Bonding Warehouse: exclusive, and lost

Bonding Warehouse, York, Feb 2014

(There are many, many pages on this building: all Bonding Warehouse pages)

I wonder if another language has the word for the feeling I had when I visited the Bonding Warehouse on Friday. I can’t quite find the right word. And when I say ‘visited’, I mean I went to view it from the road alongside, not that I went in. I doubt I’ll ever go into the Bonding Warehouse again, very few of us will.

It encapsulates, symbolises, stands for, the massive changes in this city in the time I’ve known it.

I remember this building mainly as a venue for music and other live events, through the 1990s. But it has been empty for more than a decade, so I guess whatever was suggested to make it habitable would be approved, which is why the small green area opposite is accommodating the concrete for a private bridge to the expensive accommodation on its upper floor.

All inevitable, no doubt. But this place meant a lot, it really did. Gentrification claims it, and takes it away from us, and its occupants get a private and permanent bridge. I think most people assumed the bridge to offer escape in the event of floods would be a temporary structure, not a permanent one.

‘Exclusive’ – no longer inclusive – Bonding Warehouse, York, Feb 2014

Looking at those ads for ‘exclusive apartments’ hanging off the end of this building was, for me, one of the saddest moments captured on camera in the ten years this site has been online.

I also accept that it’s the only way it could be.

But I’ll be adding to these pages some reminders of the real and recent history of this place. The days (mainly nights) when it belonged to us.