Holme House Care Home, Gomersal
Application to demolish a wing of Holme House, and the development of 8 dwellings:
A very handsome building that is robust and has offers enough utility to avoid unnecessary demolition. Sadly the M62 corridor housing market being as bullish as it is, eight 3-4 bed houses presumably offers a slightly higher return on investment. And even if that is not the case, some off the shelf housing types positioned here are much easier for an agent to market, and easier for an accountant to model into a business projection.
Heritage, as a positive economic externality has still yet to be somehow captured in our planning/economic system. I think it is time to explore the sustainability discourse; why not lets start making policies that allow demolitions such as this to be refused on the grounds of destroying the embodied energy they contain. Redeveloping this site would result in infinitely higher carbon emissions that the repurposing of the building for a similar use.
2 pubs in Bradford
Hare and Hounds in Ilkley:
“Delius Lived Next Door” in Bradford:
Two more pubs to be demolished (or as good as in the latter’s case) in Bradford. Of particular concern is the former ‘Delius Lived Next Door” (clue is in the name) which forms part of the conservation area within the University campus quarter of the city.
The conservation officer has laudably denounced the proposal as facadism, so it will be interesting to see how much weight the planning officer gives to his consultation.
The Hare and Hounds is not a building of such merit, but is on the cusp of being of historical vintage, with an early 20th century aesthetic embodied in the Bankside-Powerstation-esque chimneys, and ornate brickwork within the interstices of the timber frame. Something about the architecture of this era embodies the interwar calm of England. Post 1939, everything became a bit more fraught.
And it is certainly concerning if Fayre and Square cant keep their pubs open.
Masonic Lodge, Bradford
Outline plans quickly approved by Bradofrd for the demolition of a former Masonic Lodge in a conservation area:
Outline permission has been granted for the demolition and the redevelopment of this site for 12 houses. The usual planning balance predicated on a perceived housing crisis was applied, and as such concerns over impacts to Apsley Crescent conservation area were nullified.
Certainly a unique elevation, with buttresses obscuring what would otherwise be the primary elevation of the hall, the building reflects the enigma or the ancient order that once occupied the lodge.
The Demolition Register 