5 August 2025 | Photo: National World

Leeds City Council’s planning department has told The Imaginarium to "cease as a venue"

The Imaginarium is about to close its doors.

The organisers behind the Leeds arts and community hub confirmed the news on Instagram. Describing the development as "a huge headache and quite heartbreaking," they nonetheless signalled their ambition to re‑establish themselves in a new space, aiming to reopen in early 2026.

The impending closure follows an order from Leeds City Council’s Planning Department to "cease as a venue." Last year, the team fought a similar battle, undertaking a "very costly" process to change the building’s usage terms after an anonymous planning breach report. "We were assured by our landlords and someone from the council that this had been unnecessary, and we were fine to continue," they explained. That reassurance unravelled last month when they received a letter giving them 14 days to "either cease operating or restart the process" — an option deemed financially unfeasible.

As a community interest company, The Imaginarium relies entirely on income from its bar and events to sustain itself. The space is fully licensed, and the team say the landlords rented the property to them with a full understanding of their activities. In light of the enforced closure threat, a GoFundMe campaign has been launched by Charli Kelsall with a £5,000 target to support the transition to a new home and safeguard the project’s future.

Since opening in 2022, The Imaginarium’s Church Walk home has woven together a café, record shop, plant store and a 120‑capacity multi‑use event space available for hire, carving out its own place in Leeds’ cultural life. Whether that spirit can be carried forward will now, in part, depend on the community it has helped to nurture.

Those wishing to support the move can contribute via the GoFundMe campaign.