It was once dubbed "the most notorious pub in Britain".
But that short, superlative phrase – now itself notorious – never told the whole story of Chapeltown's Hayfield Hotel. The former pub on the corner of Chapeltown Road and Reginald Terrace was infamous for violence – at least outside the building – but it was also the heart of Leeds' Black community.
The Hayfield Hotel began in 1869 as Hayfield House, the home of William Turton, a wealthy hay merchant and transport entrepreneur. By the 1970s, it was a pub with a fearsome reputation.
