Mount Pleasant School
Here is a link to the Huddersfield examiner article covering the ongoing campaign to save the amazing clock tower at Mount Pleasant School In Lockwood:
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/mount-pleasant-clock-tower-campaign-9989185
I feel a pattern emerging. A former council property is snapped up in an auction by a developer for next to nothing, and plans to demolish said building are expedited by the council. How can we demolish this architectural treasure?
Thankfully the Examiner are very vocal about local heritage, and hopefully the campaign to stop this iconoclastic behaviour will be successful. Please if you can attend the meeting in support of this campaign. See linked article for dates and location.
Demolition of houses in North Huddersfield
An application to demolish two town houses in Huddersfield has been submitted, to be replaced with 14 apartments:
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2015%2f92557
The contrast between the new and old buildings doesn’t really require comment. Sadly, this will be technically be considered a brownfield development, with a net addition of 12 dwellings. On paper this is exactly what the council have been asking for. Yet I’m sure that the loss of these Victorian buildings from the area of Huddersfield that remains thoroughly authentically industrial in vernacular, will continue to push Huddersfield into the realm of another generic town.
Housing crisis trump card will certainly be played here, and we will sadly lose some fine old houses.
Former Council Depot, Thornhill
An application to demolish the old council deport at Thornhill has been submitted. The building, formally known as Overthorpe Halls stable block has been subject of local concern for some time, recognised as an important local asset
in a local newspaper.
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2015%2f92509
The building represents the last of the Victorian stock in the area. The proposed replacement is a series of terraced houses that are of a mediocre design quality by an architect, that I suspect has not visited the site, such is the generic nature of the proposal. The extant building so unique and charming, and look robust enough for conversion as was noted in a recent listing on right move. Yet again, more short cited vision by a developer who likes to keep the housing market as simple as possible – build em flog em
.
The proposed massing ignores the street, and negates the courtyard feature, which would have provided much needed communal space.
A structural report – commissioned by the client (basically a formal statement to the sentiment of whatever the client requests) mentioned the building is beyond repair. This is simply not true, and an impartial report needs to be available to the council.
If only the developer could see the value of 8 dwellings in a converted Victorian building, when compared to 8 new builds. I thought the industry had realised this inherent value a long time ago.
St Cecilia’s Church, Sheffield
Plans to demolish a church in a housing estate in Sheffield:
This pleasant building represents an excellent 1930s effort at a Norman revival from the latter end of the most recent church building age. The building has been threatened for a while, but it seems that the asset strippers at CofE have decided that flattening the sit – hiatus – selling the site, is the most tactical approach to use here. Very sweet building that could have been saved if only it was positioned elsewhere, outside of this housing market area in suburban Sheffield.
Station Hotel, Bawtry
Plans to demolish a pub in Doncaster:
No plans as of yet to utilise this site which is currently occupied by this pub and a large courtyard and stable building to the rear. Shame
Cinema and Hospital clearance in Todmorden
A large area of the centre of Todmorden is being cleared, with plans to build a Netto supermarket:
The site is occupied by the former cinema and the Abraham Ormerod Hospital in a central location in the town. Previous plans for the supermarket incoperated the cinema frontage, but this submission sees the site fully cleared.
I think of lot of the town of Todmorden. An outpost of Yorkshire high in the Pennines, the air is so damp that the buildings are bright green with lichen.The buildings in question here are not particularly special, but the fact that a picture house was built for the good people of Todmorden reflects on how vibrant and independent Pennine life once was. As each Roman town had it’s stadium, so the Mill town had its Odeon.
Sadly Todmorden didn’t quite manage to achieve the cult status of neighbouring Hebdon Bridge, but it is a town like no other nonetheless and needs looking after. I hope the council consider retaining the front of the old cinema. These buildings mean a lot to small towns that are still trying to define themselves. Having a budget supermarket as the focal point of a town centre sends out the wrong message, and is certainly not regenerative.
Pontefract Corner Pub
The latest pub to be rendered flat is the Old Mill in South Kirkby, Pontefract: https://planning.wakefield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails 
This pub has piqued my interest as it occupies quite an awkward site on an acute corner, and brings together the two branching streets very neatly. It reminds me that pubs were often a hub of a community positioned at confluences like this. Not an ancient building by any means but the interesting frontage with high chimney flues and large bay windows demonstrate the right balance between modesty and ostentation that is difficult to get right. Sadly the replacement buildings do not acknowledge this form at all, completely ignoring the corner which is actually an asset to this site, and offers the constraint needed to produce an interesting architectural solution.
Warehouse in Bradford conservation area
A grand imposing industrial building on Vincent Street, Bradford is about to be demolished:
Permission was in fact granted in 2013 to demolish this building in a conservation area. If only councils would understand that a conservation area requires all of its component parts to be protected to preserve the aesthetic of the area. Bradford’s industrial history had a statutory protection here, offering a window into how the brutal architecture of the city was an industrial necessity. And now these robust megolithic buildings have acquired a timeless quality, they are to be lost.
Please Bradford, understand that the difference between a listed building and a conservation area is that within a conservation area, it is both the buildings and the spaces between the buildings that need to be preserved.
Two Sheffield pubs
The Arbourthorne Hotel in Sheffield has had an application for demolition submitted against it:
Not an ancient building by any means but I thought it worth documenting another loss of a pub. Built within an array of red brick housing for a mining community, these pubs/working mens’ clubs are a clear continuation of Victorian utopianism and philthanthropy in the wake of TItus Salt, Robert Owen et al.
Another pub in Sheffield soon to be lost is the Mason’s Arms:
Another pub that has lost its relevance as the surrounding industry waned. Quite striking quoining and a generally robust building that could be key to a regeneration in this area, but alas it is presumably just an asset in the portfolio of a brewery.
Branshaw House, Keighley
Planning has been granted for the demolition of this manorial house in Oakworth, Bradford:
Initial masterplanning Incorporated the building into the new scheme, but someone with a spreadsheet has made the decision to chuck another three houses in there instead. Crazy really, when you consider the value that would be added to the new development if the elegant Victorian house was to act as a lynchpin to the streetscape. People would pay significantly more to be within this setting.
