As we welcome our first residents on the newly built continuation of Solar Avenue we have been reflecting on how Solar Avenue has grown and developed since becoming a home to so many. As part of being shortlisted for the Academy of Urbanism “Best Street” award, poet Ian McMillan summarises this special place in his unique style in the poem “Solar Avenue”.

“There’s a system here; a Solar system
A way of living, shining bright.
All these future, you can’t resist ‘em:
Stroll to the centre, walk home every night.
Profound and yet simple, things we all
need:
A place that takes cars right out of the
scene
From your bedroom window, view of a
seed
That shows this idea is all shades of green
As it grows in a planter. Yorkshire rain
Feeds the rain garden. This place feeds
the mind
A life is reborn again and again
And all this in Leeds? Yes, that’s what
you’ll find
When thinking, doing and building combine
And here by the river the planets align”

Solar Avenue – A poem by Ian McMillan