This weeks demolitions
January is here, and with it as a new year of demolition. Warehouses, factories, pubs, cottages, churches – none are safe. We have a housing crisis. We have an environmental crisis. So we knock down robust esoteric buildings. Things are not adding up.
Two entries in the west Yorkshire demolition list from this week, both in Kirklees:
Application to demolish (most of) the Rose and Crown pub in Almonbury:
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014%2f90001
The new portion of the building is to be retained, whilst the older left hand mass will be lost. I understand a developer wanting to utilise the huge car park on this site, but surely it is self evident that value will be added to his property if the character of the victorian pub is fully retained. Page one of the manual.
And I’ve not even touched upon the travesty offlattening an old pub. It is literally one every month in West Yorkshire. Disgraceful.
Secondly, and old cottage off Drub lane in Cleckheaton is to be felled.
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2013/94064
A very dainty building that adds a great deal to the building cluster next to the social club. It may seem insignificant, but bit by bit we are losing our historic fabric.
Why not imagine bulldozers don’t exist?
An urban extension has been proposed to the village of Scisset in Kirklees, which would see significant green space built upon, and the demolition of this farm:
Yes, we need houses, and yes we need to revive the construction industry, but should we be enumerating the commuter contingent that fills the route to Leeds to capacity each day? Rather than 200 residences covering the footprint of an entire farm, why not build denser housing nearer to Leeds, regenerating the industrial South Leeds fringe and saving on endless carbon emissions? I fear that because Scissett = Villiage + major A-Road, it is for a developer a much simpler market in which to sell his wares.
And why does the architect ignore the existing layout of tracks and boundary walls? Good urban design does not decimate all that is, but organically builds upon existing components. If you must build endless housing in this tiny village, why not adopt some principles of sympathetic design. Why not imagine that bulldozers do not exist.
Fulford Hall to be demolished
Fulford Hall is set to be demolished. This building once housed Penistone Grammer School, which has now moved to a modern complex down the road. This follows the demolition of Broomhead Hall in Penistone in 1976:
Palatial in appearance, it is quite strange that a developer can not see any reuse of this building, other than a carte blanche brownfield site. So often we rue how throughout the 20th century, stately homes were demolished with an ideological zeal, yet here we are, readily allowing an architectural marvel to be lost for the sake of a few detached houses and their accompanying commuters.
Justification through extolling that ‘no use can be found for the building’ does not wash with me. Barnsley council, you have now set a president and nothing is safe from the wandering eyes of the speculator.
Shame on you.
And by the way, Penistone Grammer school has I’m sure lost a lot of prestige by moving from Fulford Hall to a (purposefully?) rusting aluminium warehouse.
For list of stately homes demolished in the 20th century, see http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/lh_complete_list.html
We’re too late to save this masterpiece now, yet this is only the first of many, and its time to up the ante. This could have been 30 or more innovative residences, but we are going to get a handful of generic suburban boxes.
