Taylor's Sports Bar and Grill Leeds: Inside the new Headingley sports bar celebrating the city's sporting heroes

From boxing champion Josh Warrington to Leeds Rhinos legends Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield, Taylor's Sports Bar and Grill is adorned with action shots of the city’s biggest sporting stars. Owner Andy Taylor has picked out 10 greats to be inducted on the local heroes hall of fame, an upstairs lounge in the bar with five huge TVs.

There have already been many heated discussions about who should be included and Andy will be inviting his customers to choose one sporting hero to be unveiled on the wall every three months, taking a poll on social media.

Andy, 53, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “We offer good beer and good craic but with a smart sporting backdrop. Leeds is a fairly unique city, there’s one rugby club who are world class and one football team who are Premier League class.

“We’re also the headquarters of Yorkshire Cricket, we’ve got absolutely everything. It’s a phenomenal place to live as sports’ worshippers.”

Taylor’s opened with a VIP launch event on Sunday March 12, attended by former Leeds Rhinos player Danny McGuire, current Rhinos stand-off Blake Austin and boxing star Jack Bateson, as well as the family of the later snooker legend Paul Hunter who came to see him inducted into the hall of fame.

Among the first sporting heroes celebrated are boxing champion Josh Warrington, who has promised to visit the bar and sign his action shot, Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield and Andy’s personal hero Sir Geoffrey Boycott.

Andy is the owner of several businesses under the Taylor’s Group, including construction companies, a bar and grill in his hometown Scarborough and the well-known Taylor’s Bloodstock which owns racehorses. Andy and his team were determined to open in time for Cheltenham Festival and the bar was packed with customers enjoying every race across the bar’s many screens.

“We had to be open in time,” Andy said. “And when we opened the doors the people came, it was so much fun. It’s a unique place, people have said it’s a fantastic idea and suggested we could launch it around the country.

“But we don’t want to do that, this is for Leeds. I don’t want to go to Manchester and start putting pictures of Ryan Giggs on the wall!”

Taylor’s is planning to sponsor some of Leeds Beckett University’s sports teams and work with its students, as well as hosting events to raise money for children’s cancer charity Candlelighters - Andy has already raised thousands of pounds for the charity through his other businesses.

The bar will launch its food menu around Easter with American-style food including good quality burgers, hotdogs and nachos. With businesses based around Headingley and the suburb’s rich sporting history, the Otley Road venue was the ideal place for Andy’s new venture.

He added: “We weren’t going to do a lot to the venue, however one idea leads to another idea and all of a sudden it multiplies. When we did the hall of fame, it was great fun but it took a lot of work to source the pictures. It was a lot of effort - but it was certainly worth it.”