Kirkstall: Back to life, back to reality

Kirkstall Brewery’s focus on restoring pubs and bars has made it a giant of Leeds’ beer scene, but its success says nothing of the care, attention and hard graft that goes into bringing unloved venues back to life. While The Victoria Hotel — an expansive and, frankly, opulent restoration project that has been the pride and joy of Leeds residents since it re-opened in 2025 — might be the example that jumps to mind when you think of Kirkstall pubs, another recent opening says just as much about Kirkstall’s attitude to saving the city’s best-loved drinking spots. 

In April of this year, The City Tap opened its doors on Leeds’ Sovereign Street, in a venue that was previously home to North Bar. From the outside, it's a modern venue in a new part of town, surrounded largely by offices and a stone’s throw from the train station — a far cry from the storied and historic venues synonymous with Kirkstall. The venue itself caters to the unique needs of its patrons — who might be on their lunch break or waiting on a train — with radlers, lower ABV and alcohol free options, but also pays homage to a long lost pub, The City Tap, that was once based across town on The Headrow. 

“Steve [Holt, Kirkstall's founder] just has this obsession with not letting things be forgotten,” says brand manager Chris Hall. “It’s not enough just to pay homage to these venues, they need to be celebrated and preserved, so people know and don’t forget about how important beer was to these places.” In the instance of The City Tap, the original pub was once based by the statue locally known in Leeds as ‘the barrel man’, and which was a gift from the city of Dortmund, when the cities were twinned in 1969, as a nod to their shared brewing history. The City Tap was then a classic, Victorian-style pub with frosted windows and its name spelled out in old theatre-style Edison bulbs, right above the door.