THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH

To the south side of Leeds city centre, major regeneration has been happening to revive the area into a unique attraction. Martin Farrington, Director of City Development at Leeds City Council, gives us an insight into what’s going down at the South Bank.

I have often said that development is an exercise in dynamic patience, and the regeneration of the South Bank is certainly a prime example.

I first looked at the area to the south of the River Aire after the City Centre Conference of 2008…. some 15 years ago. Through walking the area and mulling things over, I quickly realised the latent potential that the then, not so snazzily titled, “City Centre South” presented. Put simply, a once in a career opportunity.

Dominated by post industrial buildings, over-engineered highways and with the expansive Tetley Brewery set to close, it was clear that there was the potential to deliver regeneration at a scale that could deliver a whole new district in an expanding city centre. And so, with a quick rebrand that was conceived through my doodling in a rather boring meeting about performance management, the “Leeds South Bank” was born.

With the help of many colleagues in the Council, the support of the Civic Trust and too many external partners to mention, a number of opportunities took shape including a new city-centre park, the Hunslet Stray, calming the highway infrastructure and a new footbridge over the Aire; all as part of a new mixed area that aimed to double the size of the city-centre. The scale of the opportunity quickly took hold amongst many stakeholders with lots of co-production helping to inform and refine our master plans further.

Since the development of the first South Bank Planning Framework in 2011, progress has continued to be made in realising our ambition including the introduction of new learning cluster in the area such as the City College, the College of Building, Ruth Gorse Academy and the University Technical College. In addition, the delivery of the new Southern Entrance to the Station by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in 2016 provided a new gateway to the area was a key move that enabled Leeds Station to now face South as well as its traditional North.

Building on these early successes, in the past few years the long-held ambition for the South Bank has really taken shape. The Council has completed the first phase of the Park at Meadow Lane, which is ready to receive a major new piece of public art, Hibiscuss Rising by Yinka Shonibare. The opening of the new David OIuwale Footbridge was also completed earlier this year and Vastint is making excellent progress with its Aire Park development, including more than 20,000m2 of office development close to completion.

Alongside this progress a number of residential schemes have been brought forward including the completed Mustard Wharf and Iron Works schemes which is being followed by Tower Works and the Guinness Partnership on the former Evans Hallshaw site. This development at scale is book-ended to the West by the recently completed Globe Point office development by CEG and Citu’s Climate Innovation District to the East.

Along with the calming of Crown Point Road, which has recently been completed, it’s clear that the potential to create a new part of Leeds City Centre is now being realised. An area that introduces new green space into a former brownfield post-industrial landscape, new homes with high levels of environmental performance, and infrastructure that prioritises the person, not the car is well on the way to delivery. The dynamic patience that has been exercised by many stakeholders in the city is starting to pay dividends and, with the potential to bring the British Library North into a restored Temple Mill, those dividends look set to continue and make a return for Leeds for many years to come.