Acme’s Victoria Gate retail complex is a modern take on historic Leeds arcades

Wryly entertaining architect Friedrich Ludewig is keen to differentiate Victoria Gate arcade from a shopping centre, explaining that 'an arcade is a street with a roof'. His firm Acme has just completed a new retail complex in Leeds – an apt location for such a project, as the city is known for its Victorian arcades.
Ludewig, who set up Acme in 2007 after having been associate director at the late, great Foreign Office Architects, has managed to pull off that rare feat in malls: uniformly pleasing shop facias. Each retailer’s shop sign – including Anthropologie and Ghost – comprises gold lettering on a black lacquered ribbon. The arcade feel is also strengthened by large brass pendant lights running the length of the ‘streets’, and a flooring of grey Chinese granite laid out herringbone style, in reference to Leeds’ heyday supplying wool to Savile Row tailors.
From the outside, this is no bland glass box but a bold piece of architecture. Victoria Gate sits on Eastgate, an Art Deco boulevard designed by Reginald Blomfield to mimic London’s Regent Street. Hence Acme’s relief-built brick and terracotta facade, and reconstituted stone palisades that rise to form a diagrid. Corten steel panels surround the bulges of the top floor, which houses restaurants.
John Lewis, Victoria Gate’s anchor tenant, has been looking to put down roots in Leeds for 28 years. The department store’s interior style (not designed by Acme) will be familiar to anyone who has been in any of its other branches.
Next door is Acme’s eye-catching multistorey carpark, which replaces a police station. Its facade comprises myriad straight and twisting aluminium fins, giving a nod to the arcade’s diagrid.
The scheme, which includes a number of shop fronts, as well as a John Lewis department store, takes its cue from the city's Victorian arcades
Part of the facade is made of reconstituted stone palisades that rise to form a diagrid
Exteriors are also made of relief-built brick and terracotta
The arcade feel inside is strengthened by large brass pendant lights running the length of the ‘streets’...
... while the floor is laid out herringbone style with grey Chinese granite
The nearby multistorey carpark volume features a facade comprising myriad straight and twisting aluminium fins
The pattern was chosen as a nod to the arcade’s diagrid
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Acme website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Clare Dowdy is a London-based freelance design and architecture journalist who has written for titles including Wallpaper*, BBC, Monocle and the Financial Times. She’s the author of ‘Made In London: From Workshops to Factories’ and co-author of ‘Made in Ibiza: A Journey into the Creative Heart of the White Island’.
-
This hidden London culinary haven is a refreshing take on the steakhouse
Mr Porter, a new steakhouse, bar and lounge in central London's swish Mayfair, is a hidden haven of strong flavours and minimalist dining
-
Dine within a rationalist design gem at the newly opened Cucina Triennale
Cucina Triennale is the latest space to open at Triennale Milano, a restaurant and a café by Luca Cipelletti and Unifor, inspired by the building's 1930s design
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season
Between the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’ in London is a ‘poem’ celebrating washi paper in construction
‘Paper Clouds’, an installation by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a poetic design that furthers research into the use of washi paper in construction
-
Foster + Partners to design the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II
For the Queen Elizabeth II memorial, Foster + Partners designs proposal includes a new bridge, gates, gardens and figurative sculptures in St James’ Park
-
Wolves Lane Centre brings greenery, growing and grass roots together
Wolves Lane Centre, a new, green community hub in north London by Material Cultures and Studio Gil, brings to the fore natural materials and a spirit of togetherness
-
This ingenious London office expansion was built in an on-site workshop
New Wave London and Thomas-McBrien Architects make a splash with this glulam extension built in the very studio it sought to transform. Here's how they did it
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on life
Thanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being reborn as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Lego and Serpentine celebrate World Play Day with a new pavilion
Lego and Serpentine have just unveiled their Play Pavilion; a colourful new structure in Kensington Gardens in London and a gesture that celebrates World Play Day (11 June)
-
Inside Abbey Road's refresh: touring the legendary studio's new interior
Abbey Road gets an interior refresh by Threefold Architects, bringing the legendary London recording studio in tune with the 21st century
-
The Serpentine Pavilion 2025 is ready to visit, ‘an exhibition you can use’
The Serpentine Pavilion 2025 is ready for its public opening on 6 June; we toured the structure and spoke to its architect, Marina Tabassum