Treasures from the Archive

Each month, we’ll be showcasing items from our collections. This month, it’s a pamphlet recently donated (among others) by Rosie Snowden.

International Women's Day pamphlet

While it may not seem like much, the list of women’s organisations which gathered at the historic Corn Exchange in Leeds for 1985’s International Women’s Day celebrations reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the Women’s Liberation Movement — many of whom (like Leeds Animation Workshop or the Women’s Holiday Center in Horton) are still active in the Yorkshire area today. You can download the pamphlet here.

The Corn Exchange is a beautiful old Victorian building in the centre of Leeds. Built in 1867, it was once just what the name suggests. After falling into relative ruin, it was refurbished in the 1980s, and used as a market for tiny shops full of cool things. It eventually became the centre of Goth culture in Leeds, before the council unceremoniously chucked everyone out and sold the building off to be a high-end food emporium. (As you might guess from the general tone of the economy, that hasn’t turned out too well.)

This event would most likely have taken place before the refurbishment, when the building was frequently used to house these kinds of council-supported community gatherings.

Corn exchange circa 2005, when it was still one of the coolest sites in Leeds.

[Image from Wikimedia Commons - Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 ]