Saved through dedicated community action, the Grade II listed landmark opened on 5 September following a dramatic physical transformation.

The arcade has been restored to its former 19th-century elegance while also being made fit for the future as a modern hub for independent businesses and local creators. It’s now home to 16 affordable small shops, artists’ studios and an event space.

Jenny Holden-Stokes, Arcade Manager, said: “Our fantastic local traders are ready to bring the buzz back to Dewsbury.”  

Heritage-led regeneration  

First opened in 1899, the arcade reflects the changing story of high streets and town centre shopping, from its golden years in the 1950s and 1960s to its decline as shopping habits changed in the early 2000s. Its last shop tenants left in 2016.  

Our 2023 grant has funded the restoration of some of the building’s finest features, including timber shopfronts, ornate ironwork and the glass canopy roof – replaced by local heritage glazing specialists to once again flood the central thoroughfare with natural light.

Reopening the arcade is the first project in Kirklees Council’s 10-year town centre investment plan to make improvements that benefit local people, encourage more visitors and boost trading opportunities.

After the arcade was bought by Kirklees Council, local residences and businesses formed The Arcade Group, a community benefit society, to lease and manage the building. They aimed to bring it back into use as a place for people to meet, shop and feel pride in where they live. 

Empowering communities to take ownership of their heritage

Dewsbury Arcade is just one example of a project we’ve funded that’s helping a community take ownership of a heritage site that matters to them.

From pubs and town halls to parks and tombs, these places have been saved and revitalised with a new purpose in the community:

• Redruth Buttermarket was restored and reopened as Cornwall’s first food hall following our £3.3m grant.  
• In Wickham Market, Suffolk, hundreds of local people rescued the village’s last pub, The George, which we awarded £1.8m.
• A Stone Age burial chamber on the South Ronaldsay clifftop in Orkney is in community ownership and reopened to the public thanks to our £101,000 grant.  
• The Saintfield Community Association has revived underused land to open a free-to-access community park in County Down, Saintfield, supported by £1m from us.
• In Devon, a former Methodist church building received £189,999 to transform it into the Buckfastleigh Moor Imagination Centre for a wide range of community uses.
• In Ederney, County Fermanagh, a former tearoom has been transformed into a multi-functional community space to combat social isolation with a grant of £249,700.

Other community ownership projects which have received funding but have not yet opened include:  

• Rose & Crown Inn, Gloucestershire (£208,000 grant)  
• Bourne Town Hall, Lincolnshire (£3.3m grant)
• St Monans Auld Kirk, Fife (£115,841 development grant, with a plan to apply for further funding later)

Anne Jenkins, our Executive Director of Business Delivery, said: “Heritage belongs to everyone, and these projects show the extraordinary things that can happen when communities are supported to take the lead.  

“Thanks to National Lottery players, treasured places across the UK are being saved, restored and reimagined by the people who know and value them most, creating jobs, strengthening local pride and bringing people together.”

Investing in heritage to achieve economic growth

The project to restore and reopen Dewsbury Arcade received a Heritage Enterprise grant. Through these investments, we want to support organisations to work with communities and bring historic buildings and sites back into viable commercial use.

Find out more about our funding.