Granary Wharf is coming back to life slowly but surely, old stalwarts Wasabi Teppan-Yaki continued stoically despite the years of building works and lack of neighbours. In the last nine months there have been signs of life again. City Inn Hotel is now bordered by two apartment blocks of high quality design by developers ISIS, who committed , during tricky finanical times, to continue with their plans to create buildings which should not just last the distance materially, but are also a credit to the skyline of Leeds. We particulary love the Carey Jones designed Candle House building.
Now another destination pull down the dark arches is the opening of Ossett’s Brewery’s latest outing, but first in Leeds, The Hop, combining real ale, and real music.
The brewery was founded in 1997 by ex-Tetley Leeds brewer Bob Lawson, now company Chairman. The company is currently run by his son Jamie and ex-Virgin Japan MD, Mike Inman. The brewery has thirteen existing real ale pubs across West Yorkshire, but The Hop is a new concept based around locally brewed beers and live music. The Hop initiative has seen the company team up with Mike Heaton, drummer from Yorkshire indie band Embrace.
We also applaud ISIS Waterside Regeneration, for bucking the trend for filling units with high street chains such as Starbucks, they are keen to attract independent retailers like Ossett, which are searching for a unique place to trade in Leeds, and invite more individual retail and leisure companies to make the waterside development their home.
The Hop will officially launch to the public on Friday 26th March with performances from a host of locally sourced musical talent. The new venue will feature 10 hand pulls, continental lagers, an extensive wine list and will also see the beginning of a partnership with award winning pie maker Andrew Jones of Huddersfield.
And here is a review from Paul aka @nonsensepipe on twitter who went to the invite only launch
I’d been looking forward to this opening for a while now and so being given the chance to pop down for the official opening was all the excuse I needed to go out on a school night. As I walked over the footbridge into Granary Wharf I was really impressed, the scaffolding is gone and the building works now complete. It’s newly built but it looks like it’s always been there, the new blending seemlessly with the old. A good crowd were already at the bar by the time we arrived and you could already tell there was a good buzz in the air about the place. Osset Brewery is definitely trying to be cool by the looks of the decor, the Yorkshire credentials being reinforced in the shape of a huge Cribs mural and a rather large portrait of Jarvis Cocker looking down over the bar area. There is a lot of art work about the place which gives a definite young and fresh feel to the bar. We went upstairs to take it all in; it’s difficult to judge a bar when it’s an invite only event, the crowd is never going to be the same as normal and I suspect there were one or two more ‘suits‘ than we could normally expect. It took me a fair while to warm to the place, my girlfriend said it looked like a Weatherspoons and to be fair some of the decor is quite gaudy in places. As the night wore on though my opinions soon changed. This might have had something to do with the beer, which was spot on by the way, and as the suits started to vanish and the band started up and it all sort of fell together. It’s a good times bar, good music, good atmosphere and great beer. This is definitely an excellent addition to Granary Wharf and I’m looking forwards to popping down again very soon.
Let’s hope that by pursuing a less obvious strategy, by pursuing independent and local businesses we can get a development that really does become vibrant and interesting. Just like the dark arches used to be!
My concern, even if it works wonderfully, is that the beneficiaries will be those with the disposable cash to access the services on offer or invest in them. Once again in the name of ‘development’ (actually in pursuit of rather more straightforward economic development and increase in GDP per square foot), as a city we will have pursued a strategy in which those with money will get more, while those without will lose out.
A city with such wide and widening gaps between the haves and the have not is not what I would choose for my children to grow up in.
Oh Mike! Mike, whilst I agree with many of your sentiments I have to take issue with you on this one. This is a good thing that many people (who aren’t necessarily rolling in it) can enjoy. Applaud the fact that at least one developer (Not the City) is taking a different stance on the whole ‘let’s fill it with High Street Clones’.
Perhaps you could offer your support in helping those young independent businesses to create sustainable business plans!
I know you think me hopelessly naive, and perhaps I am, but I fail to see why this deserved your ‘haves and have not’ remarks.
Lets focus on the positives, this is an excitement development in a revitalised area of town. The more independant retailers, restuarants and bars we can get the better. Yes the beneficiaries are those with money, but lets not forget it’s a pretty big motivator to some of those without to do something about it. I for one and looking forward to this!
It got the remarks because I am fed up of the uncritical celebration of increased consumerism in the city. Especially when the infrastructure on which it is based is built with public money that could be used to narrow gaps in health and wealth, and to promote social justice rather than further erode it.
If we think giving the moneyed classes more nice places to play, and driving for ever greater GDP, is top of the cities development agenda then of course we should celebrate.
Loving Paul’s comment about money being a motivator to the ‘have nots’. Very good! Remember Loadsa Money? http://bit.ly/1fDsXU I also remember the coppers waving tenners at striking miners in the 1980s. Waving cash in the faces of the poor is not always a smart move.
So you wont be drinking in there then Mike?
I can’t wait for it to open and I will be there enjoying my drink (purchased with my own hard earned cash…I dont earn that much of it) on Friday!
Fantastic!
For too long the holbeck urban village or huv (which dark arches borders) has been a place for hookers, vagabonds and no money from the council being spent to make it clean and tidy.
We now have the wonderwood, pickled pepper, foundry, engine house, free houses in cross keys and midnight bell and out of the woods all independent companies bucking the trends of high street monstrosities.
The dark arches used to be a somewhat decrepit and run down area but with isis and the fantastic new pub going in what a great area to live this has become.
Shame the dalek couldnt follow suit but what a summer this is building up to be!
I’m certainly looking forward to the opening night. I was at a pre-opening party at The Hop on Saturday night and it’s an excellent venue. Beers from Great Heck Brewery (A local small brewery whom I represent) have been chosen to be on sale on the opening night and I’m going to be there to sample them at their best.
All Ossett’s pubs are superb and The Hop in Wakefield is successful in a town where most places are closed through the week. This place is just what Leeds needs.
I’m very pleased to see that The Hop will not only be a place for great beer, but music too. This location is surely a serious investment for The Ossett Brewery and fair play to them I say. Along with Leeds Brewery and North Bar, the small guys are taking on the big corporates and doing it well.
I think this location was the one earmarked for Jamie’s Fifteen so this is no low key intro. I am firmly behind their ballsy thinking and I will be backing it all the way, by eating and drinking in there on my dollar. The place looks pretty cool too and they’ve not skimped on the decor.
Great to see the independents doing the cool thing in Leeds, same as it ever was.
I too look forward to having a beer at the The Hop. I have heard a lot about how good the Ossett Brewery Beers are.
I am not anti business, anti development, or anti fun! I am deeply interested in the balance of public/private investments and who they benefit.
Perhaps if we invested a little more time and money in engaging with ‘hookers’ and ‘vagabonds’ to understand their stories, choices, aspirations and capabilities we might be able to do something a little more constructive than moving them on or locking them up.
Our city is in the throes of a sustained programme of economic cleansing, where those whose life choices don’t fit, or whose pockets aren’t deep enough get pushed further into the darkness on the edge of the city. Only the shiny happy people will remain.
So as we quaff our pints perhaps we can do so with a little empathy and regard for those who can’t join the party?
It will be interesting to see the impact that the success of the Granary Wharf development has on HUV? Too many independents fighting for too little business? Or a critical mass sufficient to feed and water all who choose to invest?
Considering the business and residential space available in the area hopefully there will be enough people flowing through to give all concerned enough business to keep the doors open. Coupled with the City Inn which is seemingly doing well considering how busy it’s been the last few times I’ve popped in and the proposed (fingers crossed) south Leeds entrance to the station Granary Wharf should prove to be quite the destination and by extension HUV as well.
See you there Denzil, which beers will be on?
I think Mike’s points are very valid, one look around Holbeck and it’s still very much a tale of two ‘villages’. I drive home from the regenerated through the squalid almost, and I’ve photographed both sides (from the brand spanking new architecture through the soon to knocked down Holbeck Towers to the very salubrious areas – don’t look if you don’t like grim things!)
We can all go to work in Holbeck and the city centre and praise the regeneration, and it’s very easy to sweep the people we look down on under the carpet, but that doesn’t do the city of Leeds any good. But it’s a point with a much wider context and I think the opening of The Hop can only be a positive thing.
The huge positives of this are that brown field sites are getting a new lease of life and the waterways of Leeds are being remembered. Let’s hope the trend for local, indy businesses continues and the we can clear the Dark Arches for more businesses like this!
And not one mention of The Grove http://grovefolkclub.org.uk/ just round the corner. Been doing the real ale and real music thing forever. There really is nothing new under the sun, not even in the reconditioned Granary Wharf.
Very true, the Grove has been doing it for years! And it probably the best pub in the area before and after Leeds games too.
Yes you are right Srph, The Grove is fantastic, dwarved as it is by the monstorous Dalek building, and I’m sure that it will outlast many new ventures too! When you think about it, there’s quite a lot going on down in Holbeck, both old and new.
Mike
I think you are just looking for an argument.
As someone who has put their money where their mouth is and heavily invested in the HUV, i and so many around me have been constant victims of crime.
Whether we like it or not the crime has to be addressed in this area and it is a fact that the dark arches has seen an increase in violent crime since being predominantly empty.
This is not an area for rich and poor to mingle, sorry you cant have a utopia!! This has been marketed and the investment made for the chosen market and client base and if you dont want to come down this way then dont bother.
I praise everyone involved for making this area a fantastic place to eat, drink and socialise.
Lets just get behind everyone down here and enjoy ourselves.
+1 for Mike comment: “…fed up of the uncritical celebration of increased consumerism in the city”
This is crucially why perspectives such as Mike’s are vital – and not simply around issues regarding the city – but our broader shared culture.
I don’t think we should uncritically accept the visions of developers and civic leaders, but step up to offer alternative and sometimes uncomfortable perspectives on the places we inhabit.
I too believe Mike is looking for a fight, Kelly.
In the same way John the Baptist was looking for a fight. Admire Aspire Acquire says everything you need to know about the pitiable vision of Leeds’ regen-icists.
I will personally come and foment discontent amongst the priviledged who wish for their entitled lifestyles to take precedence over others. And who think their bright shining lights should eclipse those whose candles burn a little dimmer
Big up Imran, Mike, and Mark. In fact, big up the lot of you. I mean none of you any ill will
Personally, I can’t wait to see a band at The Hop. Osset are a great example of a small, local brewery with big ideas backed up by some serious brewing skill. Beer and music is the perfect storm.
I’ve always loved the mystery of the Dark Arches. The view back up the tunnel always makes me shiver with excitement, and I hope it always will.
That view is free, so everybody can enjoy it…
I, too, don’t think that we should ‘uncritically accept the views of developers’, but I do think that when they get it right, we should bloody well applaud them.
have read these very interesting comments, but as someone who visits/stays in the area on business from time to time, is there a website where i can check out what bands are on?
Hi Mickey
Judging by the number of hits we get on the website I am assuming they don’t have a site! Let me look into this for you! What’s your bag generally music wise?
Emma