Hare And Hounds pub, Burton Leonard
Beautiful village pub near Harrogate to be lost for 6 houses:
Very beautiful pub in a village that unfortunately cannot sustain two taverns in the antisocial age of netflix. Presumably, the Royal Oak down the road won out in the end.
The difference between a two pub village and a one-pub village is enormous. Drunken walks between pubs are the stuff of legend (see Cock and Bull story); the bittersweet rivalries in all things pub related; the family friendy carvery pub vs the allowed to smoke after midnight pub. Punters need options.
There is a dynamic that is greater than the sum of its parts. Thankfully there will still be a pub in Burton Leonard, but this is a beautiful building (and future opportunity) to lose for a mere 5 houses. Its in a conservation area, and was commercially successful until a few years ago (at which point the rent killed it off). Its a no brainer as to what the planning officer should decide.
Healdfield Pub, Castleford
Application to knock down this pub in Castleford:
A red brick pub integrated into the rows of terraces that surround. Unremarkable to a passerby, but it is always a sad loss to see an old town pub disappear, particularly in a town such as Castleford which has been turned over by the wrecking ball over the last 50 years. It is tragic to look at maps of Knottingly or Castleford from just 50 years ago, and see the proliferation of pubs, and public spaces that have been lost. This process continues…
More pubs up for demolition
Two pubs with applications hanging over their heads:
The Omnibus in Middleton, South Leeds:
A grand red robust building. Seen as a lynchpin for the envisioned new community of Belle Isle, as the city expanded during the formative years of town planning principles of the garden city, with notions of spaciousness, public life, and leisure, were still redolent in this public housing project. A new local pub of course, was seen as vital in this milieu.
A sad loss but it looks like the pub will make way for a new care home, which the area desperately needs.
Some such pubs have recently been listed, namely post war modernist examples that quite rightly deserve to be protected. Yet it would be prudent to retain some examples of the first wave urban extension pubs, and the ideals that the Utopian planners attempted to realise. If lost, places such as Belle Isle no longer reflect that vision, and become mere suburbs.
In Barnsley, The former Fitzwilliam inn is threatened with demolition:
Although looking tired now, the white and blue painted facade was once striking. The pub survived a similar application in 2014 and hopefully will be saved again. As this side of Barnsley regenerates, it is incumbent on the planners to recognise that a historic pub would provide much needed amenity for Barnsley’s new urbane apartment dwellers.
Think on Barnsley Met Borough Council.
The Shears Pub, Liversedge
Application to demolish historic pub in Kirklees:
The harrying of the Spen Valley continues. This pub is an incredibly important landmark in Yorkshire, serving as a meeting place of the Luddites. The 138 comments from neighbours are testament to the value this pub has in this community. If only councils would listen to their electorate a little more.
Or at least listen to the plea of the bbc:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-48076753
Built in 1773, the building should qualify for automatic listing status as stipulated by Heritage England. I will be incredibly shocked if the case officer does anything but immediately refuse the application.
I know there is a handy motorway junction nearby, and Ikea is just down the road, but at some point Kirklees needs to put a moratorium on the destruction of social infrastructure in the Spen Valley.
Old Packhorse Inn, Hartshead Moor
Pub; usual story:
A fundamental port on the Westgate Wobble pub crawl, the Old Pack Horse has been closed for a few years now, and although a robust and attractive building, the developer sees no value in this and wants to get 5 houses on here.
Sadly much of the building is only 1 story, however, the 2 story portion of the building could certainly be integrated into a development.
And just like that, you’ve managed to capture a piece of history in perpetuity.
Interestingly, the New Pack Horse pub is just over the road. There is definitely something very Yorkshire about this perfunctory pub naming. Without both pubs present, the irony is lost. And irony theft is criminal around these parts.
The Queens, Hunslet, Leeds
Application to demolish The Queens Pub in Leeds:
I can’t think of another area of a city more comprehensively cleared and redeveloped in the post-war golden age of planning than Hunslet in Leeds. There is absolutely nothing left of the town that the Victorians built here. Aside from this pub.
I have no idea how it has survived up until now, but it has. This will be the final nail in the coffin for Hunslet’s sense of place. All for a van rental shop.
Of all the West Yorkshire local authorities Leeds has the best record of dissuading pub owners from selling out to developers. Lets hope conservation of this fragment of history is fought for by council officers. There must be some small print in the Aire Valley Area Action Plan that precludes this action, surely?
Odd Fellows Hall, Shipley
Application to demolish public house in Shipley:
A formidable white cube of a building from 1840, as the name suggests, there is a lot of social history tied up in this institution.
The Odd Fellows reflected those individuals outside of guilded institutions, yet wished to fraternise with like minded folk. Rather like the Masons, the Odd Fellows order built a network of meeting halls like this. In Yorkshire they are another reflection of Victorian will for civic participation and social capital.
Now, it reflects the death of pub culture, and I am saddened to include this building on this list, having such an intriguing and benevolent provenance.
Commercial Hotel, Batley
Very interesting building cluster in Batley to be knocked down:
I am always interested in Victorian buildings that turn corners. We don’t seem to do that anymore. A tight radius, and a front wall abutting the pavement would be at odds with junctions visual splays these days. This is why we love heritage – much of the built form of yore would not be acceptable any more, and that makes it invaluable.
Its another pub lost forever, and a particularly unique one at that, being a composite of a number of small buildings.
It looks in good condition and there is no extensive car car to develop so I’m not sure why the owner wants to pull it down. So as always another public building is removed from a small struggling town, leaving the surrounding urban area a suburban space, with amenities a short car journey away.
I would love to have a pint in this pub. And it looks like I never will.
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.
Fountain Inn, Heaton
Application to demolish a long term vacant pub in Bradford:
Image from Telegraph and Argus.
April was a busy month in Bradford for conservation officers, this being the first of many threatened buildings to have an application to demolish levied against it.
The building is unremarkable, but the setting is an unspoilt Victorian townscape, with stone setts on the ground and narrow coursing of stone masonry on elevations (Greenmore rock perhaps?)
The pub alone can not be saved on grounds of heritage significance, but it will be to the detriment of the sense of place in this Bradfordian suburb when a cavity remains after this building falls.
Not many places like this remain. One fewer in the next few months.
The Demolition Register 