A NEAT, matt grey shopfront with a deliberately conspicuous ‘92’ above its door, is a suitably humble and unobtrusive portal to the delights that lay within ‘Wapentake’s’ curiosity of simple pleasures. But it is also a faithful reproduction of the industrial heritage that has been shamefully hidden away like a dirty secret in this once-proud but since-forgotten area of Leeds city centre.

Wapentake is a place where the past is protected and the present is celebrated

Kirkgate is the oldest street in Leeds, linking the parish church with the markets via the historic First White Cloth Hall. But for decades it has remained withered and devoid of life, as if too embarrassed by its past to share in the glossy awakening taking place in Leeds’ surrounding streets of fascination. With a succession of properties laying vacant and under-used, Kirkgate was never taken to the Ball, until a funding initiative between Leeds City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and private investors decided a fitting shot in the arm for Leeds’ former cloth trade epicentre was long overdue.

Wapentake is the first fruits of that; a lovingly-considered café/bar concept designed and operated by owners Anton and Emily since late 2015. A £110,000 investment into a former 18th century Cloth Merchant’s home – hence the ‘92’ - has produced an all-day communal hub that changes identity with the idle passing of time and never switches off. Open from 7.30am until 11pm, here is an unpretentious retreat that revels in its rustic authenticity but clings tightly to a fierce professionalism, a barometer of quality and an attention-to-detail that ensures it specialises in every part of the day.

 

Breakfast coffee and takeaway deals service the morning crowd, while sandwiches, home-made bread and cakes and traditional pub fayre see us through lunch time. As the afternoon drifts and the evening draws in, the Wapentake’s devotion to local breweries and distillers reveals a masterful authority in the form of a dizzying display of wines, beers, gins, whiskies and pretty much everything we treasure in life - local sourcing is a priority, but not a stipulation, and a round is reasonably priced.

Steep, narrow wooden steps take you to an upstairs room which hosts quiz nights and big screen TVs for live sports, diligently acknowledging there is a market for these things, but also recognising that they’re not for everyone. A feature piano stands centrally next to the bar, an ornament to add to the faded music hall ‘glamour’ but carrying an air of mischief that invites people to have a tinkle on the odd evening when we’re all in the mood.    

On its discreet but proud shopfront, Wapentake describes itself as ‘a little piece of Yorkshire’ - the name itself is a nod to the Anglo-Saxon administrative divisions of these pastures - but don’t think this is a local-providence gimmick, where describing products as ‘artisan’ is merely a marketing tool. There is genuine love and credibility in what Wapentake does, from its full English breakfasts – with veggie options -  and locally-sourced menu to its church pew benches and mismatched upholstered chairs, everything has the air of being casually thrown together, but with a vigilant eye on what people want and what they know will work.

£2.6 million has been allocated to continuing the Kirkgate restoration and unearthing the potential in dishevelled, skeletal buildings, which Wapentake has become a glorious example of. The aim is to create a community in the shadow of the refurbished markets and the rising Victoria Gate behemoth, and Wapentake is the start of that; a place where the past is protected and the present is celebrated, where the door is always open and where you will find it very hard not to take its ‘all-day’ ethos to the letter.

 

Words: Jon Howe, Photos: Thom Archer