Left Bank News Archive

October 2009

June 2009

February 2009

October 2008

Earlier news

October 2009

We had a very successful Heritage Open Days weekend on 12th & 13th September, with over 200 people coming through the doors on Saturday and Sunday and being amazed by the building. Special thanks to our volunteers who cleaned and made tea and showed people round and also to the Heritage Singers who sang on Sunday afternoon and sounded absolutely fantastic.

A couple of weeks later on 26th & 27th September, we were thrilled to be part of Expo 09, the national festival of sound art and experimental music, which filled Left Bank with strange sounds and an enthusiastic audience of over 300 people over the two days.

Lots of people are interested in getting involved with Left Bank, so we’re running a volunteer session on Saturday 7th November. Have a look on our what’s on page for more details.

The second phase of works is all complete now and the scaffolding’s come down. We’ve had a temporary fix done to the north aisle roof to make that watertight until the full repair work can be done. No news on more funding yet, so repair work is at a temporary halt.

June 2009

We have electricity! And water! These are two very exciting developments which mean we can now plug things in and use the toilets.

The work on the south aisle roof is nearly completed so the scaffolding will be coming down sometime in June, with some more low level repairs being carried out till the end of the month.

We still need to raise £40000 to start the repairs on the north aisle roof. We’re fundraising for that at the moment, but we probably won’t be able to start on the work until spring 2010.

Many thanks to Dan and Sara Heard and their wedding guests who donated nearly £1500 to Left Bank, which will go towards the renovation of the Rose Window at the west end of the building.

The filming done in the building in February was for a film called Freight, about people trafficking in Leeds - you can see pictures on the IMDB website (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1376404/).

February 2009

A local film company have used Left Bank to film scenes for a new feature film, but we can’t tell you what it is as we’re sworn to secrecy. Shhhh.

Congratulations to Sara Milburn and Daniel Heard who got married at Left Bank on 7th February.

There is good progress on the current phase of roofing work, which should be completed in April.

As part of the restoration work, 3 skips of dead pigeons and pigeon poo were removed from the roof spaces!

We are grateful to English Heritage, who have offered us a grant of £175000 towards the final stage of roofing work. We need to raise a further £40000 towards the work, which could start in July.

We have just had a new health and safety survey carried out and will be following up on recommendations to make the building more accessible.

Open Day October 2008
Our second open day saw lots of local and passers by pop in for a fun afternoon of cakes, face painting, music and circus skills. Many local residents said how great it was to see inside again, and told of their memories of it. Local students also came along, and were glad to see inside a building they had passed often and wondered what it looked like inside.

Filming
The building has seen a number of film companies show an interest in us as a location, and it was used in the reality TV programme 'Make me a Christian' in 2008.

Weddings
We have had 3 weddings in the building in the last couple of years, which included the services, dinners, party games ceilidh bands and plenty of space for dancing! The building looks particularly romantic in candlelight - perfect for weddings!

Advent meditation
December 2007 saw a week-long interactive advent event, with a series of meditation points set up around the church, all based on various aspects of the first Christmas. Set up by Revive church, this open event also saw soup and refreshments, and a place to chill out from the frantic Christmas preparations.

Open Day, October 2007
In the Autumn of 2007 we had our first open evening, where dozens of interested parties from the arts and media world in Leeds, as well as local Christians and residents came along to see inside and hear an update on our plans and vision.

Building Progress Update

Repair work began in July 2008, with a target date of september 2010 for the whole building to be up and running.

The repair work will be followed by additional building work and internal development – installing new heating, lighting and all internal facilities. For this and future development plans we estimate that we will need to raise several million pounds.

In the meantime the building will still be available for use, subject to building work. Recent use has included filming for television, a wedding service and a wedding reception. Concerts, exhibitions, photo shoots and sound recordings are also possible. Please join our mailing list to be kept up to date with developments, news and events.