Leeds and Sheffield, the two biggest cities in Yorkshire and two places I have spent large parts of my life.
I was born in Leeds and spent the first 18 years of my life in West Yorkshire before I moved to Sheffield to go to university. Now I'm back in Leeds and it's time to figure out which is best.
I often get asked which city I prefer to live in and so it is now time for me to employ an *entirely scientific* method to discover the answer to this most pressing of questions. To do this, I have decided to compare all the different aspects of life in the two cities.
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From the nightlife to the public transport system, it is far past time to figure out which is best in each area.
Nightlife
The best place to start when measuring up two cities is always the nightlife and I have to apologise to my hometown because Sheffield takes the trophy here. While there are definitely good spots to go out in Leeds I always found the nightlife in Sheffield to be more varied and more entertaining.
From the music to the nightclubs, Sheffield is both cheaper and more fun. The Leadmill has always been a great place to go with a number of bands, like the Arctic Monkeys, playing in its halls before becoming household names.
Shopping
The high street of a city is a city’s heart, a place where people come to eat, socialise and shop during the day. But the centre is not the only place for this, both Sheffield and Leeds have some of their largest shopping centres on the outskirts.
Leeds’ White Rose Centre and Sheffield’s Meadowhall are both magnificent in their own right, but I feel Leeds just wins this category. Both cities have an Ikea, both cities have large city centres, but Leeds has Trinity and a load of shops which I think just gives it the win.
Which Yorkshire city do you think is best? Let us know in the comments below
Transport
This may come as a shock (not) to some, but Sheffield has to win on the public transport side of things when it comes to actually getting around the city. Leeds relies heavily on its bus network to get around with many services being slow and infrequent.
Sheffield instead has its own tram network which can really help in getting from one section of the city to another. It also has its own bus network but this is often as problematic as in Leeds.
However, in a bit of a twist, Leeds has to win the public transport category when it comes to trains and planes. If you want to get to a different city like Manchester you go through Leeds train station, it is big and has plenty of choices.
Likewise, Leeds Bradford Airport is bigger and has more options than Sheffield Doncaster. This is without even mentioning the quick access to Manchester Airport by train.
Sport
When it comes to sport there's only really one winner. Sheffield may have two teams in Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, but can either really compare to Leeds United? From my entirely scientific point of view, Leeds are the best team in the world which makes it difficult to compete with.
Leeds United being the only team in Leeds (the actual city, there are a lot of good teams in the towns which surround Leeds, like Gusieley Town), also helps foster a spirit of unity in the city which places like Sheffield and Manchester lack.
But there is more to Leeds than just its football team. Yorkshire’s cricket team is based out of Headingley while Leeds Rhinos dominate the rugby scene in the city. This means there is always plenty of choice when it comes to sport across Leeds.
Sheffield does have its strong Ice Hockey links, but when it comes to sport Leeds is the winner every time.
