Craft Brewery X Community Hub – Designing Springwell Leeds

Part brewery, part HQ, part taproom - all community hub. 

When our good friends at North Brewing Co unveiled their multi-million pound plans to transform a vast former tannery on the outskirts of Leeds City Centre into a craft beer  Mecca big enough to welcome 500 people, we were sold straight away.  

In 2019, we completed a full refurbishment of the interior of their iconic North Bar (in 3  weeks, while they stayed open the whole time), and they’re a client we’ve been delighted to watch keep growing and going from strength to strength.  

Combining everything that’s good about a commercial interiors project - warehouse vibes,  industrial heritage, a bold, innovative client and a space designed to give something back to the local community - North Brewing Co didn’t need to ask us twice to get involved in creating their stunning new home at Springwell Leeds.

Craft Brewery Taprooms as Community Spaces  

What we love most about the revival of taprooms is that they hark back to the time-honored tradition of the pub-as-community-hub that was lost to monopolising chains and gastropubs - but they’re way cooler.  

Much more than “just” a bar or brewery, the best strike an easy balance between people who come to sample and savour the craft beer and those who come from all around the local community to enjoy the old-time pub-hub feels - just with far superior beverages and bar snacks. 

DesignTonic love designing Taprooms and Brewpubs because…  

Taprooms and Brewpubs rank high amongst our favourite interior design projects for 4  reasons:  

1. They offer the chance to create an amazing space that delivers for both client and community.  
2. We get to work with awesome, innovative people.  
3. The spaces are usually incredible - lots of industrial vibes, heritage and interesting architectural features.  
4. Beer.  

Enough said.

Designing the interior of Springwell Leeds  

This immense industrial building offered mind-blowing scope for our design team.  

North Brewing Co are no slouches when it comes to design nouse and, once they’d filled us in on their vision, we got to work in collaboration with graphic design maestros Refold to transform this disused giant into a bright, modern, multifunctional space.  

Springwell was destined to be the new home of North HQ, featuring a state-of-the-art office as well as the main brewery, a training space for bar teams from all around the UK -  and the taproom and a generous outside space (which proved indispensable for a Covid secure launch).

And of course there’s also the taproom space.  

Not just a place to drink beer, it also needed to provide a home for festivals, events, tours,  merch, pop-up exhibitions and private hires - with permanent homes for North’s street food partners Little Bao Boy and Kerbside Kids.

The Transformation  

Packed with beautiful industrial interior features like exposed brickwork, ducting and pipes and the original rough plaster walls, the space was a blank canvas.  

North were equally appreciative of the building’s history and heritage, and our brief was to steep the shell in North Brewing Co’s distinctive brand DNA, and create a welcoming,  inclusive commercial, events and community environment.

We wanted to link the legendary North Bar and Springwell together, create the perfect foil to the building’s coarse framework and complement the beautiful old warm brickwork.  

To do this, we used lots of light Scandi-toned woods throughout.  

The woods run across pale parquet flooring in the office area, and adorn bars, tabletops and display stands.  

They take centre stage in the fabulous tiered staircase-cum-seating area, and create dramatic interest via the dynamically angled panelling that’s become synonymous with the  North brand .  

Further visual impact is created by using colour pops of electric and deep, moody blues and bright red - in details, across steels and adorning entire walls - which contrasts with the starker monochrome of North’s logo and the exterior paintwork. 

Tiled in contemporary blue and white, the taproom sits under the towering stainless steel fermentation tanks, keeping the heart of the brewery where it belongs - front and centre, always.  

And the doors are open!  

Thanks to Covid, it was April 2021 before Springwell Leeds was able to open its doors to the general public - though thankfully in plenty of time for a summer of events, music, communing, imbibing and all-round merriment.  

This careful restoration has allowed North to give back to the local community, with new jobs created and a huge investment in the area, as well as increasing their brewing output to a whopping 2.8 million pints of craft goodness a year.  

And it looks great - even if we do say so ourselves :)

Find out more about Springwell Leeds and book a table or a tour here. 

Thinking about creating your own taproom? They’re a fantastic feature in offices too, like the one we created for The Property Buying Company.  

Wherever you’d like your Brewpub, we’re here for you - drop us a line today and let’s chat.