Leeds Art Gallery. Leeds City Museum, originally established in 1819, reopened in 2008 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
It is housed in the former Mechanics' Institute built by Cuthbert Brodrick, in Cookridge Street, which has been redeveloped to a design by Austin-Smith:Lord architects and Buro Happold engineers. Gallery and exhibit design is provided by Redman Design.
It one of nine sites in the Leeds Museums & Galleries group. Admission to the museum is free of charge.
Special exhibitions are hosted alongside a collection of displays from the Leeds Archive. In 1819, a museum was established in Philosophical Hall, Bond Street, by the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, and in 1821 it opened to the public.
In 1921, control of the museum was handed to the Corporation of Leeds which later became Leeds City Council. In 1862, Philosophical Hall was rebuilt in Park Row, where its stone portico can still be seen on the west side of the road. In 1941, the museum building and artifacts were badly damaged by bombing. In 1965 the museum was closed, and a few exhibits removed to a couple of rooms in the city library in 1966. The oversized Leeds Tiger, the giant moose skeleton and the carved wooden cart took up much of the space. In 1999 the museum went into storage, though researchers and the public could view items by appointment. In 2000, the resource centre at Yeadon opened, under the same appoi