Left Bank Leeds is the former church of St Margaret of Antioch, and it is a genuine piece of architecture rather than a pretty shell. Temple Moore designed it, the foundation stone went down in 1907 and it was consecrated two years later; it is Grade II* listed, late Gothic Revival, and the interior does exactly what such a building is meant to do — lifts your eyes, hushes the room and makes everyone in it feel that something significant is happening. Declared redundant in 1995 and rescued in 2001, it now runs as a multidisciplinary arts venue on Cardigan Road, a short walk from Headingley.
As a wedding space it is gloriously unfussy. The main hall holds up to 350 standing or 170 seated at tables, and because it is essentially one vast volume of stone and light, you can lay it out more or less however you like: a long aisle down the nave, round tables under the arches, a dancefloor where the choir stalls once stood. There is a manned bar, a small break-off room that most couples end up using for staging, a lift and step-free access, and a stock of tables and chairs to start you off. Catering and styling are yours to arrange, which suits couples who want to put their own stamp on things.
It is also worth saying what Left Bank is: a community interest company run by a charitable trust, with a programme of arts, wellbeing and community events filling the building the rest of the year. Booking a wedding here keeps a remarkable Leeds building alive and busy, which is not the worst thing to mention in a speech.
Playing in a room like this
A big stone church is one of the most exciting rooms a band can walk into and one of the trickiest. The reverberation is long, which is glorious for voices, strings, brass and gospel, and merciless on anything fast and cluttered if it is played too loud. The answer is simply to use a band who have worked in churches before: they will bring the right PA, angle it away from the hard surfaces and pull the tempo back a fraction, and the result is enormous. Choral singing, a string quartet or a soloist during the ceremony will need no amplification whatsoever.
Practicalities and how the night runs
Because the building is a blank canvas, everything — staging, power, where the band sets up, when they can get in — is worth agreeing in advance with the venue rather than on the day. Parking is on-street, so give your suppliers plenty of warning about unloading. The venue sits in a residential part of Leeds, which means there will be a time at which amplified music has to stop; ask for that figure early, build the timeline backwards from it, and let the band shape their sets so the last number lands while the room is still full.
Bands available in West Yorkshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in West Yorkshire.
- West Yorkshire Wedding Bands
- West Yorkshire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in West Yorkshire
- Wedding DJs in West Yorkshire
- Corporate Entertainment in West Yorkshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.