Arts and Amenities
The Trust is a standard bearer for the improvement of the city’s cultural facilities and public amenities. Very pleasing progress has been made this year with discussion continuing to be translated into delivery.
Museums and the Visual Arts
Productive monthly discussions with Leisure Services officers about the content and design of the galleries to go in the new City Museum have continued. Meanwhile, the museum’s new store and visitor centre at Clarence Dock is almost complete. The conversion of the Leeds Institute in Millennium Square to the City Museum has proceeded apace with its opening scheduled for 2008.
We have also been pleased to serve on the Council’s External Reference Group considering the remodelling of the City Art Gallery and Central Library. Financial constraints have effectively scotched the idea of building a new art gallery elsewhere, but the Council has obtained the finance for the current renovation of the impressive former sculpture gallery and the conversion of the old Art Library into a ‘white box’ exhibition space. The remodelling and extension of the rest of the building is still under deep discussion.
The Performing Arts
This has been a very good year too for the theatre and opera in Leeds.The new Carriageworks Theatre in Millennium Square opened its doors in the autumn providing the new home for the city’s amateur dramatic groups. While the internal finish of the new theatre falls disappointingly short of the quality of its exterior, its facilities are excellent. Without doubt, the year’s greatest achievement is the £21m modernisation and refurbishment of the Grand Theatre and the building of a new home for Opera North next door in Harrison Street combining Premier House and two new rehearsal studios, each the size of the theatre’s stage. The most remarkable of many operational improvements is the £¾ m lorry lift in Harrison Street which lifts huge scenery lorries to first floor level providing direct access to the Grand Theatre stage. The audience, orchestra, performers and technicians will all benefit from the comfort of improved seating and ventilation and the upgraded flying tower. Congratulations to all involved. The £10m Phase II will include the renovation of the Assembly Rooms and the New Briggate frontage.
Major Cultural and Business Facilities
Our longstanding campaign for Leeds to build a modern concert hall, conference and exhibition centre and arena continues to have an effect with widespread public interest. Following their report of the previous year, consultants PMP have been re-engaged by the City Council to advise on the best method of procuring a 13,000-seat indoor arena, quite probably with conference and exhibition facilities attached. The lively and well-attended consultation evening we organised in November demonstrated the very strong wish of the city’s music fraternity to have a modern concert hall on a par with those in other major cities. However, the City Council seems determined to make do with upgrading the Town Hall.
Public Realm, Hotels and Shops
There have been some major improvements to the public realm. Merrion Street Gardens have been tastefully relandscaped, while Millennium Square has gained the beautiful ‘From Freedom to the Future’ garden designed by Antonia Stowe. The high-quality repaving of Briggate is now complete, just ahead of the celebration of its 800th anniversary in 2007. The astonishing growth in hotel accommodation has continued with the 130-bedroom Express Holiday Inn at Clarence Dock just opened, and the 200-bedroom Gateway Hotel on East Street under construction. Remarkably city centre hotel accommodation has quadrupled in 15 years. Though the paucity of facilities for city living remains worrying, the opening of a Co-op convenience store at the West Point residential development on Wellington Street is a significant step forward. Overall, this has been a quiet year in terms of retail development but there are very big things in the pipeline provided that, as with so many aspects of the city’s potential improvement, the buoyancy of the Leeds economy and property investment can be sustained for another 5 years or more.
Kevin Grady
Director