Kirkstall brewery has announced it is taking on the lease of The Tetley, with plans to renew its status as a “landmark of Yorkshire beer culture”.
The Tetley building is the former brewing headquarters of Tetley’s brewery, built in the art deco style in 1931. In the 1980s, Tetley’s brewery became the largest producer of cask ale in the world, and the site has remained an icon of Leeds beer history, even after its closure in 2011.
The building, which now sits at the heart of Leeds’ newest mixed-use district, Aire Park, then operated as a contemporary art gallery from 2013 until 2023, when its lease ended.
From May, Kirkstall will be operating The Tetley as a showcase of brewing in Leeds. It will feature beers from other breweries in the area, alongside brands from Kirkstall, Leeds and Holt’s most recent acquisition, North breweries. Kirkstall also plans to host a number of events at the historic building.
Kirkstall owner and founder Steve Holt said: “It’s a tremendous privilege to bring Leeds’s most iconic brewery building into the Kirkstall fold,
“As a brewery that pays a great deal of respect to the history of brewing in the city, we believe we are the ideal custodians for the next chapter of this legendary building.”
Michael Cronin, head of portfolio at Vastint UK, the developer behind Aire Park and owner of The Tetley building said: “Last year we outlined our ambitions to safeguard this iconic building for the next 100 years and have now submitted our plans to the council.
“Since we became custodians of the building, it was always our intention to keep it open until the restoration work got underway to bring this fantastic building up to 21st-century standards.
“So, we’re thrilled to be welcoming Kirkstall brewery to Aire Park and to be bringing one of the current generations of Leeds and Yorkshire breweries to a site which has played such a pivotal role in the history of beer making in the region.
“The Tetley will form the centre piece of Aire Park, alongside the eight-acre public park and this collaboration will hopefully give the people of Leeds a small taster of what’s to come in the very near future.”
Holt added: “It really is the crown jewel of brewing history in Leeds, and we are deeply grateful for the opportunity to make it a landmark of Yorkshire beer culture once again.”
In April 1960 Tetley’s took over Leeds’ Melbourne brewery and in 1961 it merged with Ind Coope of Burton-upon-Trent and Ansells of Birmingham, forming Allied Breweries.
Allied was the world’s largest brewing conglomerate, with the Leeds site employing 1,000 people. In the 1980s Tetley’s became the world's largest producer of cask ale and was taken over by Carlsberg in 1998.
The Leeds brewery was closed in 2011 and demolished in 2012, with production contracted out to other UK Carlsberg breweries. The Tetley is expected to reopen under Kirkstall’s management in May.
