Former Talbot Hotel and Pub, Batley
A very tired looking old pub looks to be lost soon in Batley;
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2015%2f90204
Drinking Establishments often sprung up in industrial areas, to be populated by thirsty mill workers. Yet with the demise of industry, these public houses have become obsolete. It always ignites my imagination when I come across an old pub in a derelict former industrial area and consider how it would thrive.
There wont be too many of these pubs left now, which is a shame, because a resurgence in niche pubs that are removed from the bustle of the town centre are slowly becoming popular. Sometimes people like to drink beer nestled within a landscape of iron and brick.
Substation and Switchgear, Huddersfield
Most people will find this building diminutive, but every time I drive past it, it captures my imagination, simply wondering why an electric substation and switchgear house would be build to resemble a chapel. A testament to the care that was offered to everything that would happen to be created.
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014%2f93973
Not much remains of the industrial infrastructure that would line the network of streets coming off Leeds Road in Huddersfield, and I will be sad to see this last allusion to the civic pride of West Yorkshire’s industrialists.
Whitcliffe Mount School, Cleckheaton demolition
Another application to flatten a Victorian school in Kirklees;
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014%2f93877
The school covers a large site, and is for once not being sold off in the bonfire of the assets, but is being rebuilt.
Much of the current building is from the 1960s onwards, but the southern wing of the building is from a much earlier date and is once again an important testament to our social history. Opened in 1910, a brief history of the school can be found here:
https://www.whitcliffemount.co.uk/information/default.aspx
Echoing the demolition of Penistone Grammar School, opposing an application by the local authority is a none starter, Yet it would be great to see a local campaign to try and halt this unnecessary loss. Incidentally, from the indicative plans it looks like the footprint of this building would serve only as a car park. I am not against building and upgrading education facilities, but retaining some of the schools history can only make the establishment more prestigious, surely?
The Old Roundabout Pub, Stanningly
A large site clearance in Stanningly, Leeds will involve the demolition of The Old Roundabout pub:
Although only in outline application stage, I assume that the extent of the redline boundary will be cleared if permission is granted, which in the east Leeds housing market is almost certain.
If only planners had the power to add conditions to planning permissions that stipulate the retention of historic assets within a site, I’m certain development would still occur, but with a vital allusion to our history still visible.
Bonfire of the public assets
Another school building owned by local government, being expedited through the planning system and sold to a housebuilder with full permission to demolish.
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014/91795
Of all the school buildings West Yorkshire is set to lose this is possibly my favourite from a design perspective.
Only Victorian Britains would deem it necessary to erect an ornate bell tower on a school building, presumably to instil pupils with a sense of pride – modern buildings tend to be predicated on function alone.
Robust and esoteric, this building would make a great conversion into flats. This road is going to appear odd without this school. We are fools to knock down these monuments to our golden age.
Remind me to laugh at Kirklees when in years to come they complain about not being able to afford to build schools for a ballooning population in years to come.
Tramway Pub. Sheffield
A nice little corner site on London Road in Sheffield was once home to this thriving pub. Long abandoned, it is a shame the premises can’t hold out a little longer for some gentrification, and a new lease of life as a wine bar.
At present there are no plans to build here, so I am assuming the land will be utilised as a car park. This is a high street, and bit by bit it will be pulled down, leaving nothing. Planners need to figure out how they can stop wanton demolition. Lets get something enshrined in law soon.
Cute house in Barnsley
Tucked away in Hoyland, but still not minute enough to fall under the radar of the developer is this dwelling;
Set back from the road and scaled down from the surrounding housing, this dwelling adds a lot to the streetscape. Lets hope whatever replaces it continues enhance the street in this way.
St Lukes Hosptial, Huddersfield
Sad to see the Victorian centre piece of St Lukes Hospital in Huddersfield being demolished recently;
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;
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.
Unremarkable, but vital buildings
A small building in the industrial belt of Bradford has a demolition application set to it.
Individually buildings like this demonstrate no aesthetic grandeur, but should this block in Bradford be regenerated, the industrial building stock would be a lynch pin connected to former to the future. Understated buildings like this have no statutory protection – there is nothing planners can do to stop them being demolished – but when they are integrated into a new development tend to anchor the new builds to the setting.
Old buildings are a finite resource, and a building like this, although presently considered of no value, would one day be priceless.
Burnt out mill building
A fire damaged portion of a mill complex is to be demolished following recommendation from a structural engineer.
This has occurred a number of times in West Yorkshire – the new Aldi site in Slaithwaite, and Ebor MIlls in Keighley come to mind – and its a bit of a trump card in clearing a brownfield site. Understandably if the building is a hazard it has to be mitigated, but im often sceptical as to weather the stone work is truly compromised by fire damage.
The taller building and tower in the image above are set to be demolished.
We are going to lose another spectacular mill to these terms. 3 or 4 a year and Yorkshire will have lost them all. They are esoteric, quirky and old, but they are so important to our history. As the Colosseum in Rome was plundered for stone, we also do not yet see the value of these monuments to our pre-eminent age of prosperity.
