Audley Scarcroft Park: Inside the luxurious retirement village

Yorkshire Post

We had an exclusive guided tour of the facilities.

Transcript

00:00This is not just any community for the over-60s. This is an Audley Scarcroft Park retirement

00:08village. We took an exclusive look inside this new retirement village on the outskirts

00:16of Leeds City Centre. Inside you can see a bistro, dining area, living areas. There's

00:26so much on offer here, as well as an exclusive fixed price menu in the bistro area. You

00:34can even have afternoon tea here. It's also available for people who live locally and

00:41who just want to pop in for a spot of lunch or a coffee, and you can have a spa membership

00:47or gym membership too. We were given a guided tour around the new complex, which is in phase

00:54two, so there's still a bit of building work going on at the moment. If you did want to

00:58bag one of these properties, it's going to set you back anything from £460,000 for an

01:06apartment. They host dining events for residents as well as members of the public, and if you

01:12are a resident here, you can take part in one of the many activities from art classes

01:18to cosmology. The main building, Scarcroft Lodge, is grade two listed. It's the former

01:24home of the Yorkshire Electricity Board, and then Audley took it over. Here's one of the

01:31experience apartments, where you can get a taste of what's on offer if you were to be

01:36able to be a resident here. There's also, of course, a spa and a swimming pool, which

01:43you can hire exclusively if you're one of the residents here. There's even a well-equipped

01:49gym on site.

01:51This beautiful place, Scarcroft Park, is on my doorstep. Almost literally, I live down

01:58the road, a minute down the road. So, obviously, I made it my business to find out what goes

02:04on here, and when I realised it was a retirement village, I put my name on the list as well.

02:09I'm a lot older than you, so I think I'll be here for Christmas.

02:13How old do you have to be?

02:15Sixty and above, but there's so much else here that you can be part of. For example,

02:20there is a spa, and it's beautiful, so you can join that from 55 years. So, not far for

02:27me to join up for that, but I made it my business to find out everything about this place, because

02:35I just felt it was probably the most relevant and beautiful place for the residents of North

02:43Leeds and beyond to bang the drum, make them aware of it, and the residents and owners

02:50here are from far afield, all over the UK. But locally, I feel as though I have a mission,

02:58which is make Audley Escargot Park visible to the masses, and I'm doing that through

03:04a series of workshops, events, newsletters, and more.

03:11And obviously here we've got a fabulous afternoon tea, because there's a coffee shop,

03:16dining area, and it just, it looks incredible. Do you know some of the history of here?

03:23Well, the building dates back to 1815, if I'm not mistaken, and it was owned by a very

03:32rich, wealthy gentry in the lusted industry, I believe, and then over the hundreds of years

03:40it's passed through many hands, and fast forward into the 19th, 20th century, it was

03:49the headquarters of the Yorkshire Electricity Board, and we are actually sat in what used

03:55to be the chairman's office. Wow.

03:57Can you feel the ghosts of the chairman? Is it haunted?

04:01No, absolutely not, but it's a very spiritual place, a soulful place.

04:07It has a real, I've got to say it has a really nice vibe, and I think you hit the nail on

04:12the head, so outside the view, it does feel like you're in Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

04:18I thought that, as an artist.

04:19So you're walking around the hallways, and a bit of running park through the spa, and

04:24then out there you've got Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

04:26Yes, Capability Brown landscape right there, 100 acres, this is one of the largest villages,

04:33retirement villages, in the country actually, I'd like to say the north, but in the country.

04:39So it really is probably the most beautiful place.

04:45And for those who don't know, Scarcroft Park is basically, it's in Leeds isn't it, it's

04:51just a couple of miles from Hare Hills, but in a totally different setting near Ling Lane,

04:57one of the wealthiest places in Leeds I think.

05:00One of the wealthiest streets in Leeds, yes.

05:02And it really does feel like, I'm glad I put a dress on for this, because it feels gorgeous,

05:08but so friendly as well.

05:10Absolutely, and I felt that the day I walked in, and I actually felt a calling, and it's

05:16not unusual to feel that, because one of my very good friends who is now a resident in

05:23the spa, Gaynor Fay, says very much the same thing, there's a real beautiful calling here

05:30which just feels like a natural place for us to eat, enjoy, and probably retire as well Sophie.

05:39Yeah.

05:40And if I'm saying that.

05:42I was just going to say, I don't think I'd be one of those boomerang retirees if this

05:46is where I was retiring, I'll retire now.

05:50And tell me about some of the interesting features here, because it's not, at first

05:56I just think, oh it's a very nice affluent housing development, but when you come inside,

06:01there's all sorts of little areas isn't there, it's a very Soho house you were saying.

06:06Absolutely, well this is the main house, there are some residences in here, so if anybody

06:13wanted to buy, I think there is somebody who lives in this building, and there are others

06:19up for grabs, so don't get in the queue.

06:22Yeah, can I put my name on?

06:25So this is the main residence, and in here you've got the beautiful brasserie which is

06:29Baccarat, which is a restaurant, and in there you have head chef Kevin Connor, who is a

06:36Buckingham Palace chef, creme de la creme here, and he is responsible for this beautiful

06:42afternoon too, this is his work of art, so Kevin is head chef here, and a fabulous team

06:50of other chefs as well, and around you'll see the development that is the village, that

06:59are the residences that the owners who come here will purchase.

07:04And so do you live in flats or houses, how does it work?

07:08They are two bedroomed houses, so I wouldn't necessarily call them flats, they're more

07:15akin to luxury apartments, with all the mod cons that you would expect, there are iPads

07:23in there for carers to make sure that they are, because obviously when you are above

07:30the age of 60 and 80, and you've got some people in their late 80s living here, it's

07:37a situation where carers will need to monitor and be on call, and they've got an excellent

07:43care team here, I did a little feature on Georgia McGilvery, who is the manager of the

07:52care team here, and talking to her you get so much insight into what the team are about

08:01really, and how complex it is in terms of care needs and making sure that they are on

08:06top of all the different aspects of elderly living.

08:11There I was thinking retirement might be me in a masonette with a little cord, but

08:16I've got aspirations now, something to work towards.

08:20And if I were looking for somewhere to retire to, I definitely would choose here, but what

08:26kind of cost am I looking at?

08:28That's something that you need to talk to the sales team about, but obviously it's

08:34commensurate with your property in the house, and it works within people's budgets.

08:41And all the different sizes.

08:44There's no secret about it, it's advertised on the billboard outside, living starts at

08:50around £400,000 and upwards, which I think is very good value for money in this area.

Category

Transcript

Recommended