Laura Wellington: Creating Change with Leeds Indie Business
To say that Laura Wellington has “many hats”, as she puts it, is something of an understatement. Laura is a Welsh designer based in Leeds, whose creations have attracted the attention of the BBC and international press. On top of that, she is the woman behind the Leeds Indie initiative and the director of Duke Studios, a progressive, creative co-working space that she co-founded with her partner, James Abbott-Donnelly.
In 2015, James and Laura rehomed Duke Studios to an old belt factory near Leeds Dock and added a bar. That bar became Sheaf St, a much-loved Leeds venue known for its tasty food and eclectic event calendar, offering everything from club nights to opera. But it's the atmosphere that has Sheaf St regulars coming back for more.
Laura Wellington and James Abbott-Donnelly
“We know what makes a good party [and] we only work with people who do good stuff,” Laura tells me. It’s all about creating a safe space for people to feel welcome and have a good time. “Everyone from the door team to the bar team knows what our vision and our ethos is.” This is how she and James ensure that events like Midnight, an iconic club night inspired by their love of festivals, have such a relaxed, inclusive spirit.
“We love running around being feral, being mischievous, dressing up. [Midnight is all about] being who you want to be, dressing how you want to dress, and being nice to each other.”
Of course, things changed for Sheaf St after the COVID-19 outbreak. Laura and James acted quickly, closing the venue and setting up the Help Sheaf St Help Others campaign to support local freelancers and food banks, and cover their business costs.
“The business doesn’t stop,” Laura explains. “We want to keep paying our bills, [keep paying] our team 100% on top of their furlough, keep paying our landlord, and we want the economy to keep going. We basically had to hustle!”
But it’s not just about running a successful business for Laura. “We don't do Sheaf purely to make money. We do Sheaf because we love music and we love people,” she tells me.
She’s been busy trying to keep spirits high since lockdown began, hosting events online and sharing ideas that could help other business owners. This is how she came up with the In Good Company Leeds campaign.
Inspired by the public outpouring of support for the NHS, Laura wanted to make sure that other essential workers were being thanked too. The campaign began with the Hyde Park Corner billboard, which she commissioned Morag Myerscough to transform into a colourful tribute to essential workers. It was a strong start, but Laura didn’t stop there:
“One billboard isn’t a national story, but we hoped a whole city could become a national story!”
Driven to create a “people-powered national campaign”, Laura set-up the #PostersforthePeople banner shop featuring unique messages of hope and solidarity designed by talented UK artists such as Craig Black and Anthony Burrill.
Now, anyone can get their hands on a poster, while all the sales proceeds go to food banks and healthcare charities. Already, essential workers all over the city have been bowled over by the uplifting campaign. Their messages of gratitude have kept Laura going through the more challenging days of the lockdown.
Though nothing could have prepared her for a pandemic, almost a decade of fighting fires as a business owner has definitely taught her a thing or two about problem-solving in a crisis. “The last nine years feels like resilience training, really,” Laura says. If she’s learned one thing, it’s that no amount of thinking anxious thoughts will make things different. Her advice?
“Try and change what you can and park what you can’t.”
Anyone feeling a Sheaf St shaped hole in their lives can rest assured that James and Laura are looking forward to reopening their doors. “We’ve got some really fun ideas for when the lockdown lifts,” Laura tells me. I’m curious to know more, but they're keeping it all under wraps for now.
And until then? Laura says she’ll be reaching out to all her favourite indie businesses to tell them they’re being missed, and dreaming of the day she can get out and “cwtch” all her friends…
Image sourced via Sheaf St. Carousel images from Midnight: Dungeons and Drag Queens, shot by Joel Hirst.
Check out #PostersforthePeople and follow In Good Company Leeds on Instagram and Twitter.
It’s more important than ever to support local, indie business. Why not buy a Sheaf St voucher to spend when everything reopens, or enter their raffle to win a Booze Booty Bundle? If you’ve got no cash to spare, just get involved with their events and get talking about them on social media - they’ll always appreciate kind words!
