Leeds Clubs

Leeds has been the host to numerous clubs over the years with confusingly similar names:

Leeds SFL

fl. 1930s

This is the Granddaddy of them all. The Leeds chapter of the Science Fiction League was the first prominent fan group in the UK, being active during the 30s. It was founded by Douglas W. F. Mayer. It published the Bulletin of the Leeds Science Fiction League edited by Harold Gottliffe.

It organized the first science fiction convention in the UK in Leeds in 1937, which some people feel was the first SF convention anywhere. See Which Was the First SF Convention?

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

A chapter of the SFL in Leeds England, which seems to have held apart from the SFA. Publishing house was the Green Jester. Its outstanding member was J. Michael Rosenblum.

Leeds Science Fiction Association (I)

fl. 1937-39

This club was created in the wake of the 1937 Leeds Convention, the first convention in the UK, where fans formed the national SFA. What had been chapters of the SFL (such as Leeds SFL) were all now supposed to become chapters of the SFA. Everyone went along with this except in Leeds, a significant number of whom wanted to remain Leeds SFL. So for a while, in the grand fannish tradition, the Leeds Science Fiction Association (I) was a single group with two factions in it. Conflict eventually arose and it broke into the separate Leeds SFL and Leeds SFA groups.

It might not have lasted long, thanks to the outbreak of WW2, but while it did, Leeds Science Fiction Association (I) was a significant force in UK fandom. The 1950s group (see below) had the same name but otherwise there was no connection between the two.

• For more, see a detailed account of pre-war Leeds fandom by Rob Hansen in Relapse

Leeds Science Fiction Association (II)

fl. 1950s

SF club formed in the UK in the 1950s. Its clubzine was Orbit. Members included George Gibson.

Leeds University Science Fiction Group

fl. 1966-68

A Leeds club founded by Bill Burns in 1966 which lasted for two years. It was mostly a social group that had little contact with other fan groups.

Leeds and District SF Group

fl. late 60s

A club in the Leeds, UK are which was organized by Barbara Mace in 1967. It met on alternate Monday evenings in the Victoria pub behind the Leeds Town Hall.

Leeds University SF Society

fl. mid-70s

A club at Leeds University which was formed in 1973. Eve Harvey was one of the co-founders.

Leeds SF Group

fl. mid-70s - mid-80s

The Leeds SF Group was a club which met every Friday evening starting around 1974, initially in a pub called The Victoria and later in one called the West Riding. It petered out in the early-mid 1980s.

Members included David Pringle, Mike Dickinson, and Tom Shippey.

Leeds University Union Science Fiction Society

fl. late-70s to early-80s

A club at Leeds University, UK also known as LUUSFS. It is now known as Leeds University Union Sci-Fi & Fantasy (bah!). At one point, its clubzine was Black Hole. They ran the Lucon conventions

Website.

Leeds Group

Fl. current This appears to be the Leeds SF Group of the 70s and 80s which is no longer very active but who very occasionally still get together.

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Fanhistory

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