ABSTRACT
Topographies of race mark and define space itself shaping how different places come to be inscribed with racialised regimes of power that get enacted against and through particular bodies. Leeds, as with most major cities, has a particular topography of race that manifests itself in complex ways. A story that for many decades was shamefully ignored by the city's historians and biographers and is only now, as Caryl Phillips' moving portrait shows, recognised as an important episode in both Leeds and Britain's collective story. Contra Hoggart, Aspden paints a more disturbing picture of how life in 1950s Leeds was riddled with racial tensions that were barely concealed beneath the surface from any observer who wanted to see them: The streets could be dangerous. The latest Hovis ad, released in September 2008 to commemorate 122 years of the product and premiered, of course, during Coronation Street, serves to keep this distorted history alive.
