New life for Victorian bakery building
A FORMER Victorian bakery at the heart of the oldest street in a Yorkshire city has been given a new lease of life in the latest phase of a major regeneration scheme.
Project bosses and developers have revitalised the empty building at 90 Kirkgate in Leeds as part of the Lower Kirkgate Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI). Records from 1852 show that 90 Kirkgate was used as a baker’s and confectionery store by Peter Proctor and, before that, Thomas Collison ran a pawnbroker shop in the building in 1839.
Three floors are now back into use, with repairs to the interior along with reintroducing a traditional shopfront and installing timber sash windows.
The owners of the building applied for a £105,133 grant through the Townscape Heritage Initiative, which aims to restore the buildings on Lower Kirkgate.
The second floor is currently being used for offices, while a new lease is being agreed for a barber shop on the ground and first floors.
Leeds City Council’s executive member for regeneration, transport and planning Coun Richard Lewis said: “It’s fantastic to see another piece of Leeds’s history being brought back into use.”
Financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Leeds City Council, the THI has also seen the launch of a traditional cafe at 92 Kirkgate, while the neighbouring building has seen the Doghouse, a cafe and bar, established with Paula’s Vinyl record shop on the floor above.