A Leeds man is calling for more people visit a Leeds area which he’s compared to Eastern Europe due to the vast amount of diversity and buzzing parade of shops.
Although ‘fighting, dealing and drinking’ are a big issue in Harehills, he says every area has a “positive and a negative”. Ahsan Khan, 37, thinks it’s the best area in town to find great food and soak up different types of culture.
The takeaway worker has said the suburb used to be a “dead place” before people from different parts of the world immigrated in and transformed it into a “24/7 busy” spot. A choice location for anyone looking to try out some new culture.
Ahsan has worked part-time in Best Fried Chicken (BFC) in Harehills Lane for two years, helping the owner who is his friend and he also has an office job. Originally hailing from Pakistan, he’s lived in the UK for about 20 years. He has two children, a daughter, nine, and son, seven, who he’s raised in Leeds.
Speaking about Harehills Lane with pride, Ahsan said: “I call this area Eastern Europe. It’s a multi-cultural area, you see Romanians, Czechs, Slovakians, Kurdish, English and Pakistani here as well.
“If you come through Harehills, the first thing that comes to mind is Eastern Europe. If you go back about 10 or 15 years you wouldn’t have seen any people here, nothing, it used to be a dead place here. Now it’s a busy place, 24/7 busy, more people have come to live here now."
The area has a 42.4 per cent white population, with a 37.1 per cent Asian and 13.1 per cent black population, according to the 2011 census data.
“It’s good for business, there’s more variety and more different kinds of people living here means there will be more shops open. There are lots of different options for people to go out and eat,” said Ahsan.
'Positives and negatives'
Although Ahsan admits that Harehills has picked up a bad reputation due to anti-social behaviour in the area over time, he doesn’t think this should stop people from visiting. There’s currently a strict drinking ban in the area for street drinkers which could result in a six month jail sentence.
The father-of-two said: “There’s a downfall as well, people come her to drink and they do mess about, there’s a lot of fighting as well, all the time. There are so many things, like fighting, dealing, but every area has positives and negatives.
“Positively, it’s a multicultural place, you see different type of people here and different type of shops.”
