By KLTV Newsdesk –
Work has begun to renovate the Dewsbury Arcade, hoping it will reopen next year. The Dewsbury Arcade has been a focal point in the Dewsbury town centre since the late 1800s, however, it has stood empty for more than seven years.
Kirklees Council purchased the building in 2020, as one of their first steps of the Dewsbury Blueprint, and the regeneration of the arcade became one of the blueprint’s key focuses.
The renovations will enable the arcade to reopen next year as the UK’s first community-run shopping centre, leased and managed by the Arcade Group.
Once renovated, the arcade will have 16 small shop units and four larger ones, as well as six upstairs studios which could be used by artists, as office spaces, or for events.
The council also want to restore and maintain the Grade II Listed building’s historic architecture, and future-proof a piece of Dewsbury’s history whilst bringing the much-loved shopping centre into use. William Birch & Sons are undertaking the construction work, they’re a Yorkshire-based company who specialise in working with heritage buildings.
This work is funded by £4.5million from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, grants from the Dewsbury Town Board and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, support from the government’s Getting Building Fund, and capital funding from the council.
Once reopened, the shopping centre will be managed by the Arcade Group without further financial input from the council.
The work will take about a year to complete, and it is hoped that Dewsbury Arcade will reopen by summer 2025.
David Shepherd, Strategic Director for Growth & Regeneration, said to Kirklees Together: “Local people have already shown how important the arcade is in Dewsbury town centre, by supporting the Arcade Group’s endeavours so passionately last year. This makes it even more meaningful to see work starting onsite, knowing we’re bringing a piece of Dewsbury’s history back to life.”
“This work also ties in really closely with other big projects in the town centre, like the Dewsbury Market – work should be underway just as the arcade reopens, so both projects will hopefully see a big boost in town centre footfall. This is the ethos of our blueprint as a whole – it’s called a ‘blueprint’ because it’s bigger than any one project, and over the next few years all of this work will come together to create a town centre where businesses and local traders can really thrive in the twenty-first century.”
Keith Ramsay, Chair of Dewsbury Town Board, said to Kirklees Together: “This is a big milestone for us all. We know how much local people want to see the arcade restored to its former glory, and now that work is onsite I’m hugely excited to see it reclaim its place at the heart of our town centre once more. This beautiful building deserves to welcome people through its doors once more, and people from Dewsbury and beyond deserve to enjoy it again.”
“This is the latest in a long stream of fantastic news about the Dewsbury Blueprint over the last few months, and it definitely won’t be the last. I’m very excited about what the future holds.”
Chris Hill, Co-Founder of the Arcade Group, said to Kirklees Together: “It’s great to see the promises become reality. Raising the money to deal with the arcade’s structural decline has been a tough journey, but our community business can now move on to the next stage – finding the tenants people want to see in the arcade and working to pull businesses and shoppers back to the town centre. This is a challenge we’re determined to meet.”
Gemma Shahjahan, Business Development Director for William Birch & Sons Ltd., said to Kirklees Together: “We are delighted to be working with Kirklees Council on this treasured building in Dewsbury. The plans in bringing the arcade back to life are really exciting, and our teams are really looking forward to being part of that journey in what is a special year for our business – celebrating 150 years.”
“Our bid for the project made commitments around delivering a suite of great local employment, training and skills benefits, and we are now formulating the plan for delivering this with our teams over the coming months.”
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One Comment
Paul Scarth
I don’t want to be all negative, but… being somebody who was born and brought up in Dewsbury for over 35 years I’ve seen its steady decline over the years. Like many towns, up and down the country, this has been down to the lack of footfall and the closing of shops from the likes of out-of-town retail opportunities and the emergence of online shopping.
Dewsbury has a long, long way to go to try and encourage the footfall it needs to make the town thrive again. The arcade is a start, but we’ve been here before. Unless it’s professionally run with plans in place that actively support the people who run the spaces within, I feel we’ll be back to square one in no time.
The town needs to encourage the younger generation (Kirklees college students) to actively use the town. Gone are the days of the older / middle aged populous wanting to shop within the town. These people are shopping online or traveling to the local supermarkets to shop. Those who claim they want to shop in the town are often those who just reminisce about the good, old times who will sadly probably never step foot in the town again.
The town and its developers need to learn from their mistakes – of which we can all agree there’s been many. Bringing in outside support and guidance is a great start but there’s a mighty long way to go!