Built in the 1930s and once famous for the largest social housing scheme in the UK, the site has been home to a number of cultural names since the estate’s demolition in the 1970s, including the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds College of Music and the Northern Ballet. Now, the regeneration of this site continues with an extensive, ambitious new masterplan, the first stages of which – New York Square – was completed in 2022.

Since winning the project in competition over ten years ago, DLG Architects have been working collaboratively with developer Caddick and a creative design team, including landscape designers Re-form, to develop a set of proposals which regenerate this landmark site, offering a transformational, mixed use, public-realm led masterplan.

Quarry Hill was historically an island site, surrounded by infrastructure, isolated by roads and disconnected from its surroundings by the Eastgate roundabout and New York Road to the north. Since the demolition of the former multi-storey estate the regeneration of the site has been undertaken in stages, firstly by the cultural institutions and businesses which now make Quarry Hill their home. This next stage, spurred on by continuing surrounding development, marks the next chapter in Quarry Hill’s regeneration – SOYO.