In 1977 I clearly remember the sense of celebration in Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee Year. Bunting, flags and city dressing strewn across the streets in villages, towns and cities across the country; buses decorated in special liveries and street parties galore. We have seen this repeated in recent years with Royal Weddings, The King’s Coronation, Olympic Games and numerous sporting occasions.
A sense of celebration and civic pride in a place is vital to those who live, work and visit, but how do you create a vibe in a place through dressing the city? Who is responsible and does a destination go downhill if you do nothing?
I have long advocated that simple and sympathetic city dressing can add ‘hugely’ to the sense of place, welcome and belonging. From bunting in a Cotswold village to union flags on Oxford Street, dressing can add to the atmosphere and curiosity of a place. A desire to linger, find out more and discover.
At LeedsBID we have navigated this challenge in recent years. LeedsBID is not a commercial organisation in the sense of promoting a product to buy but we have a responsibility to our levy payers to dress the city and position it positively. We have achieved this through street art, street displays, live performances, events which animate and immerse, and bunting and banners.
Bringing everyone together “on message” and “in season” can be challenging but we saw great success for our summer 2024 animation MONOPOLY Leeds Takeover, under license from Hasbro. We saw the city centre immersed in the branding, with MONOPOLY money bunting, property cards and wayfinding in addition to the physical dressing through large-scale props and characters.
And we have seen this once again in summer 2025 for Wonderland Awaits, with playing cards dressing the high street and branded city centre wayfinding.
There was no cross-street dressing on Briggate before 2019. LeedsBID worked tirelessly with landlords to secure permissions to create fixing points down the high street; a process which took two years and lots of collaborative working. This enabled us to use the main high street to create a central point of celebration and place. We have seen thoughtful and creative installations from simple union flags and colourful bunting to dinosaur camouflage, playing cards and a lighting display with James Glancy Designs, which famously illuminate Carnaby Street in London.
I was impressed to see Trevelyan Square has worked to create its own banners and a sense of place. A previously unloved area of the city which has had new life breathed into it following the arrival of Trinity University, alongside the rejuvenation of the Marriot Hotel, which has worked with LeedsBID to clean the area and install the tree lights. Simple banners, lighting, outdoor chairs and tables has meant this location is no longer a cut through, but a place to go. Street dressing and banners has been part of the solution.
So how as a city do we continue this momentum and who leads on the curation? As the Business Improvement District has demonstrated, no one organisation can achieve this in isolation. It requires a joined-up and collaborative approach. Without this the consumer received a mixed message about the place with a hotchpotch of colours, lamp post flags and messages which can be badly curated and confusing.
In 2026 we will enter the city’s quatercentenary, a 400-year celebration since Leeds was given its Charter by Charles I. There is a great ‘one off’ opportunity to come together to dress the city in a celebratory way. LeedsBID certainly wants to be part of this and encourages others to get involved. It requires a ‘done with’ and not ‘done to’ approach so everyone can feel the benefit and make the most of the celebrations. As with any birthday party, we need to get out the bunting. So ‘Happy Birthday Leeds 2026’!
