“There was a lot of antagonism against the opening of another bar, particularly by the Headingley Society,” Ian Fozard, the original founder of Arcadia Ale House, tells me.

“We were told that we would really struggle to get a license in Headingley because it had gained such notoriety for students drinking and going bonkers on the Otley Road Run [a pub crawl popular with local University students].”

Its home at the end of a 1960s shopping arcade in Headingley’s Arndale Centre—on the outskirts of Leeds in West Yorkshire—feels like an unusual spot for Arcadia. Hidden beneath the concrete pillars of an overhanging office block you’d most likely expect to see a Woolworths (a now sadly defunct British high street chain) as you walk up, not a craft beer bar. But Arcadia is one of the city’s longest established and most influential specialist beer destinations and, in fact, the location was part of the reason the bar very nearly wasn’t to be.

When the license application for the bar went in there was huge opposition from the Headingley Society. The local civic society were doing their best to counter the reputation the village had gained for drunken students meandering down the Otley road, often found making their way towards Leeds city centre in garish fancy dress.

“I remember lobbying them and basically saying ‘look, we’re not geared towards students, it’s going to be entirely no smoking, and we want to attract the local community,’” Ian tells me. After presenting to them we eventually got their support, or at least we got their neutrality.”

Arcadia was Ian’s brainchild. He’s the former owner of Market Town Taverns, a small chain of pubs and bars across West Yorkshire with a shared DNA but their own personality. All of them are relatively small, casual, but upmarket beer and wine bars with a nod towards continental style eating and drinking. After selling the chain in 2011 Ian purchased Rooster’s Brewery in Knaresborough (since relocated to nearby Harrogate), bringing in his sons Oliver and Tom to grow the well-respected brewery into the hugely successful business it is today.

My own first visit to Arcadia was largely by chance. A friend had spotted an “interesting looking” bar while walking home, but what kept us coming back was the bustling, friendly atmosphere and revelatory beer list. Ordering strong Belgian beers and sipping them over many hours; talking politics and world events with the unwavering certainty of an undergraduate. The timeless quality of the bar and the beers it served seemed to dovetail perfectly with our conversations. An idea doesn’t have to be new as long as it’s good, and Arcadia made the old beers of Belgium and the new ones of the US feel equally revolutionary.

Today, Arcadia remains a comfortable and inviting refuge of quality beer in a bustling student hub. A nod to a quieter past, when this leafy village suburb of Leeds moved at a slower pace and the pubs were a place to lose a few hours in. When a match is on at the nearby Headingley cricket ground it’s Arcadia that those who know their beer will head to.

***

Inhabiting a former branch of Lloyd’s Bank, Arcadia was relatively small before its extension into the retail space next door a few years ago, making what lies underneath it even more surprising.

Built inside what was formerly the vault, the beer cellar is insulated by feet-thick concrete and an enormous steel door. A cold and heavy-set bunker, perfect for cellaring and ageing special beers, accessed by a staircase hidden from customers’ view behind the small unassuming bar front.

In the early days the pub’s offering leaned heavily on Belgian and American beers, with an extensive bottle menu allowing a seemingly never-ending selection of beers to be brought up from that cool, mysterious cellar. Staff would often emerge from behind the bar with something corked and caged, seemingly out of nowhere.

““The old bank vault is perfect for keeping these special, rare beers, so we can surprise people with something amazing down the line.””

— James Rawnsley, Arcadia

But it wasn’t just about imported beer. Arcadia also had an excellent and diverse wine list at a time when most other local pubs didn’t, and a selection of quality local cask beers, which made the bar a regular in CAMRA’s annual Good Beer Guide. Rotating keg taps mostly showcased international beers—Belgian tripels, American IPAs or German pilsners were regulars—though in recent years British craft beer from small independent breweries has become a regular feature.

The breweriana and graphic beer posters which dress the walls complete the illusion of a Brussels beer café. And with no music and subtle lighting it’s a bar you could write a thesis at during the day and converse in on an evening—the buzz of chatter between locals and well-behaved students, proving that coexistence is perfectly possible.

“The influence was a mixture of that French-Belgian type brasserie, morphed with an English ale house,” Ian says. “If you go to Brussels, what’s lovely about the bars there is you can sit in a really authentic bar and see couples picking a beer and some cheese, or drinking a sparkling wine or having a coffee. That was always in the back of my mind with Arcadia.”

Since opening in Spring 2004, Arcadia has been through multiple stewardships, with each manager encouraged to bring their own personality to the bar, and the beers it serves. Former Manager Rhian Aitken was there from day one, and enjoyed eight years at the helm.

“It was very, very different to any other company I’ve worked for,” Rhian tells me. “We never had gambling machines, we never had piped music, and everything was about the focus on the guest experience and seeing good friends, talking and interacting, and the quality of the beer.”

That relaxing charm was the thing that struck me most about Arcadia when I first visited as a student a decade or so ago. It was and is somewhere students or locals could pop in for a quick glass of something, and where it seemed silly to propose that the two demographics were incompatible.

“We cultivated and had very strong relationships with the Universities. Every Tuesday we’d get the Leeds Met walking club coming in and having a lovely social,” Rhian tells me “Another night we’d have some of the chorus from Opera North, and we’d always have a group of guys from CAMRA sitting and having a few pints too.”

Over the years, Arcadia’s beer offering has moved with the times. Each subsequent bar manager has put their own stamp on the available selection, adapting to current trends and customer preferences. While international beers still form an important part of the lineup, in recent years British breweries have pushed their way on to the taps, with IPAs and pale ales from homegrown talent becoming a prominent feature of their offering. This is in no small part thanks to the current manager James Rawnsley, who has a predilection for all things fresh and highly hopped.

“Before I started we always had a Belgian line [and] an American line,” James says. “But the quality of British beer has improved so much we’ve upped the amount of UK craft we put on [from the likes of] Cloudwater, and Northern Monk—more hop-forward, modern British beers.”

On a recent visit, I enjoyed an absolutely glowing pint of The Kernel’s Table Beer, this iteration brewed with the North American Sabro hop variety. Tangerine and coconut burst out of the glass in a beer that punches far above its 3.2% ABV. On previous visits there’s always been something special available, say a half from a one-off keg of imperial stout from Northern Monk that Arcadia has managed to get a hold of. Take it from me: this is a pub where it’s always worth trying the beer from the hand-written pumpclip.

“Within Market Town Taverns [which also includes East of Arcadia in Leeds, Bar T’at in Ilkley, and eleven more pubs across Yorkshire and the North West] we’re definitely the black sheep of the family.” James says, proudly. “We’ll hold back imperial stout casks and release them the next year. The old bank vault is perfect for keeping these special, rare beers, so we can surprise people with something amazing down the line.”

Discovering Arcadia as a student in the early 2000’s felt revelatory. The bar was unlike anywhere I’d ever been before, that encyclopaedic bottle-menu a map to the world’s best beers, and a draught list so well-curated you could choose with your eyes closed and land on something delicious. Sharing beers across those well-worn wooden tables, the rattle of chatter in the room on a busy night rising and bursting with friendly laughter every few minutes, stools being borrowed and moved across bare wooden floorboards.

Walking back in over a decade later I can see that this magic little bar is still delighting newcomers and regulars alike, offering up surprises from the vault, waiting to be discovered.