Homeworking reviving Leeds district
The Round Foundry Media Centre, part of a wider a development of 70 apartments, now hosts more than 60 digital, creative and media businesses with over 200 employees – a substantial number of them home-working. All benefit from use of high tech virtual office services, meeting and seminar rooms, free wi-fi, a café-bar, newsagent, pub and restaurant.
Yet just three years ago, Holbeck was a wasteland, having suffered decades of neglect since its 19th century industrial heyday. And despite it's proximity to central Leeds, Holbeck had been abandoned, separated by railway lines, canals and the river Aire.
Toby Hyam, managing director of Creative Space Management, which oversees day-to-day running of the centre, said: 'In the 19th century, Holbeck was one of the most innovative industrial areas in the world, housing the foundries that cast Stephenson's steam engines and new machinery that made woollen cloth more rapidly and cheaper than ever before.'
Holbeck's former factories, though derelict, also had their own highly distinctive architectural style, Hyam noted, with chimneys inspired by medieval towers and factories modelled on Egyptian temples.
'When we developed the Round Foundry Media Centre the area had a poor reputation and wasn't attractive to small businesses or live/work,' said Hyam. 'Now creative companies are finding the historic location appeals to both their clients and employees.
For more information on the Round Foundry, including tips on what makes for a successful business hub, see Work and live in an urban village on the LiveWork Network site.
www.roundfoundry.net
