User:Julianhall/sandbox/Whitelock's

Whitelock's is a pub on Turk's Head Yard, off Briggate in Leeds city centre. Opened in 1715, it is one of the oldest pubs in the city.

History
Whitelock's opened in 1715 as the Turk's Head. One of many several pubs set on the yards and alleys running from Briggate, it is celebrated by the 100th blue plaque from Leeds Civic Trust. The Turk's Head was sold in 1867 to John Lupton Whitelock, the family from which Whitelock's got its name. It remained in the Whitelock family until it was sold in 1944 to a brewery. The pub's ornate interior dates back to the 1880s, when John Lupton Whitelock started to install the marble-topped bar, etched mirros and glass and cast-iron annd polished brasswork tables. Famously, poet John Betjeman described Whitelock's as "the Leeds equivalent of Fleet Street's Old Cheshire Cheese and far less self-conscious, and does a roaring trade. It is the very heart of Leeds.".

More recently, the old 'top bar', at the top end of Turk's Head Yard, was reopened as The Turk's Head in January 2016. This shares outside seating with Whitelock's.