Bistro Fiori

When I moved to Leeds in 1988 it was quite the place. My favourite starter was a whole corn on the cob served in a glass dish shaped like a corn cob - my memory is that it had some parsley sprinkled on it and that was it. The height of sophistication! How I coveted those corn cob dishes.


I think it has been closed for maybe 20 years now and the site remains empty.

It got me thinking about my first visit to Leeds - it was the wild north to me and I was incredulous when I went to visit a bedsit in a house with washing lines over the street. I took the bedsit, which had a shared bathroom - the immersion was on a timed switch so we got an hour of hot water a day. When my friend drove me up from London she cried leaving me there but I absolutely loved it! One day a resident of the building kicked in everyone’s doors to steal the money from their electricity meters - except for mine, which I like to think was because I’d bought him some fish and chips just before, but it may have just been a coincidence. That whole street in Beeston has been demolished now - I wish I’d taken photos but photography was expensive in those days.