Archive | November 2014

St Lukes Hosptial, Huddersfield

Sad to see the Victorian centre piece of St Lukes Hospital in Huddersfield being demolished recently;

st lukes

Formally Crossland Moor workhouse, this important piece of social history stood in the way of a ripe piece of brownfield land and so has been leveled. I’m sure there wouldnt be any difficultly in incorperating this robust building into a new housing/ mixed use masterplan but a clean 22 acres is much more conducive to a real estate spreadsheet.

As far as I can tell, the new masterplan doesn’t even use the footprint of this building;

st lukes masterplan

Th problems are systemic rather than practical. Investment, design, planning, and marketing for new build housing estates demands homogeneity and simplicity. An esoteric Victorian building just gets in the way. Shameful.

Advertisement