Barbara Hepworth's St Ives workshop gets listed status

Barbara Hepworth bought the Palais de Danse in 1961

A workshop used by Dame Barbara Hepworth has been granted Grade II-listed status, Historic England says.

The Palais de Danse, a former cinema and dance hall she bought in 1961, was the sculptor's biggest work space in her adopted hometown of St Ives.

She used the space, which was opposite her home, to create prototypes of major commissions, often cast in bronze.

The announcement comes in the week marking the 45th anniversary of Hepworth's death in 1975, aged 72.

The building has been a navigation school, cinema, dance hall, auction room, concert venue and ballet school

The artist, who grew up in Wakefield, lived in Trewyn Studios in St Ives from 1949 until her death, caused by a fire, on 20 May 1975.

After buying the the Palais de Danse, opposite Trewyn Studios, she used it to work on prototypes of some of her most prestigious public commissions.

Pieces worked on there included the famous Single Form, which was finished in 1963, which sits outside the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York.

The Palais and Trewyn "represent almost all periods in Hepworth's personal and creative life" and were "an important legacy of her contribution to the public and artistic communities of St Ives", Historic England said.

The Palais de Danse was given to the Tate St Ives gallery by Hepworth's family in 2015.

Barbara Hepworth created the prototype of her piece Single Form (left, in 1961) and built some of the final sculpture (right, 1963) in the Palais de Danse

The building, dating back to the late 18th Century, was a navigation school in the early 19th Century and converted into a cinema in 1910, before becoming a dance hall in 1925.

From 1939, it was used for auctions and concerts. It was briefly a ballet school, and continued to be used for dance until Hepworth bought it in 1961.

It has been largely undisturbed since her death.

Historic England regional director Rebecca Barrett said the listing would help maintain a building that provided "a unique insight into Hepworth's creative process".