Situated a little further away from Leeds city centre than Hyde Park, Rooftop Living introduce you to Kirkstall.

Famous for Kirkstall Abbey, founded in 1152, it is a green suburb of the city with the Leeds Liverpool canal and riverside walks along the Aire. It has wildflower meadows and wetlands at Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve. Otters and kingfishers have been spotted on the weirs of the Aire as well.

Let’s zoom in on Kirkstall itself, an incredibly popular place to call home for both students and professionals.

If you’ve not been to Kirkstall for a long time, the change there may astonish you – though in a good way.

It’s less central than Hyde Park, on a par perhaps with Headingley, another favourite student suburb, but with easier access to Trinity University in Horsforth. It has a plentiful variety of public transport options to get you to campus, your workplace or the city centre, within 15 minutes, depending on where you settle in LS3, LS4 or LS5.

You can get buses on the A65 or a train to Bradford from Kirkstall Forge and Harrogate and Leeds is accessible from Headingley station, which is a short walk away.

Kirstall has changed dramatically too over the years.

You have the solidity of sturdy Edwardian homes on Abbey Road, many extended. Here you’ll find too the stately wooden bar in The West End House. Other renowned public houses include The Cardigan Arms on Kirstall Road, Viva Cuba and The New George on Commercial Road, with inexpensive beer usually on a Wednesday.

There are cobbled streets and the locals call the area by street clusters. You can say “I live in the Normans, the Vicarages or the Vespers” and be accepted as a long time settler there.

Kirkstall residents don’t have to travel far to shop either – there’s Kirkstall Bridge retail park and a large Morrisons nearby.

In terms of culture, there’s an annual festival held in the abbey grounds every July and is home to one of the best pubs in Leeds – the Bridge Inn, frequented by the many students and professionals who call Kirkstall home.

In fact, over 800 students live in the listed and converted Kirkstall Abbey, part of Leeds Beckett University since 1994.

Wedged between the A65 and the canal, there are many leisure pursuits in this area. There’s a PureGym at Kirkstall Bridge, as well as City Golf, with even more to do as you approach the city at Cardigan Fields. There’s Hollywood Bowl, Nando’s, Vue Cinema and the Climbing Lab – an indoor bouldering place when the weather is too grim to do it outside?

Headingley and Hyde Park, with their student populations, are close by and you can reach the city centre in 45 minutes walking by the river.

At Rooftop Living, we often find that those who rent in Kirkstall often remain there longer term – it has a semi-rural feel, with the Abbey and river, yet is close to the city centre and other bustling suburbs like Headingley.

If you have any more questions about living in Kirkstall, Leeds, contact our expert team at Rooftop Living today.