The Hepworth Wakefield

You can run a meeting of up to 100 people in a purpose-built auditorium with river views, then move guests into an art gallery for drinks, all without leaving one building. The Hepworth Wakefield lets you hire its auditorium every day of the week, evenings and weekends included, and its in-house chefs cater your event. It is an art gallery and registered charity on Wakefield’s waterfront beside the River Calder, in a building designed by David Chipperfield Architects.

Event spaces and capacities

You get five areas to hire. The Auditorium is the largest seated room at 100 theatre style, and the café takes the biggest standing group at 130. The Learning Studios give you breakout rooms beside the Auditorium, and the galleries can be hired for receptions after public opening hours.

Capacities as published by the venue in its Creative Spaces brochure and on its event spaces page, checked 5 November 2026. The brochure also lists 28 boardroom in the Auditorium and 20 boardroom in each studio. The garden café figures are the brochure’s: 10 for private dining, and up to 100 for summer receptions using the outdoor terrace. The event spaces page gives older figures for some rooms (see the checks below). Gallery hire has no published capacity.

Getting there and parking

Delegates can arrive by train without transfers. The gallery says it is 0.3 miles from Wakefield Kirkgate station, about an 8 minute walk, and 1 mile from Wakefield Westgate, about 20 minutes on foot. Its brochure says Wakefield is on a mainline route from London King’s Cross and the gallery is about a 5 minute drive from the M1. The free FreeCityBus links both stations with a stop beside the gallery from Monday to Saturday, but not on Sundays.

Drivers use the gallery’s own car park on Thornes Lane (WF1 5QJ), which has 85 spaces and a 2.5m height limit. Non-visitors pay £3 an hour at the machine or on the Ringo app. Six Blue Badge bays on Gallery Walk next to the entrance are free. There is no coach parking: coaches can drop off on Thornes Lane by prior arrangement, and the nearest pay and display coach park is on Tadman Street (WF1 5RG).

Catering, AV and accommodation

You do not need to bring in a caterer. The gallery says its menus are written in-house by its own chefs using local, seasonal produce, and the café is fully licensed. The Auditorium comes with Wi-Fi, a large screen, an integrated projector, a freestanding lectern and an induction loop. The gallery has no bedrooms, so book hotels separately for overnight delegates.

For away days you can add a gallery highlights tour, an out of hours gallery introduction, or a workshop in painting, print-making, felt-making, carving or photography. On access, the Auditorium and Learning Studios have level access from the foyer, two lifts serve the first floor galleries, and there is a Changing Places toilet in the Learning Studios. The gallery says it aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 and has moved to LED lighting and upgraded its heating and ventilation.

What to ask before you book

• The event spaces page says there are four Learning Studios taking 120 combined, but the 2024 brochure lists two studios taking 100 combined. Confirm how many studios you can have and the combined theatre figure.
• The café figures also differ: 180 standing and 70 for formal dining on the web page, 130 standing and 80 dining in the brochure. Ask which applies to your layout.
• The galleries open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm in winter. The event spaces page says daytime events include free gallery access, so check how public hours affect your set-up times.
• Car park charges for event guests are not published; the £5 day rate applies to exhibition ticket holders. Ask what your delegates will pay and whether spaces can be reserved.
• Ask for room dimensions and a floor plan, since no areas are published, and check what AV is included in the Auditorium hire fee.
• If you want the garden café and terrace for a reception, confirm the months it can be used outdoors.

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• Conference venues in Leeds
• Unusual event venues
• C2events profile
• Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds
• Royal Armouries and New Dock Hall, Leeds
• Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
• National Railway Museum, York
• Choose the venue around the event, not the headline capacity
• Turn venue accessibility claims into a usable event plan

Sources: The Hepworth Wakefield event spaces, Creative Spaces brochure (2024), Getting here and car parking, Access, Our sustainability story, checked 5 November 2026.