Meet Mike

The Leeds history credentials

Mike researches every tour himself, working from original archives and primary sources, so the stories you hear are accurate, local and properly his own. His particular interest is the Leeds most guidebooks skip — the pre-Victorian city, its trades and its people — which means even lifelong locals tend to leave a tour having learned something new.

That work is rooted in the city’s own institutions:

Member of Leeds Civic Trust — the charity championing Leeds’ built heritage, history and future.

Member of the Thoresby Society — the Leeds historical society, dedicated to the study of the city’s past since 1889.

The recognised expertise

Mike’s standing in the field isn’t self-declared — it’s recognised by the people who work in it:

• Secretary of the British Guild of Beer Writers — the national body for the country’s leading writers on beer, brewing and pubs.
• Former Chair of CAMRA Leeds — years at the heart of the city’s campaign for real ale and pub heritage.
• A background in Leeds’ own pubs and breweries — hands-on industry experience, not just an enthusiast’s interest.

From a pint to a passion

It started, as a lot of good things in Leeds do, in the pub. Mike’s interest in the city’s beer and brewing heritage kept pulling on a bigger thread — the trades, the buildings and the people behind it — until the history of Leeds itself had become the real fascination. The pubs were the way in; the whole city was where it led.

For around twenty years, that was a passion alongside a career in IT. In 2019 Mike made the clean break: leaving the day job to turn the thing he’d always researched for the love of it into the work he does full-time. Tours of Leeds is the result — a way to share a city he’s spent years getting to know properly, with people who want to know it too.

Running tours privately, for one group at a time, is a deliberate choice. It means there’s time to go deeper into the history, room to shape the route around what your group actually wants to see, and a relaxed, sociable feel with nobody rushing to keep a public timetable. Most of all it means it’s just Mike and your group — not a flag held above a crowd of strangers.

Three ways to see Leeds with Mike

Every tour is private to your group and built around what you want to see — the heritage pubs, the city-centre landmarks, or the industrial waterfront. Each one is researched and led by Mike personally.