Wakefield Waterfront & Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield

Wakefield City Centre Water Front

Wakefield Waterfront “It’s a bit like Sex and the City living here.”

Businesswoman Claire Young of The Apprentice fame gazes down from her duplex flat on to the sun-sparkled River Calder at Wakefield’s Waterfront. The residential new-build is part of the regeneration of Wakefield’s Waterfront, a £100m mixed-use scheme comprising apartments, office space, bars, restaurants and the UK’s largest purpose-built gallery for 50 years, The Hepworth Gallery.

“People in London assume I live in Harrogate or York, but one of the great things about living on the Wakefield Waterfront is that it’s a two-minute cab ride to Wakefield Westgate so I can be in London in two hours,” she says. As well as running her business, School Speakers, Claire Young recently launched a networking group, What Wakefield Wants. “I work incredibly hard so the peace and quiet here is just lovely.”

Wakefield Waterfront & Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

A bright, airy space, the apartment was fully furnished by the service company, even down to the cutlery. “I literally turned the key and moved my personal things in,” she says. “There are lots of developments in Wakefield but I think these are by far the best for quality and space.” The complex also offers a scheme allowing tenants to put their rent towards a mortgage deposit.

The regeneration of the Wakefield Waterfront Waterside started in 2008 and is part of a 10-year programme. The Grade II listed, 18th-century Calder and Hebble Navigation Warehouse has been fully restored and converted into an office and retail space. The historic building is a lovely setting for businesses, being on the 
river yet conveniently close to transport links.

James Stephenson, Wakefield City Projects and Public Realm Manager, works on all the major regeneration schemes in the city from the Wakefield Waterfront to the Wakefield Trinity Walk, the new shopping centre nearby. “Roughly a quarter of the city centre has undergone development in the last two years, which is phenomenal,” he says. “There were two catalysts for the Wakefield Waterfront. Prince Charles came up and fell in love with Navigation Warehouse, so he shook hands with various people and said ‘Build this’. The other catalyst was the Council securing £35m in grants for The Hepworth Gallery.”

The Hepworth Gallery, named after the Wakefield-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth, opened on 21 May and thousands of visitors are expected for the opening weekend. Alongside Hepworth’s work, there will be sculptures by her contemporary, Henry Moore, and key works by other leading artists, including Paul Nash, LS Lowry, Piet Mondrian and Alberto Giacometti.

“The Hepworth Gallery opening is a major milestone for the Wakefield Waterfront,” James Stephenson explains, “but for the city itself, it shows the Council’s commitment to its cultural heritage. Henry Moore was born in Castleford; it’s unusual to have two artists born so close and in the same time frame.”

Wakefield Waterfront & Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

The building was designed by the internationally acclaimed architects David Chipperfield. Formed of 10 trapezoidal blocks, it is designed to fit in with the surrounding historical industrial buildings. These include listed Victorian mills with less attractive overflow sheds. The plan is to clear these out and make a public square with sculpture, to link it with The Hepworth Gallery.

As a town planner, Stephenson feels strongly that each development should be blended into the area around it. “You have to do things on the periphery. Otherwise it looks very piecemeal: you can tell where the new development ends – there are broken flagstones around it, which looks horrible.”

Another riverside building has proved a trickier prospect. The Watermill, next to the gallery, will be wrapped in an illustration of what it will look like when renovated at a later date. A Sheffield artist has been commissioned to carry out the illustration, which will be hung from scaffolding. It will certainly turn heads, including anyone travelling past on the river.

The Calder River is, of course, the link to the whole development.  There are some spectacular views on to the river, and the whole area, even while still under construction, is clearly going to be a stunning location. The gallery areas of The Hepworth Gallery are on the upper floors to take advantage of the light, but even from the ground floor you can see how the gallery is anchored in 
the riverbed.

Naomi Roberts, The Hepworth Gallery’s Media Officer, points out the views from both the café, which seats up to 80 people and has an outdoor terrace, and the hi-tech auditorium which holds around 120 people theatre-style.

“That’s our resident heron,” she says, pointing to a stately bird standing in centre of the swiftly moving weir. “We’re installing a sculpture garden outside round the side of the gallery with Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man.” Formerly located in Wakefield city centre for 35 years, the piece had to be moved because of a new road system. “The Yorkshire Sculpture Park has its own Family of Man so we were obviously happy to take it,” she says. The feeling seems to be that The Hepworth Gallery will complement, rather than compete with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and 
indeed there will be a shuttle bus running between the two on the opening weekend.

Wakefield Waterfront & Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

As with the YSP, education is an important element of the new Hepworth Gallery. “Learning is at the heart of what we offer and that comes through by the fact that David Chipperfield put the learning studios at the front of the building,” Roberts says. “We have been working with schools and all-access groups over the last five years, doing creative writing workshops, photography, sketching. Another big part of what we do is corporate hire and we can offer special-events catering. Some of the staff live in the nearby apartments, so they can walk to work.”

The most striking element of the Wakefield Waterfront Waterside development, apart from the pleasure of seeing a formerly run-down area rejuvenated, is the melding of the city’s industrial past with modern apartments and offices and creative spaces.

“The city is perceived as being very industrial but it’s absolutely beautiful here on the river,” Claire Young says. “You can feel this blank canvas of a community starting.”

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