Creating Hillside

The story of how we established Tiger11 and then bought and refurbished Hillside goes back to 9th November 2005. That evening seventeen people got together to discuss how the community could take over the building that was about to close as a school and keep it in community ownership. The meeting took place in the old staff room, now part of Unit 1, and agreed an outline plan to set up Tiger11, refurbish the building and use the space to generate enough income to cover its costs.

Many of those present represented other local organisations and went on to form the Board of Tiger11.

The building closed as a school in November 2006 and was sheeted up. It was due to be sold and we had made representations to the Council, but no decision had been taken. The fear was that it would be turned into private flats or worse, left to rot.

It was a long road for Tiger11 with many twists and turns, but things started to take off when Leeds City Council bid for LEGI funding (the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative known as Sharing The Success in Leeds). Leeds bid revolved around local “Catalyst” centres supporting entrepreneurs, located within community owned buildings in some of the deprived neighbourhoods around the city. As the bid was being written we received help to cost the refurbishment, write a business plan and secure finance for the project. The bid was submitted in the autumn of 2006 and Leeds secured £14m to spend over the next three years - a myCatalyst centre would become an anchor tenant for the development.

Tiger11 had been incorporated as a company in August 2006 but in April 2007 we converted into an Industrial & Provident Society. We did this for a number of reasons:

  • Supporters can join Tiger11 as shareholders, but there is no dividend
  • We have charitable purposes without registering as a Charity
  • We have a clear asset lock and a not-for-private-profit status
  • Other IPS’s (such as Leeds Federated Housing Association) can invest larger sums in Tiger11


Jeremy Morton was appointed as Director and Tiger11’s first member of staff in June 2007. As Director he worked from home at first, and then from the Catalyst Basecamp – a converted steel container located in what is now the car park.

We had a lot of professional support which was brokered by Leeds Ahead and Business In The Community. Legal firms Wrigleys and DLA Piper helped us with incorporation and with leases and conveyancing respectively. We employed Harrigan Smith to Project Manage the refurbishment and also had great support from Brewster Bye Architects and Cyril Sweett Quatity Surveyors.



We secured funding from Sharing The Success, Leeds Federated, Key Fund Yorkshire and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank over the summer of 2007 and proceeded to submit our plans for Planning Permission and to tender the works contract. Because the building is listed we ran into a couple of snags with planning conditions. We were required to undertake a photo survey of the Victorian ceilings before they were covered again by our refurbished and lowered ceilings. This delayed work starting by a month or two.

We eventually got the contractors on site in January 2008 and the building was finished in October 2008. The works contract over-ran, firstly because we made some design changes (to the meeting rooms and to Units 7-14), and then by the contractor. 

In May 2008 Tiger11 secured an investment of £500,000 from the Adventure Capital Fund. This mix of loan and grant was used to repay part of the Alliance & Leicester loan and pay for fit-out costs.

Unfortunately as Hillside was being completed the contractor went into administration, leaving a hearting system that was not fully functional and various minor electrical items outstanding. We went ahead and opened Hillside’s (new) front door on 20th October 2008. We used the parts of the building that were warm and handed out electric heaters for other areas.

On 20th November 2008 a hundred friends and supporters helped us with our official opening. Sarah Balfour, the last Headteacher of Hillside Primary School returned to unveil the plaque and cut the cake.

Watch Hilary Benn MP's video message to the official opening here.