The Leylands is a poor, densely settled district of Leeds associated in the novel with Jewish immigrants and their families. Emma Harte first encounters it while establishing herself in the city, and later returns there after helping Abraham Kallinski, whose home stands on Imperial Street. The district’s material hardship and the kindness she experiences within it form a defining contrast: although Emma initially regards the neighborhood as dangerous and unfamiliar, the welcome of the Kallinski family becomes part of her lifelong commitment to defending her Jewish friends against prejudice.

Setting and social conditions

The Leylands is presented as a close-packed urban quarter of narrow streets, courtyards, and alleys, with houses clustered tightly together. Emma passes through Byron Street toward Imperial Street and notices the visible signs of poverty: children play barefoot in patched clothing, while men hurry home with their heads lowered. The neighborhood appears markedly different from the quiet of Fairley village, and Emma is alert to its unfamiliar people and surroundings.

The novel locates the district within the wider conditions of working-class Leeds. Its streets are bordered by dark, closely built houses, described as a legacy of the Victorian era and as inadequate dwellings for working people. The Leylands is also identified as the place where many Jewish immigrants live. That description connects the district’s economic hardship with migration and community: its residents have made homes there while building networks of mutual assistance.

Emma’s encounter with the district

When Emma arrives in Leeds, Rosie Miller directs her to Mrs Daniel’s boarding house, deliberately choosing a place farther from the Mucky Duck than she initially suggests. Rosie wants to get Emma away from the dangerous surroundings near York Road, where, in her view, even adult men are not safe. Her intervention offers Emma practical protection as well as a place to begin her new life. Emma, carrying her suitcase and clutching her reticule, concentrates on finding accommodation and work rather than pausing to take in the unfamiliar city.

Emma enters the Leylands for a different reason when Abraham Kallinski gives his address as Imperial Street. She has helped him after he becomes unwell, and, despite her concern about the area’s reputation, insists on accompanying him home. Her decision puts her unfamiliarity with the neighborhood alongside her willingness to take responsibility for a stranger. The encounter makes the district more than a setting of danger in her eyes: it becomes the place where an act of practical care opens a lasting connection.

The Kallinski home and community

Abraham’s house stands at the far end of Imperial Street. It is larger and better kept than the surrounding homes, with white curtains and wooden shutters; Abraham’s evident pride in it gives Emma a different impression of the quarter from the poverty she has observed outside. He explains that he came from Kiev in 1880, travelling through Rotterdam and Hull, and initially intended to continue to America. He stayed in Leeds to earn his passage, found work and support among fellow Jews in the Leylands, and remained after meeting the woman who became his wife. By the time Emma meets him, he has lived in the district for twenty-five years, though not always in the same house.

Abraham invites Emma in to meet his family. At their table she watches Janessa light the candles and pray, and Abraham bless the wine and bread before the meal. David explains the ritual, including the kiddush and the breaking of the bread; the loaf is one Emma had rescued from the street. The family’s hospitality gradually eases her apprehension. The meal, shared by Abraham, Janessa, their sons David and Victor, and Emma, makes the home a place of welcome and nourishment after her difficult first days in Leeds.

Narrative significance

The Leylands brings together two realities that Emma initially struggles to reconcile: poverty and vulnerability in the streets, and generosity and mutual support within the Kallinski household. The contrast does not erase the district’s hardship, but it prevents hardship from defining its residents. Emma’s first encounter with its Jewish community is personal rather than abstract: she is received as a guest, included in a family meal, and treated with care by people she has only just met.

That welcome helps explain Emma’s enduring opposition to antisemitism. The narrative explicitly connects the hospitality she experiences with her later resolve to defend Jewish friends and her shock at the racism directed against them in Leeds. In this way, the Leylands functions both as a specific neighborhood and as the setting for a formative encounter: a place Emma approaches cautiously, but where she finds solidarity and a community whose treatment of her challenges the prejudice surrounding it.