“He’s brilliant, he is an artist, he is passionate and he loves this club,” says the Salford Lads’ Club’s Jill Heron of Leslie Holmes.
For more than two decades, Leslie has been an integral pillar of innovation and preservation at the Salford Lads’ Club and within the city itself.
Modestly moving from one project to the next, his work has not only saved the centre from closing down but has also made it the third most voted tourism site in England, restoring it to a safe haven for Salford’s youth.
He has worked full time at the club since 2002 and through projects such as the Smiths Room and the steel wall of 22,500 members’ names, he has played a central role in preserving the historic building, shaping it into a major music tourism site and using its heritage to engage and support young people in Salford.
Leslie moved to Salford in 1992 with the hope of giving people identity and helping them understand the importance of place, something he believes should be a central part of life.
“There are footsteps you can tread on, and that’s what has been in the past, and unless you’ve got the past, I don’t think you have a future,” said Leslie.
Born into a working-class family in Shotley Bridge, West Yorkshire, Leslie found himself drawn to the arts and architecture from a young age. This passion led him to teach fine art with a focus on place, area and identity in Leeds and Newcastle.
His first encounter with the club came in the early 2000s while working on a project about the architecture around Salford and how younger generations were burning and breaking into houses.
“I wanted to make them aware of the importance of the area and try to change their attitude towards architecture,” said Leslie.
After taking a class at the club, he became convinced it had to be saved and was determined to do so. In 2002, Leslie joined full time and began the work that would keep the Lads’ Club open. Almost immediately, he applied to have the building listed, which became one of the rarest cases in England.
Unusually the listing was secured largely on cultural and social heritage grounds, rather than architectural merit. The listing recognised the building’s architectural and social significance as a late 19th-century space built specifically for working-class boys, as well as its long-standing role in Salford’s community life.
This protection prevented demolition and proved pivotal in safeguarding the future of the club, enabling restoration work, heritage-led projects and preservation.
One of Leslie’s earliest projects was the creation of the Smiths Room, an achievement that could be argued to be the biggest contribution to shaping Salford Lads’ Cclub. The room is a tribute to Salford’s biggest music export, The Smiths, and the room can’t have hurt the claim that the club is the third-most visited music culture spot in the UK.
Visitors can enter the room and meet Leslie, who shares his extensive knowledge of the band and the area, purchase merchandise and get a picture in front of the club just like Morrissey and the band themselves did on the cover of their famous album.
The revenue generated by the room has enabled the club and Leslie himself to take two groups of young Salfordians to America and, with Granada, into the Stars in Their Eyes dressing rooms.
Leslie’s steel wall of names project took just over two years to complete. He gathered the name of every SLC member from its inception to the start of the project. With 22,500 names carved into steel, Leslie and a hand-picked company created a time capsule that stands as both a visual marvel and a deeply sentimental work of art, sparking memories for older generations who have recently visited the club.
Two stories stood out for Leslie. A man in his late seventies looked at the wall, saw his name and through tears said, “I’ve never seen my name anywhere before.” Another man, who was a member in 1956 but never returned, found not only his own name but also his father’s, unaware that his father had attended the club, and almost broke down in tears.
Beyond the club itself, Leslie has also worked with parents to put forward a candidate in a local election in order to save a nursery his daughter was attending that was set to close.
He has worked with Ordsall Community Arts for 18 years, hosted a party in the SLC main hall for Chanel, brought in funding to repair leaks and structural damage and continues to run two open days every Saturday and Wednesday.
People from all over the world now visit SLC. Sixty people attended Leslie’s most recent project, a projection of Regent Road over the last 100 years, shown on a cold January night.
The club remains under constant threat of closure due to a lack of funding. However, Leslie continues to act as a steady presence for this piece of Salford history and as a driver of change for young people in the city.
His work ensures that Salford’s lads and girls still have a place to go after school, cementing his importance to the community and this role in preserving an iconic Salford space.
