Imagine Leeds is open for business (for now)!

By Simon Dixon from Climate Action Leeds

After a combined 18 months running Imagine Leeds: the climate action hub, I thought now was a good time to share some highlights. 

For those who aren’t familiar, Imagine Leeds is a venue that a team of us set up as part of the Climate Action Leeds project. It’s a space dedicated to addressing the challenges of climate, nature and social justice. We invite people to come and imagine a more sustainable Leeds, and then make plans together to turn that into reality. 

Creating Imagine Leeds has been a real team effort, by staff and volunteers. It’s inspired by the idea of a Climate Emergency Centre, and follows a number of initiatives in Leeds to create civic spaces where people can collaborate on challenges facing society. 

Our first premises for Imagine Leeds were given to us by LandSec, a big property company, and we had 12 months enjoying a large open plan office space overlooking the city of Leeds from the 7th floor! We recently moved to 9 Blenheim Terrace, a building which is leased to us at ‘mates rates’ by the University of Leeds, who have been strong supporters for a number of years now. 

Imagine Leeds supports groups and organisations across different sectors, but in particular we play a vital role supporting communities who don’t have their own premises to organise in. We run the space collaboratively, and on a ‘pay as you can’ basis. 

Across 18 months running Imagine Leeds we’ve seen an overwhelming response to the space. In that time we’ve had 8,000 people through the doors, hosted 855 meetings and events, worked with over 100 organisations, and had 25 out of the 27 Leeds postcodes represented by our visitors, with many visits from wider afield. 

I’m sharing all this with you now for a few reasons. Firstly, we don’t have an advertising budget, so this is a message to anyone working on climate, nature and social justice to come and visit and use Imagine Leeds. We’ve built a community of more than 55 regular users, but there is always space for more. We offer hot desks, meeting rooms, workshop and event space. It’s super affordable, and of course we’re very friendly and welcoming.

Secondly, we have been lucky enough to receive significant funding for this work from the National Lottery, as well as from the University of Leeds. We’ve also been lucky in the spaces that have been provided to us. After 18 months proving this concept, and building a strong offer, we are now in need of both a building and further funding, from October onwards. If you might be interested in collaborating, sponsoring or hosting Imagine Leeds, please get in touch. 

We are determined to develop Imagine Leeds into a long term resource for the people of Leeds. The challenges we face on climate, nature and social inequality are not letting up, so it’s more important than ever that we bring people together to take positive steps forward. 

If you’d like to know more, to visit the space, or to chat about potential buildings or funding, please get in touch on simon.dixon@ourfutureleeds.org. 

And finally a shout out to the team who make Imagine Leeds a reality: Andy Goldring, Helen Hart, Anzir Boodoo, Lucy Meredith, Paul Chatterton, Sally Morgan, Neil Brophy and Anne-Lise Lancaster!