The Huddersfield Blueprint is a ten-year vision to create a thriving, modern-day town centre.
The plan aims to deliver five key objectives for Huddersfield Town Centre: A vibrant culture, art, leisure and nightlife offer, thriving businesses, a great place to live, improved access and enhanced public spaces.
Here you will find the most up-to-date information on all of our projects throughout the Huddersfield Town Centre.
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- The Cultural Heart is given the green light
- Kirklees Year of Music announces it’s inclusive and enriching programme.
- Work begins on the Kingsgate Development
- New street reaches its first milestone
- The George Hotel – Phase two of conservation and extensive repairs
- Repair works to the Byram Arcade
- Repairs to the Estate Buildings
Our Cultural Heart is given the green light
A very important milestone has been reached in the project. We have been granted planning approval for our landmark Cultural Heart!
The first phase of the scheme is expected to get underway in Spring 2024. Starting with the major refurbishment of the historic Queensgate Market building, as well as the creation of a brand-new outdoor public space.
The Grade II Listed Queensgate Market will be transformed into a vibrant food hall. This will be a new social focal point, with space for around ten independent food stalls. We hope to see the new area bustling through the day into the evening.
A new contemporary library, designed with the community in mind will also be part of this exciting phase. It will have a dedicated children’s area, a local history room, computer facilities, group meeting areas, quiet break-out rooms, and more.
For a full update on this visit:
Our landmark cultural heart plans given green light – Kirklees Together
Kirklees Year of Music 2023 announces its inclusive and enriching programme.
It’s music to our ears – we are proud to announce the Kirklees Year of Music 2023 (KYOM23) March and April programme with an exciting line-up of events.
Local talent from Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley and the Holme, Spen and Colne Valleys will all be part of this vibrant, inspiring and inclusive programme.
Whether you want to improve your DJ skills, fill a guilty pleasure with pop singing workshops, enjoy the melancholic sounds of a South Asian female choir, or you just want to tap your foot along to the brass bands, KYOM23 has something for everyone.
For a full rundown of the programme visit:
Work to begin on exciting Kingsgate Development in Huddersfield
If you have visited the Kingsgate recently, you may have noticed that the House of Fraser store has been closed for quite some time now.
Well, we have some encouraging news – the 90,000 square-foot space will now be the home of new engaging leisure activities, which will include a cinema. Developer WD Kingsgate, with support from the Council, is going to make big changes to the centre. The work is due to start this month and has a target opening date of September 2024.
The exciting changes will transform the leisure offering in the town centre and will improve the experiences for residents and visitors.
We hope these positive changes will encourage more people back into the town centre – a visit to the cinema, some food, and a bit of shopping. We’re confident that these changes will attract various businesses and people into the town, which will then generate more money to invest in other areas of the town centre.
For more information visit:
Work to begin on exciting Kingsgate Development in Huddersfield – Kirklees Together
New Street Development – First milestone reached
As of last week, we have reached our first milestone, the first sections of paving are complete! It just needs a good jetwash, but we think it already looks fantastic.
Excavation works for the remaining concrete foundations for the vertical planters are now well on their way. This is happening in the middle of the street around Oxfam and also near Charlotte Jayne. The work will take around two weeks, please bear with us during this time. The footway outside the old boots/prudentiual building and Dale bakery/post Office has reopened.
Visit our New Street blog for more information.
Read the New Street Blog for the latest updates on the development – Kirklees Together
The George Hotel – Phase two of conservation and extensive repairs
The beginning of 2023 has seen a lot of progress at the George Hotel. The phase 2 conservation and significant repair work to the external of the building is nearing completion.
William Birch has been working with the council’s project team to deliver this phase of the project. Their job is to ensure that the building is watertight and that the externals of the building are repaired and restored sensitively in preparation for phase three. This will focus on the internal refurbishment and development of the building.
The George Hotel has had conservation architects, leadbeaters, roofers, stone masons, and window specialists carrying out the repairs to the highest quality, matching those carried out in the 1850s.
The ground floor entrances have some unique and detailed stonework, some of which were in desperate need of saving. The stone masons have been busy working on the reticulated stone: a special type of pattern engraved into the surface of the stone. Whilst filming last week, we were lucky enough to watch the magic happen. The images below show the reticulated stone in the workshop.
Our project team have made flying visits to several Radisson Hotels across the UK, to do some research on the interior of the hotels. We’re looking forward to sharing some more news on the Radisson Hotel Group management with you soon.
Back in May last year, we kicked off a mini-series of George Hotel video updates, you can watch our first video below. Look out for part two of the series in the coming weeks.
The George Hotel Huddersfield – Conservation Works May 2022
Interesting Fact
A Roman numeral system was carved into the stone of the chimneys, each one being a different size helped determine the location of each stone. They did this because roman numerals were so much easier to carve than modern numbers.
Visit the George Hotel webpage: The George Hotel | Kirklees Council
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Repair works to the Byram Arcade
William Henry Crossland is responsible for some of Huddersfield’s finest town centre architecture, Byram Arcade is one of those buildings. Built-in the 19th century, in 1881, it is now part of a conservation project in the 21st century.
Byram Arcade is Huddersfield’s oldest shopping centre! Spread over three floors and with plenty of its original design features, like the striking ironworks that surround the staircase and balconies, and the colourful period tiles on the ground floor.
There are some external elements of the building that needed some TLC.
Fully funded by the council we have a programme of works underway which will include repairs to the roof, the central roof lantern, stonework, and redecoration of the windows in line with conservation requirements. Once the conservation and repair work are complete the Byram Arcade will have life back into its bones. Conservation work to the Arcade will help tackle the inevitable decay and deterioration the building had suffered over time.
All businesses in the Byram Arcade are still open throughout the building works. You can enter the Byram Arcade through the back off Station Street and to the front on Westgate.
Visit the Byram Arcade webpage The Byram Arcade | Kirklees Council
We aim to make Huddersfield town centre a family-friendly town where everyone feels safe and welcome. We aim to provide a dedicated community that welcomes potential residents and visitors from all walks of life with a reassuring presence. We’ll look to work with other agencies to commit resources to achieve this.
Repairs to the Estate Buildings
Contractors H H Smith are making great progress with the programme of works, working closely with conservation teams to do the repairs to this historic building.
The works include extensive roof repairs with new slates from Burlington Quarry to match the originals, elevational stonework with both repair and replacement of stones, structural repair to the pinnacles and weathervanes, refurbishment of windows and special stain glassed repairs.
As a reminder Station Street is closed to traffic but still open for pedestrian access. If you need alternative parking visit our parking information page. Redirection of traffic on St Peter’s Street has been introduced to help with these changes.
Visit the Estate Building webpage The Estates Building | Kirklees Council
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