The growth of Leeds during the 20th Century owed much to the efforts of Sir Charles Wilson, the so called Sultan of Leeds who envisaged the city as stretching from the Pennines to the sea. This map shows Leeds as it was prior to metropolitanisation in 1974.
Over more than a century, the Society has built up a number of special collections, notably its archive, map and image collections, which have recently been re-catalogued to make them more accessible. These collections are housed in the Society’s library, based at the Leeds Library, 18 Commercial Street, Leeds LS1 6AL.