Versa Leeds stage four to become padel courts

Stage four at Versa Leeds is set to be turned into padel courts, pushing the fast-growing racket sport into a former broadcast and film space in Holbeck rather than a purpose-built club. The proposal at the Versa Studios site points to a simpler, quicker kind of expansion: reuse the shell of an existing building and fit the courts inside.

Local planning material shows how broad that shift is becoming in Leeds. One application, 26/01154/FU, seeks to change Unit 22 on Millshaw Park Lane in Beeston from Class B2/B8 industrial and storage use to a Class E(d) padel centre. Another planning record, 25/04047/FU, sits in the Leeds planning archive and was last updated on 27 May 2026, underlining that the Versa plan is moving through a formal approval process rather than emerging as an informal fit-out.

The scale of the Whitehall Road scheme has also been pinned down. Reporting around the project has referred to eight padel courts at the Versa Studios site in Holbeck, and an accompanying on-site cafe if permission is granted. South Leeds Life described the application as a plan to convert one of the buildings at Versa TV and film studios into a padel tennis centre, while coverage in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus said padel courts had been agreed at the former Whitehall Road film studio.

That combination of courts and hospitality space shows why repurposed venues are attractive to operators. A former stage or studio block can be adapted into a compact indoor or semi-indoor sports footprint faster than a new-build leisure complex, with less land assembly and a clearer urban fit. In practical terms, that can make room for coaching, leagues and social play without the longer timelines and heavier capital outlay of a greenfield project.

The Leeds developments also fit into a wider city pattern. Leeds City Council published a transport improvements update for the Whitehall Road area on 20 July 2016, and later recorded the signing of contracts for a state-of-the-art TV and film studio at the site on 31 October 2019. That studio history helps explain why a stage building could now be repurposed again, this time for one of Britain’s quickest-expanding sports.

For padel in the UK, the message from Holbeck and Beeston is clear: the next wave of courts may come not just from clubs, but from the conversion of overlooked urban property into multi-use leisure space.