This is when the new Headingley Wetherspoons in the Elinor Lupton Centre will open - and what it will look like inside

The company is investing £4.1 million to redevelop the former Elinor Lupton Centre in Headingley Lane.

Wetherspoons was given planning permission in 2019 and in February was granted an alcohol licence for the site.

The building, which has been empty since 2010 when the former Leeds Girls’ High School vacated it, was bought by the company in 2014 with plans to turn it into a 500-capacity venue.

But the move has been controversial with some residents, who have long battled against the development.

They claimed the pub would be a nuisance and a potential threat to security in the area.

A previous Wetherspoons application for the site was rejected in 2016 by Leeds City Council, and then the following year by a judge on appeal.

But in February of this year Wetherspoons cleared the final hurdle after promising that Otley Run drinkers would not be allowed in the venue.

Work on the Grade II-listed building, which is on Leeds Civic Trust's Heritage at Risk register, is set to start on October 5.

Many original features and fittings survive, including the entrance foyer, two staircases and a glazed lantern in the auditorium roof.

The pub, which will be called The Elinor Lupton, will be split over two levels, with eating and drinking areas on the ground and first floor.

When they occupied it, Leeds Girls' High School named the building after Elinor Lupton (1886–1979), former Lady Mayoress of Leeds and member of the wealthy land-owning Lupton family of Newton Park Estate, who achieved prominence in the seventeenth century as woollen cloth merchants.

There will also be an outside terrace at the pub.

It is set to open in April 2021, and more than 75 new full and part-time jobs will be created.

Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said: “We are delighted that development work is to start next month.

“We believe the new pub will be a great asset to the area and hopefully act as a catalyst for further investment in Headingley.

“Wetherspoon has enjoyed great success in the region and we are confident that the new pub will appeal to a wide range of people.”

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