Headingley is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hedingelei or Hedingeleia when Ilbert de Lacy held 7 carucates, equivalent to about 840 acres, of land.

[2] A stone coffin found near Beckett Park in 1995 suggests there may have been an earlier settlement in late Roman or post-Roman times.

The name may refer to an oak tree that was a meeting place for settling legal disputes and raising armies.

A map of 1711 shows Headingley as having a chapel, cottages and farmsteads scattered around a triangle of land formed by the merging of routes from north, west and south.

Enclosed fields were situated around the settlement with a large tract of common land, Headingley Moor, to the north.

Land here was generally cheaper than that at Headingley Hill as it failed to attract the building of affluent villas.

Headingley was a village until the expansion of Leeds during the Industrial Revolution and became a popular suburb where the rich moved to escape the filth and pollution of the city.

The trams improved the accessibility of Headingley from Leeds city centre, which facilitated growth and attracted affluent middle class inhabitants.

Northern Diamonds play some of their games at Headingley in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Alex Sobel (Labour Party) who has represented the area since the 2017 general election.

Headingley has two renowned fish and chip shops/fish restaurants[9] which have been operating since the 1930s: Brett's, a 19th-century stone building on North Lane, and the now permanently closed Catch Seafood Headingley (formerly Bryan's and then The Fisherman's Lodge), a more modern building on Weetwood Lane whose parent company entered administration in October of 2022.

[12] In Headingley Central (formerly the Arndale Centre) there are large retailers and several other chain shops as well as a small multi-storey car park.

There is a Premier Inn hotel above the Arndale Centre in the tallest building in Headingley, formerly an office block.

[15] In the time of Queen Victoria, Prince Alemayehu of Abyssinia, brought to England after the defeat of his father King Tewedros, died of pneumonia at an address in Hollin Lane, Far Headingley.

[19] The Headingley Development Trust (HDT) is a community benefit society, founded in 2005 by local residents, organisations and small businesses.

In 2018 it successfully raised over £480,000 through a community share offer to create the Headingley Investment Fund (HIF).

The small Lutheran church of St Luke's in Alma Road was converted from the coach house and stable of a Victorian villa.

[35] The mid-19th century listed building Spring House in St Michael's Road, Headingley,[36] was the address for VAD nurses during this time; Olive Middleton, great-grandmother of the Princess of Wales, was attached to "Spring House, St Michael's Road, Headingley" when working at Gledhow Hall and elsewhere as a VAD nurse during the Great War.

[37][38][39][40] Another of Olive's sisters-in-law was Caroline Middleton (1876-1961) who worked as a VAD nurse at the 2nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds.

[41] A number of premises were named Spring House in and around Leeds, at times operating as a Home for Friendless Girls in the early decades of the 20th century.

Large amounts of the eighties ITV Beiderbecke Trilogy was filmed in and around Headingley and Beckett Park, along with Moor Grange and Pudsey.

Parts of Headingley stood in for Northern Ireland in Harrys Game, and A Touch of Frost used locations in the area.