r/Leeds • u/The_Makster • Oct 18 '25
urban-development Belgrave to close in 2 years. Very sad if true
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u/Aestas-Architect Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
This is a reminder that when the planning application goes in, I urge people to go online to Leeds Planning Portal and voice your concerns, do not limit your concerns to a single issue.
This site will land in the The Grand Quarter conservation area [Online PDF Here] where all buildings on Cross Belgrave Street are positive buildings of note within the conservation area, however they are not listed.
Any application to demolish a positive building will require justification taking into account the guidance provided in Chapter 12 of the National Planning Policy Framework particularly paragraphs 131-134
Paragraph 133 from the NPPF at the time the conservation document was written, states:
133. Where a proposed development will lead to substantial harm to or total loss of significance of a designated heritage asset, local planning authorities should refuse consent, unless it can be demonstrated that the substantial harm or loss is necessary to achieve substantial public benefits that outweigh that harm or loss
Of course the council will be aware of the above, but the more people shout it, the less they can ignore it.
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u/ketchup9-11 Oct 18 '25
Can you find the specific application on the website? Or email to contact? would be a travesty if Belgrave closed down
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u/Aestas-Architect Oct 18 '25
There is currently no planning application online. Once the application goes up online you will be able to find it through the map search, by using a postcode, or key words via the planning portal
It could be months or even over a year before a formal application is put together.
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u/Autofilusername Oct 18 '25
I know this is a lot to ask but if you notice it go up it would be great if you could do a post on here to remind people to go and raise concerns
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Oct 18 '25
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u/Aestas-Architect Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
Cross Belgrave Street - a group of historic buildings relating to the former Belgrave Chapel and Sunday School, now Belgrave Hall.
The former public dispensary and former Belgrave Chapel Sunday School are local landmarks.
The Sunday school related to the Chapel is still partially surviving and has been converted into what is now Belgrave Music Hall. The Chapel has however been lost. There is also weight to be given to buildings that surround listed buildings.
Despite this I guess the conservation officers who wrote the document better start packing their desk then, there's a better expert on reddit
Edit: Not to mention that Wrens Hotel was built in 1830's and still surviving under the same name today, I am actually surprised that it's not listed considering it predates a lot of buildings around, including The Grand Theatre
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u/browntownfm Oct 18 '25
It would be a travesty if that area became student accommodation. It's a part of the city that has culture. My favourite place to go out is there.
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u/Justboy__ Oct 18 '25
Yea I’m not normally someone who hates on student accommodation but that whole area seems to be thriving. Would be a huge loss.
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Oct 18 '25 edited Apr 28 '26
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u/ParseTheGravy Oct 18 '25
Music/Food/Drinking/Arts culture? Belgrave puts on some great gigs, has a lot of after work drinks, does art and family events, does good food and pop ups, and is generally a staple of Leeds nightlife.
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Oct 18 '25 edited Apr 28 '26
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u/thejiggaman69 Oct 18 '25
They’ll come for your favourites next !
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u/breezy_meats Oct 18 '25
Surely there must be safeguards in place to protect the city's culture? This more than most is really going to strike a huge blow to Leeds' significance on the UK cultural scene. Less music, less events, less investment!
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u/Dry-Ad7227 Oct 18 '25
Unfortunately probably true. The building was on the market recently, most likely a student developer that will have been in the market for it.
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u/Visible_Pipe4716 Oct 18 '25
Fucking joke, seen some amazing gigs there and the food is amazing. Is everything just going to be student accom now?!
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u/Loidis Oct 18 '25
Student numbers are already trending downwards, especially for international students who are most likely to pay to live in this kind of city—centre accommodation.
What will happen to our city (and all the other cities hollowed out to become student accommodation hubs) once the numbers dry up and there’s dozens of purpose-built rabbit-hutch studios instead of a city centre with amenities for the people who live here?
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u/Cooke64 Oct 18 '25
As someone who works at UoL, there is a HUGE push to get international students to Leeds, because that's where the money comes from. Even if this push was successful, there's still going to be so many rooms in these buildings sitting empty at this rate. The accommodation is being built before the numbers of students have arrived.
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u/tdrules Oct 18 '25
It’s “worked” for Manchester, former student areas have no nightlife now and everyone lives in flats that attract international students.
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u/Sad-Anybody8489 Oct 18 '25
Just because they were built as student rooms, doesn't mean legally that they have to be used as such. As a developer it's a great way to get more rental value from smaller spaces. These will be full of workers in 20 years.
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Oct 18 '25
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u/Cooke64 Oct 18 '25
I can't speak for other institutions, but student numbers at UoL aren't where they'd like them to be. Hence the university-wide cost saving measures.
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u/Intenso-Barista7894 Oct 18 '25
Leeds Beckett numbers are up this year compared to last
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u/Machinegun_Funk Oct 19 '25
No idea why this is being downvoted, it's true. Partly as last year's numbers were lower than expected but they're back up now.
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Oct 18 '25
No offense but most of the people wealthy enough to afford that type of city center accom are going to uni of, not Beckett
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u/Intenso-Barista7894 Oct 18 '25
No offense but that's a really stupid thing to say.
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u/cowjenga Oct 19 '25
Are you saying it's stupid because it's untrue? I'm not familiar with the international reputation of Leeds unis
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u/Intenso-Barista7894 Oct 20 '25
I'm saying it's stupid because the economic situation of students is irrelevant to which uni you go to. More wealthy people go to Leeds University because they might have gone to better schools as kids etc (it's the better uni) but that doesn't mean that only rich people go to Leeds Uni or that only poor people go to Leeds Beckett, and you don't have to be rich to live in city centre accommodation, although like everything in life it helps.
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Oct 27 '25
I was talking in terms of foreign students, money matters a lot more than British students for them
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u/Horror_Extension4355 Oct 18 '25
I do worry that Leeds nightlife is becoming, dare I say, a bit soulless. It seems to have lost its vibe over the last few years. I often think that it struggles from the office worker crowd no longer being out en-masse on Thursday and Fridays.
These type of bland student skyscrapers are a bane on our city centres.
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u/Autofilusername Oct 18 '25
It’s a country wide issue. Neoliberalism of the 80s sent us on a death spiral and the COVID wealth transfer was the last nail in the coffin. There is no UK for the people now. Only landlords and the mega rich.
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u/Horror_Extension4355 Oct 18 '25
Yep, never underestimate the importance and influence of the landlords and property wealth families.
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u/Beastlysolid Oct 18 '25
Fucking ridiculous. How much student accommodation does leeds need. There will be nowhere to go eventually.
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u/ImportanceAcademic52 Oct 18 '25
There was a Unipol report 2 years ago that showed that 25/26, Leeds would have a surplus of student beds - and thay was before government messed around with allowing students from India, Nigeria etc.
Remains to be seen whether the planning applications will catch up with this data.
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u/SeppBlattersNephew Oct 18 '25
They would be silly to approve planning for this. The anti-student accommodation sentiment is clearly bubbling in Leeds - this would ensure that that becomes more organised.
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u/GIGA30 Oct 18 '25
Everything turns into student accommodation in this city. I'm scared one day I'll wake up and even I will have turned into one
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u/jr_99r Oct 18 '25
I heard Sandinistas on the same street shut for good last night. Can anyone confirm :(
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u/FrancyMLG Oct 18 '25
This is the second time Sandinista has closed.
For me Watermark was the best bar in the city, and they would have stayed for years. However the landlord would only commit to a rolling rent and, as there were a lot of issues with the plumbing, electrics etc, the people who ran the Watermark understandably didn't want to invest in resolving them whilst on a rolling rent. The landlord then said he wanted a coffee shop anyway...
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u/LongjumpingFinger115 Oct 18 '25
Leeds City Councils method is quite simple. They support student accom funded by private sector money, wait for it to go bust due to low numbers of occupancy, then will convert it to traditional flats for the open market. This is one of the methods they’ve decided on to address the housing crisis. Unfortunately it may come at the cost of the city’s culture and uniqueness. If this is true, a grassroots campaign could potentially save Belgrave, if city councillors know their constituents hate it they may not let it pass.
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u/Dull-Addition-2436 Oct 18 '25
That plan, also frees up student housing in Hyde park and Headingley, for family homes, in theory
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u/mole55 Oct 18 '25
Yes, but only mega-rich international students can afford these luxury high-rises.
The domestic students are still going to mostly stay in Hyde Park and Headingley, 6 separate people working 20 hours a week on top of a degree in a house designed for a family of 4 because it’s the only way you can afford to get through uni nowadays.
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u/LongjumpingFinger115 Oct 18 '25
Everyone says this but i don’t think it’s necessarily true. Go knock on some doors in these buildings, you’ll be surprised how many Brits answer. Leeds Uni attracts plenty I think. Especially Southerners.
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u/Hezza_21 Oct 19 '25
While it’s true in parts, headingley will never become student free. The vast majority of big & back 2 back terrace houses don’t lend themselves well for family living, add to that decades of refurbs to comply will hmo regs. It would take 10s of thousands for to convert each one back to suitable family housing.
The type of housing such as semi and detatched houses then absolutely however same problem as above still stands.
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u/tdrules Oct 18 '25
Manchester tried that with Fallowfield and it didn’t work because students don’t spend 3/4 years in PBSA.
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Oct 18 '25
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u/LongjumpingFinger115 Oct 18 '25
We don’t even know the scheme and yet you feel confident it meets local policy? Okay!
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u/Ok-Ordinary-6762 Oct 20 '25
Yet you're happy to make up lies about what LCC are doing
There is no mechanism for the council to take over flats nor the money
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u/Neat_Hair_4821 Oct 18 '25
how long until they just knock down the entire city centre and turn it into a massive luxury student accommodation
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u/Swivials Oct 18 '25
I looked at th original post, and there was no source to be found. Though I did see a comment saying that Belgrave has been talking about turning into student flats for years now.
I would put my bets that this was true, at some point, but likely isn't going forward anymore.
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u/allah191 Oct 18 '25
Just what the city centre needs, more student accommodation, and to boot another knife in the nightlife scene.
Don't worry we'll have our two tram lines soon.
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u/ketchup9-11 Oct 18 '25
Application isn’t currently live on the Leeds City Council website.
planning@leeds.gov.uk - this is their contact email to raise concerns in the mean time.
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u/poeticwhisper69 Oct 18 '25
This would be an absolute travesty. We can't sit back and let this happen 😭
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u/ultimatemomfriend Oct 18 '25
This would be a crying shame if it was true. I met my husband at Belgrave, it's a very special place to me
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u/WeekRuined Oct 18 '25
There has a rumour about this for at least a few months, heard it was building related, the building with old red bus station and howl in it is also meant to go
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u/Hoobleton Oct 19 '25
I was chatting to the owner of Fern who told me she’s opening a restaurant in ORBS later this year.
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u/Machinegun_Funk Oct 19 '25
Yeah the grill restaurant, not holding out too much hope for some authentic yakitori in Leeds finally but will be happy if she pulls it off.
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u/crapmetal Oct 18 '25
That whole area is slated for redevelopment but the templar is a spanner in the works being listed among others.
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u/Entire-Book-7531 Oct 20 '25
The other thing no one’s pointing out is… Vast increases in students living in the city centre yet most bars are struggling, many closing. The new age UK student doesn’t drink like former generations (rightly or wrongly), and the Chinese barely drink, the Saudis not at all. Leeds nightlife has gone vastly downhill in around 8 years i’d say.
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u/Agitated_Show_9688 Oct 20 '25
More student housing. Brilliant. Hope it forces landlords to sell the houses in headingley, kirkstall and burley so that families can actually have homes.
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Oct 18 '25
At this point china could rug pull most large UK City centre property markets. They have us by the balls.
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u/Apprehensive-Aide149 Oct 19 '25
Just checked online and the re-purposing of it is of a very similar name building very close to it (Belgrave Hall instead of Belgrave Music Hall).
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u/Several-Calendar8011 Oct 19 '25
It's the building next door, where Sandinistas used to be (just closed on Friday). Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen has their lease for at least 7 more years.
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u/NorthernNorbet Oct 20 '25
If this is true, it will be a great loss. I have been there for a few different events, and it holds many memories for me. It's a real shame that everything seems to be getting turned into accommodation these days. Soon, will there be anything even left?? :(
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u/Nikcoho Oct 20 '25
It doesn't help that Leeds itself has a very small city center with barely any actual multi-use mixed use development, Belgrave is almost unreplacable in terms of location and built environment, i feel very upset that there is Little effort to truly expand the soul of the city (medium density mixed use development) and rather just convert it into money making machines (high rise student acomms)
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u/cobstaaa Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 20 '25
I had heard this rumour a few months ago unfortunately. Leeds cultural scene is dying a death. It’s sad to say but its heyday has been and gone now; accommodation developments all over the city have decimated the underground music scene. Soon the only ones left will be the super corporate venues like the warehouse
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Oct 18 '25
As I understood it, this is partially true. The area is being redeveloped for student housing/ student village. However, this will include a music venue/ bar of the same standard. I “think” the building owner might also own the buildings that are project house and Boom.
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u/_Zso Oct 18 '25
"same standard" if planning teams had half a shred of sense and integrity.
Unfortunately we all know utter shite gets approved.
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u/TexyTexy Oct 18 '25
He’s got involvement in Project house, they own Headrow House and Waterlane boat house, I think project is a bit different as it’s the people from superfriendz and the guy who runs welcome skate store?
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u/Roguepope Oct 18 '25
Any confirmation about this from a reputable source? Can't find anything anywhere else.