ABSTRACT
The urban system of the United Kingdom is characterized by one absolute centre: London. Besides London there are also several ‘second cities’. Together with cities such as Birmingham and Manchester, Leeds is one of them. Being the capital of Yorkshire and the Humberside Region, Leeds has an important regional function. It is situated in the middle of Britain, between London and Edinburgh. In the last few decades of the twentieth century the United Kingdom was characterized by a ‘flow southwards’. Many people moved from the northern cities in Britain southwards to London. Leeds is one of the few cities that did not show an outflow of inhabitants. There is even a small inflow: in 2001 the surplus of people moving to Leeds was 8,000 people, around 1 per cent of the total population. The Leeds Metropolitan Region has several different administrative divisions.
