Last week I visited Dewsbury in West Yorkshire for the final study visit of the Community-led High Street Innovators project. We were in town to visit Dewsbury Arcade Group: a community benefit society set up to manage the town’s Victorian Grade II listed shopping arcade when it reopens to the public for the first time in a decade, later this year.
A building through time
After years of declining footfall, mismanagement and a lack of investment by an absentee owner, the once-beloved arcade finally shut its doors in 2016 and sat empty until it was purchased by Kirklees Council in 2020. The Dewsbury Arcade Group came up with an innovative proposal: that a community business should run this council-owned building, not because the council couldn’t, but because they thought local people could do it differently.
The arcade will provide small shop units to local entrepreneurs to give them a physical presence in the town centre, intentionally curated by the Arcade Group to meet local need and bring people back to the town centre. The revived arcade will also feature two large, hireable spaces for the community to come together, hosting events and an exhibit on the arcade which speaks to the building’s heritage and role in a changing town through the decades.
Nostalgia and the new
I first came across the project a few years ago when I was writing a report on how community businesses are reimagining vacant department stores. I was fascinated by how much nostalgia these spaces evoke, and how their decline makes people feel about the state of their lives.
Walking around Dewsbury, we spotted the ghost of a Woolworths sign on an empty building, which triggered a nostalgia-filled conversation about buying pick and mix in our local Woolies, and our memories of the chain’s eventual demise.
Nostalgia can be a powerful incitement to action. Ahead of the local elections, many politicians are vowing to return their high streets to their former glory. But the reality of our high streets has fundamentally changed – we can’t go back, even if we want to. Demand for retail space has shifted out of town and online. The rising cost of living has reshaped how people shop, and climbing business rates and employment costs are making it hard for those who do want to maintain a foothold on the high street to do so. To make our high streets better, we have to acknowledge this, and move forward by asking ourselves what the high street should be for now and in the future.
Cornerstones of change
This is where heritage-led regeneration is deeply important. It allows us to love and care for the buildings that represent who and what our places have been, and to create a new purpose that serves who and what they are now. Getting several key heritage buildings back into use is a key part of the regeneration strategy for Dewsbury, with the arcade as an anchor and a catalyst for change.
The Arcade Group understands that the future of the arcade depends on the town’s wider revitalisation. Despite facing two years of delays to its opening due to significant structural issues, the arcade is already helping to drive people back to the town centre. The Arcade Group set up a pop-up shop in an empty shopping centre unit, which plays host to community events and lets prospective tenants of the arcade sell their products in its window, and has hosted 20,000 visitors. 150 people attended the launch of their new business network to bring entrepreneurs together. Some of the people who have expressed interest in renting a shop in the arcade have run successful businesses for years, while others are using this opportunity to get started.
Their food festivals have attracted 9,000 attendees. And in 2025 they brought back ‘Dewsbury on Sea’, transforming a town centre shopping precinct into a beachside resort, reviving an old local tradition for the first time in 15 years. Beyond the building itself, this engagement has given local people opportunities to come together, building shared identity and restoring local pride.
In other parts of the country, there are similar stories of heritage buildings being reinvented to create a more vibrant, prosperous high street. When Southend-on-Sea’s Havens department store closed after a century of serving the town, it was transformed into the Haven Community Hub, home to a dementia day service, drop-in support for parents and carers, and a vibrant programme of wellbeing and social activities. It’s been part of an initiative by local traders, residents and community groups to renew their high street, which was commended by the former government’s High Streets Taskforce.
In Great Yarmouth, the local Preservation Trust has actively acquired historic buildings at risk to repair them and create viable new uses for redundant properties, opening space for local businesses, a community gallery and high-quality housing units.
Nostalgia is part and parcel of why we care about the high street, but it can’t be the enemy of progress. Old buildings tell the story of our heritage, but they can be part of making new meaning and purpose for our high streets too.
