries, he continued helping his crew to get the damaged aircraft safely down.

Unfortunately, he died several hours later.
He was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.
Source: Talking Statues Leeds – Arthur Aaron

A child releasing a dove of peace

Look at the top of the sculpture and you can see a child releasing a dove of peace.

Leeds Civic Trust held a public vote to select a local hero to commemorate for the Millennium, and Arthur Aaron was chosen.

I am glad, these are the real heroes of Great Britain that need remembering. Now some kids don't even know the sacrifices that were made for them to be free. Sad state of affairs we live in.

The sculpture was created by Yorkshire sculptor Graham Ibbeson.

A child flying a plane

Children climb the tree-like structure towards the top.

Once you know Aaron's story, the whole sculpture becomes much more meaningful than when you simply walk past it.

This is also the power of Hive, we research things that people take for granted or even worse, don't even fluffing notice!

A wee girl and her plane

That's one of the things I enjoy about taking photographs while travelling.

Sometimes I know exactly what I'm photographing.
Other times I simply think.."That looks interesting Tengo."

Then I come home, investigate it and discover an entire story as with the case of hero Arthur Louis Aaron VC.

Child holding that kite and climbing

The monument has all sorts of small details built into it.

Did you see them all?

Children climbing... Books... Art materials.
Objects associated with learning and youth.

Mind you, what do kids of today do...

The monument base

And suddenly what looked like an interesting piece of street sculpture becomes a memorial to a 21-year-old Leeds man whose actions saved members of his crew.

I'm very glad I stopped to photograph it and more importantly learnt about a hero.

Which Way Now?

After all that exploring, perhaps this sign was trying to tell us something.
Quarry Hill.
West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Victoria.
Leeds College of Music.

Plenty of possibilities.

Unfortunately our direction was considerably less exciting.

It was back home to Scotland!

Our Yarndale long weekend was rapidly coming to an end.

The Buses Keep Coming

There were plenty of local buses coming and going, including this smart-looking Harrogate service.
I particularly liked the wording along the side...
“Ride in style, with comfy seats on board.”

What impressed me was all the towns that have excellent bus services down there! Not like Scotland!

One Last Train

Another train rattled across the arches while we waited.

If you know me or read my walking posts, then you will often see trains in there!

There is something I always enjoy about photographing trains passing through cities.

You get about three seconds to frame the shot ... and then it's gone.

Fortunately this one behaved itself... Unlike fluffing pigeons.

Megabus Has Left the Building?!?

And last but not least, this photograph amused me...
The enormous sign still says: “For Megabus visit Stand 1.”
Except when we were there ... there was no fluffing Megabus to be seen.
Instead, FlixBus seems to have taken over the role.
West Yorkshire Metro's current information lists FlixBus among the operators at Leeds Bus Station and gives Stand 1 for its services.
FlixBus also announced its move into Leeds City Bus Station in 2024.

Sources:
West Yorkshire Metro – Leeds Bus Station
FlixBus – Leeds Bus Station
So apparently FlixBus has moved in ... but no fluffer has told the Megabus sign.

Time to Go Home
And that was our wee wander around Leeds.
It wasn't supposed to be sightseeing.
It was simply the place where we changed buses to catch a train on our way home from Yarndale.
Yet in the space of a short walk around the bus station we found... a giant insect hotel, a piece of Leeds textile-inspired architecture, Baldrick's theatrical beginnings, a Grade II-listed petrol station, the moving story of a Victoria Cross recipient ... and a pigeon crossing the fluffing road.

Travel doesn't always need a carefully planned tourist attraction.
Sometimes you just have an hour before your bus... You walk outside... You look around... And you find stories.

Although I still want to know where that pigeon was going.
Why did the pigeon cross the road?

This post is for #wednesdaywalk which was inspired by @tattoodjay

Thanks for visiting and I hope you managed to get out for a walk this week.

All images and ramblings are from me, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo unless otherwise stated. Note images are all snapped by me with my Google Pixel 9 XL Pro smartphone on Sunday 27th September 2026. @tengolotodo 30th September 2026

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