Somewhere in Leeds there is a bench encouraging people to speak about their mental health. The Afterlife bench is inspired by the incredibly popular Netflix show written by and starring Ricky Gervais who plays a man dealing with grief following the death of his wife.
Throughout the show, Gervais' character Tony deals with depression and dark thoughts and navigates his way through family and social life. One of the key scenes throughout the series sees him sitting on a wooden bench by his wife's grave, often chatting to another woman who lost her husband.
The bench was so iconic that CALM, a charity promoting mental health awareness worked with Netflix to install them in locations across the country. The benches were put in so that people could sit and contemplate life and perhaps spur a conversation about mental health.
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There is a bench in Leeds, or so everyone thinks because no one seems to be able to find it. The CALM charity released a list of benches which can be found in 30 locations across the country and according to it, the Leeds one is somewhere in Middleton Park.
To find it people have to use the WhatThreeWords app to use coordinates to then find the location of the bench. However, it remains a mystery.
According to the coordinates the bench is in or near the park which is south of the city centre. But when we sent a reporter to try and find it after three hours there was no sign of the elusive wooden seating.
LeedsLive spoke to CALM to try and get more information about the location and even they didn't know, saying a number of people had been in touch unable to find it.
A spokesperson for CALM said: "It seems there have been quite a few people having trouble finding the Leeds bench via What3Words. As it was Netflix who installed the benches, we're reaching out to them to gain some clarity. "
People on Twitter were saying similar things, some were suggesting the bench never existed, others were saying it's definitely not in Middleton Park, so the question is does it exist?
Jamie tweeted at Ricky Gervais saying: "Don’t think the Leeds one is there Ricky, the coordinates take you to the middle of nowhere and there isn’t an Afterlife bench in Middleton Park anywhere"
No one has found it as of yet, but surely it must exist if even Ricky Gervais tweeted the location back in April. Perhaps it is up to the people of Leeds to search it out.
If you manage to find the bench, feel free to get in touch to give us some hints on where we can locate it.
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