{"id":424738,"date":"2025-09-14T22:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424738\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T22:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:22:23","slug":"its-among-leeds-most-deprived-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424738\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s among Leeds’ ‘most deprived’ areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents in one of Leeds\u2019 most deprived areas have said it\u2019s \u201clovely\u201d and \u201clike a village\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Hunslet<\/a> and Riverside ward ranks as one of the most deprived areas in the country, according to Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Leeds City Council\u2019s<\/a> Leeds Observatory said the majority of residents living there are living in the “most deprived fifth” of the city in 2018.<\/p>\n

Locals and business owners have admitted the area has its issues and lack of footfall at the shops \u2013 but have hailed the friendly community that lights up their day. They spoke of the \u201cchatty, friendly\u201d vibe of the community and have said it\u2019s close-knit with many of the residents knowing each other by name.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Neighbours evacuated as ‘suspicious chemicals’ found in Leeds house <\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Man tries to rob woman at knifepoint – but gets pinned against wall instead<\/a><\/p>\n

Malcolm and Lynn Ratcliffe, both 73, have lived in the area since 1977. Over time, they\u2019ve seen the area change vastly with the area redeveloped to suit modern living, while losing some of the old \u201ccharacter\u201d of the former back-to-back neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\"Church<\/p>\n

Church Street, Hunslet -Credit:Samuel Port<\/p>\n

Lynn said: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely. It\u2019s like a village, everybody knows everybody else which is nice. Coming from Batley, it\u2019s a lot friendlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malcolm said: \u201cI\u2019ve watched a lot of Hunslet get knocked down and get rebuilt into flats. A lot of public has been lost, a lot of character has been lost, unfortunately. Everybody used to live in backdoors, and someone\u2019s backdoor would lead to somebody\u2019s front door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Barbers<\/p>\n

Barbers Honar Ali and Zee Rahman -Credit:Samuel Port<\/p>\n

Honar Ali, 36, has owned Five Star Barbers, in Church Street, since 2021. He spoke of how chatty the locals are \u2013 but says it takes getting to know people and developing a relationship over time.<\/p>\n

Honar said: \u201cPeople who know us, they\u2019re loyal, they keep coming back and things go absolutely fine. They all know us because we\u2019ve been here for a while. We\u2019ve got that sort of a connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barber Zee Rahman, 25, said: \u201cIt\u2019s good. We\u2019ve never had any trouble or any headaches. The people are nice, down to earth and chatty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Beautician<\/p>\n

Beautician Dawn Saunders -Credit:Samuel Port<\/p>\n

Honar, who is originally from Kurdistan, said he has found people in the area very accepting of people from different backgrounds. He said: \u201cI\u2019ve not had any trouble of any kind. As long as you are respecting the rules in the country, wherever you are. If you blend yourself in to the environment you\u2019re in, things go well for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawn Saunders, who co-owns Quintessential Hair Beauty and Tanning, in Church Street, has also lived in the area for a long time. Dawn has been working as a beautician in the area for around 30 years.<\/p>\n

\"Hunslet<\/p>\n

Hunslet Library -Credit:Samuel Port<\/p>\n

Dawn said: \u201cI don\u2019t think the footfall is the same as it used to be. It\u2019s a little bit sad, really. We need things to bring people down here, again. It\u2019s just like loads of charity shops, and that. I don\u2019t know what we need, really, but it is definitely quieter than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get all the latest and breaking news in Leeds by <\/b>signing up to our newsletter here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents in one of Leeds\u2019 most deprived areas have said it\u2019s \u201clovely\u201d and \u201clike a village\u201d. The Hunslet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,145046,145042,393,4884,145045,1860,11743,145043,145044,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-424738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-church-street","10":"tag-deprived-areas","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hunslet","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-leeds-city-council","16":"tag-leeds-observatory","17":"tag-lynn-ratcliffe","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115204991194589049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}