Sheaf St. closure: “Thank you and Goodnight!”
Last week, independent bar, café and music venue Sheaf St. announced it was closing its doors.
The venue, which opened in 2017, was a core part of the vibrant music scene in Leeds.
The Gryphon spoke to Josh Igoe, an events manager for the University of Leeds BPM electronic music and DJ society. He said Sheaf St would be “dearly missed by all who went and all those they supported”.
Josh, who DJs under the name Anop, paid credit to the venue for facilitating society events so enthusiastically, “few clubs in Leeds supported the local scene as much as Sheaf”.
Despite the oft-repeated joke of the unavoidable number of aspiring DJs in Leeds, new talent can have a difficult time raising their profile.
It’s a competitive scene, and many clubs are unwilling to take the risk of new, less experienced DJs.
Instead, and with several key exceptions, much of the highly commercialised nightlife in the city exhibits a predictable, homogenous mix.
Conversely Sheaf St provided a place for up-and-coming artists, including students, hosting open deck nights with BPM as well as events including a workshop with DJ Adam Pits.
Venues are facing disastrously perfect storm of conditions, outlined by the owners of Sheaf St. in a statement on their website, “low attendance, rising costs, increasing fees, significantly reduced spend per head, and skyrocketing utilities and stock costs”
The continuing Cost of Living Crisis, means millions in the UK are having to make incredibly difficult decisions about spending. Outdated perceptions of students living rich off of their maintenance loans hides the reality, as loan increases stagnate versus rising inflation.
According to Unipol, a housing charity, the average cost of rent in England is only £24 below the average maintenance loan. This means a majority of students have little to no excess maintenance loan left after they’ve paid for accommodation.
Data from the National Union of Students found that 96% of students are ‘cutting back’ on expenses, with a third of those in the study were living on less than £50 a month after rent and bills.
Nightlife is thus an expensive luxury, and one of the first things go.
However, the closure of Sheaf St draws in additional, more localised considerations.
Sheaf St. said: “The nightlife industry is a vital economic driver for our city…We believe Leeds doesn’t fully recognise this asset”.
Similarly to the Tetley building, the closure of which The Gryphon covered last month, Sheaf St cited the Aire Park Development as a significant factor in their closure.
Aire Park, a 3-hectare development project in the Southbank area (across the river below Call Lane), aims to ‘regenerate’ a previously industrial area of Holbeck. It raises concerns about gentrification and the damage to pre-existing businesses and residents in the pursuit of constructed communities.
The Gryphon is awaiting a response from the developers and council in regards to these concerns around Aire Park.
Accompanying the announcement, Sheaf St. updated their website to say:
“THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT! YOU LOVELY PEOPLE!”.
Their upbeat farewell cements the underlying rallying cry of “Support your Local!”, passed down for decades. A prompt, for those who financially can, to ditch the Spoons and put your money where it matters.
