The University of Leeds has approved a multi-million pound expansion of Cloth Hall Court, its conference and events venue on Quebec Street in Leeds city centre. The work brings the building’s unused third and fourth floors into use for events, adding flexible spaces and raising the venue’s overall capacity. The university announced the decision on 10 November 2026.
What the expansion adds
The expansion adds two floors of event space to a building that already runs conferences over its lower floors. The university says the new floors will increase the variety of spaces in the venue and give organisers more flexibility in how they use the building, and that the design will include subtle references to the university and to the city’s cloth heritage.
The announcement doesn’t put a figure on the investment beyond “multi-million pound”, and it doesn’t give an opening date, a new total capacity or the size of the new floors. We haven’t estimated any of them. What it does say is that research with existing and prospective customers found demand for more flexible event spaces and for more catering, networking and exhibition areas, which tells you what kind of space to expect.
What Cloth Hall Court offers now
Today the venue’s largest room is Herringbone, which takes 300 theatre style or 200 cabaret, with hybrid equipment including auto-tracking cameras. Merchants Hall takes 250 for a standing reception or 80 for dinner, and Tweed seats 180 theatre style. The venue lists ten rooms over four floors in all, including several boardrooms, every floor reached by an accessible lift, and day delegate rates from £49 including VAT. Its own pages put Leeds station a two-minute walk away, with no on-site car parking.
Those figures come from the venue’s own page. The venue doesn’t publish floor areas or a dedicated exhibition hall at present, which is the gap the customer research points at. For a conference with sponsors, an exhibition or networking area alongside a 300-seat plenary is often what decides whether the event fits in the building.
A lower carbon building
The university says sustainability is central to the project and forecasts that the expansion will cut the building’s annual carbon emissions by 54%. The announcement doesn’t explain how the saving is made, so we can only report the forecast. For organisers who have to report the footprint of their events, a venue with a published reduction target is easier to justify than one without.
Why the university is investing
Cloth Hall Court reopened under University of Leeds operation in 2023, and the university says the investment builds on its success since then. Events it names include Fintech North, Yorkshire Sustainability Week and the launch of Child Health Outcomes Research at Leeds (CHORAL).
Sam Glenister-Batey, deputy director of commercial and business development at the University of Leeds, said in the announcement that the investment means the venue will “be able to welcome more people, host a much wider range of events and give organisers far more flexibility in how they use the building.” Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s deputy leader and executive member for economy, said that adding more space and flexibility would “give businesses more reasons to choose Leeds for their next event.”
What it means for events in Leeds
For organisers it adds city-centre capacity next to the station. Leeds already has larger venues, among them first direct bank arena, which publishes conference capacity up to 12,000, and Royal Armouries and New Dock Hall at Leeds Dock, with a 1,259 m² hall. Closer to Cloth Hall Court’s size, The Queens Hotel takes up to 500 in its largest room and has its own entrance from the station concourse, Horizon Leeds seats 200 theatre style and thestudio Leeds 180. Leeds Town Hall has been closed for refurbishment since November 2021.
Until the university publishes dates and room details for the new floors, plan any 2027 booking around the current rooms. You can compare the city’s other venues on our Leeds conference venues page.
Venues in this story
- first direct bank arenaYou can host 10 to 12,000 conference delegates or 1,200 diners in central Leeds, with a 2,200 m² exhibition floor, in-house catering and over 7,500 parking spaces within a 15 minute walk.
- Royal Armouries and New Dock HallYou get a pillar-free 1,259 m² hall, a divisible 886 m² hall and museum galleries on one Leeds Dock site, with space for 1,200 theatre style in New Dock Hall.
- The Queens HotelDelegates walk from Leeds Station straight into The Queens Hotel, which has 15 meeting rooms for 2 to 500 people, a 500-seat ballroom and 232 bedrooms.
- Horizon LeedsYou can seat 200 theatre style in Create@ and use seven rooms plus a Broadcast Studio on one floor, a seven-minute walk from Leeds station, with the profit going to The NHS Alliance.
- thestudio LeedsYou can run a board meeting or a 180-seat theatre-style conference across 11 rooms, with AV and on-site catering included, an 8 minute step-free walk from Leeds station.
- Leeds Town HallYou can enquire now to hire a refurbished Grade I listed hall in central Leeds, with a step-free entrance and a 21-person lift, when it reopens in 2027.
Sources
- University of Leeds approves multi-million pound expansion of Cloth Hall Court, University of Leeds Conferences and Events, 10 November 2026
- Cloth Hall Court, University of Leeds Conferences and Events, read 12 November 2026
