North Lodge demolition, 27 Oct 2016

The Press reports today on one of the planning applications decided at last week’s planning committee meeting, under the headline Former Victorian hospital building to be demolished. The text of the article mentions that the developers ‘have already started’ to demolish the building. ‘Almost finished’ may more accurately describe it by now, as the photo above was taken some weeks back, 27 October, when demolition was well underway.

The building used to look like this (photo taken from the same place as the above):

North Lodge in January 2016

There have been several planning applications relating to this building in recent years. I mentioned one of them on an earlier page, back in June. This application followed on from an earlier one, in that case withdrawn before a decision was made. In between times, in the early months of this year, 16/00161/DMNOT ‘Prior notification of demolition of office building’ went through the system. It was all a bit confusing.

The comments on the earlier application were encouraging and led me to believe that perhaps there was more recognition of ‘non-designated heritage assets’ like this, and more opposition to their destruction. I thought that the developers might come back with another application involving reusing the original 19th century building. But no.

Having mentioned it once and sensing that there wasn’t much interest I didn’t mention it again. But I’ve wandered up there a few times to see what was happening, and found that demolition was already well underway in late October.

Remnant of North Lodge, during demolition, 27 Oct 2016

The report prepared for last week’s planning committee meeting includes City of York council archaeologist John Oxley’s comment that ‘the loss of this significant and prominent building of the 19th century mental hospital is to be regretted. If the application is approved, the building will require full recording prior to demolition.’

I’m not sure if that happened. My own ‘record’ — taken on a rather gloomy day, in low light, from outside the fencing around the site — recorded these stairs, in the middle of the debris. The Press article quotes the developer’s comment that ‘many level changes’ in the building made it unsuitable for conversion to residential accommodation.

Stairs among the debris, 27 Oct 2016

At some point back in the past someone painted the outer edges in a rather handsome blue shade, which suggests that a carpet would have covered the middle part. Since then it looks like a covering of some kind was stuck to the stairs. That’s all I can deduce from this architectural fragment.

So there we are then. Another unprotected heritage asset taken out of the landscape. A striking and interesting building, part of the large complex of buildings making up the asylum (later Clifton Hospital).

I haven’t read the whole Committee Report, but did notice this part:

Emergence surveys carried out in 2015 and 2016 have identified a small number of day roosts within the building, occupied by solitary common pipistrelle bats. All of the roosts identified are solitary day roosts, and it is likely that these roosts are occupied by male bats which tend to roost individually during the summer months. […] Due to the presence of small, solitary day roosts within the roof of North Lodge, demolition work will need to be carried out under Licence from Natural England, but with appropriate mitigation it is not considered that the proposals will significantly impact on the conservation status of this species.

— Committee Report for 16/01173/FULM, 1 Dec 2016 (PDF)

So let’s hope the relevant Licence and mitigation was put in place. If not, it’s a bit late now isn’t it.

This former lodge building was historically interesting and a heritage asset, as a reminder of the old asylum site, and in particular significant because of the way it marked an entrance. But there are a few other peripheral buildings to remind us of the history of the place, and from walking frequently in the area I know that its wider landscape still has avenues of trees and other landscape features meaning the site’s history can still be traced in the landscape and some buildings remaining.

It’s a shame that the building couldn’t have been retained and remodeled. But it was privately owned, so you could say that it’s up to the owners what they do with it, as it’s not a listed building and not in a Conservation Area. If the planning system hasn’t safeguarded it and can’t prevent demolition occurring then I guess we have to query the way the planning system works, or just accept the continued loss of buildings like this.

Over on the other side of the former Clifton Hospital site is another interesting remnant of the 19th century asylum, a former laundry and more recently a wheelchair centre. Or at least I assume it’s still there. That’s owned by the NHS, and also has no protection from demolition. Just thought I’d mention it.

A couple of photos below of North Lodge, from earlier this year, before demolition.

North Lodge, 9 June 2016

North Lodge, Jan 2016 (from Shipton Rd side)

Further information

Planning application documents, including a historic map overlay (PDF) The annotations on this are a bit odd, pointing out one ‘Lodge’ as significant and ignoring the other ‘Lodge’ marked, on the application site.

The 19th century map showing the asylum buildings can be accessed directly via British History Online. The site in question is at the left edge of os-1-to-2500/york/174/02. Presumably this building was known as North Lodge because it’s the northern lodge of the two lodges shown. It has had parts added since it seems so ended up a different shape from that shown in the late 19th century. The rest of the former asylum is on the right edge of the previous map piece on os-1-to-2500/york/174/01.

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Peeling paint on the sign for Burton Croft, on Burton Stone Lane, in summer 2004.

Burton Croft was the former home of J B Morrell, and in its later years a nursing home. After this closed the house was under threat of demolition, with plans to redevelop the site. A campaign followed, and the site was also occupied for a time by a collective highlighting the number of empty buildings in the city.

Campaigns failed and the building was demolished. Its replacement is pictured above, this year. I noticed that a section of green railing from the original Burton Croft has been retained on its front boundary. The site keeps its name, now carved in stone rather than shaped in metal. The boundary for a time also displayed a plaque commemorating the life and work of J B Morrell, but this has been removed/stolen in the intervening years.

Over on the other side of town, another of these aesthetically pleasing signage and railing combinations. Well, I found it aesthetically pleasing, lit by summer sunshine.

Actually it’s gates rather than railing. The gates to the old Moss St depot, near Scarcroft School, in July 2004. I’m not sure what used to happen here, but in recognition of its former role as a City of York Council property its gates incorporated the city arms, as many buildings and structures in the city still do. (See Hugh Murray’s book on heraldry in the city of York.) Perhaps they were painted in colour at one time and looked smart. Clearly by the time I took this photo they hadn’t been painted for some years.

By early September demolition had begun on the site.

Ten years on, 31 August 2014, showing the housing built on the site of the Moss St depot.

Back to 2004, and another old sign. A bit blurred, but a reminder of the old garage buildings here on Bootham Row. It denoted the entrance to the ‘tyre depot’.

The tyre depot was part of this collection of buildings, pleasing old red brick, one with a nicely rounded corner. Here pictured from Bootham Row, which is now a car park but used to be a street of terraced houses. At its corner, where it meets Bootham, you can see part of a more modern building, once a smart garage forecourt (pictured on this earlier page) where you could buy petrol. By 2004 all rather redundant, and ripe for redevelopment.

Here’s its replacement, pictured from the same car park vantage point, ten years later. The ground floor frontage onto Bootham where the garage forecourt used to be is now a Sainsbury’s Local, with service areas and garaging behind it, and apartments and offices above.

Good or bad?

Only one of these three developments was seen as controversial, as far as I’m aware. The buildings on Bootham Row and Moss St weren’t celebrated or mourned, but J B Morrell’s former home clearly was.

In itself, as it looked in 2004, I didn’t find Burton Croft particularly notable, architecturally. It seemed, from the outside anyway, far less attractive than the Burnholme club building, another substantial Victorian house which apparently wasn’t worth saving either. The housing built on the site to replace it is far more attractive than many other apartment developments I’ve seen in the last decade.

Comments welcome, of course.

. . . . .

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In August 2004 I went on some lengthy wanderings with my camera. 15 August was a particularly enthusiastic day, as looking back at the photos and their timestamps I can see that I went out twice, early morning and then later in the day. And later in the day, just before 5pm, I wandered into All Saints Lane, from its narrow entrance on Tanner Row, to take a photo of the church spire. Then saw this vision of loveliness.

There are many handsome buildings in York, and many charming corners. If you’d asked me to name favourite buildings in York, I would have said ‘the old boxing club building on All Saints Lane’, and you might have thought I was mad. But there we are. Some might agree, some might not. As in all things.

I’d pop by every now and then, when in the area, and on another evening, another year, found it looking particularly splendid:

The high bright light of midsummer falling onto that painted rendered wall against a blue sky is a handsome combination, and the contrast of the buildings from different periods, and that churchyard cross. But it was the boxing club building that I particularly admired, in its ramshackle unselfconscious state. With the vent pipe from a boiler or tumble dryer or something sticking out of the end at a jaunty angle.

I know, it’s a personal thing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, etc.

All Saints Lane, 2014

Anyway, if you go down All Saints Lane today, this is what you’ll see instead:

Photo: York Archaeological Trust

… Archaeologists digging holes. Which is also splendid, in a different way.

You can’t just wander down there any old time, sadly, these days. More on that story later. But you can visit on this coming Saturday (19 July) to have a look at the excavation, as they’re having an open day. See this piece in the Press for more info.

You can follow the project on Twitter @ArchaeologyLive, and there’s also an excellent blog with photos of progress and fascinating finds: archaeologylive.wordpress.com. For photos of the boxing club interior before demolition see: 2014 prologue

And from my massive collection of photos of semi-derelict buildings I’ve admired, here’s a small gallery of pictures of the boxing club building, from various angles, over the years.

Another page made possible by a supporter of this site. Thank you.

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A few photos taken over the hedges and gates, yesterday. There are better photos online, from people with better cameras who got closer, in terms of being nearer. I took these because I cared. And that’s all I want to say. Demolition of Sessions, Huntington Road.

See also: the earlier page on the Sessions factory

. . .

Thanks to @kelbirdy for the alert.

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So, the demolition of Burnholme was approved yesterday at the Area Planning Sub-Committee.

I’m calling it Burnholme as that’s what it was called when it was built. Burnholme is now an area, a housing estate, on the grounds of this house. This building is now known as Burnholme Social Club, used to be Burnholme WMC, but it wasn’t built as a club: it was built as a house. And we, in the 21st century, should have had the wit and expertise to turn it back into residential accommodation.

But the plans were submitted to demolish it and the Planning Sub-Committee approved them. Some councillors present (or was it just one) spoke up for the building, thank you Cllr Brian Watson.

I’m not massively familiar with the complexities of the vast machine that is City of York Council: I just do my best to understand what’s going on and to connect on things that matter.

And this did matter, and many people think so, but the caring happened way too late in the day.

Not for the first time.

If it had happened earlier, would it have made any difference? Comments I’ve seen online and received privately suggest not.

I’m wondering how things can be improved in the future, because it’s really quite depressing to see such a short-sighted — and to many of us indefensible — decision made.

When I saw that the frontage of the Banana Warehouse was to be retained in the recently submitted plans for redevelopment in Piccadilly I thought this was maybe a sign that the ‘Local List’ had some weight at last. But clearly not. I also thought that in a city now so ‘gentrified’ a fancy old building like Burnholme would be valued — it could be turned into a desirable residence. But apparently not.

When passing the building years back, when this website started, I was surprised that its remaining grounds hadn’t yet been built on, that it had survived as it is. I can’t have been the only one. Perhaps it should have been realised earlier that this building was under threat and had no protection, and that someone would want it for housing.

Maybe the remaining land around it could have been developed with new housing, with this building refurbished? Apparently not.

After a quiet spell caused by the economic situation, this ‘building on the brownfield’ has taken off again with renewed momentum here in York. This seems to be the only option as there’s been so much opposition to building on the green belt. Which, in many areas, is nondescript land most of us couldn’t even identify, let alone sing the praises of. Those defending it say ‘once it’s built on it’s lost forever’ — which isn’t true. Lost in what way? Nature reclaims things if allowed to do so. (Go to Wharram and other deserted sites. Or look at our more recent brownfield sites.) But as clever as she is she can’t rebuild a Victorian fantasy villa. The craftsmen and builders of the time did that. And no one will do so again. And this is a particularly impressive example of their work. And this is what’s going to be lost forever.

The current ‘build build build and sod the consequences’ attitude doesn’t look like ‘progress’ and ‘growth’ to me: it reminds me of what I’ve seen and read of the post-WW2 period, when York destroyed many buildings we would now fight to save. It’s not progress at all, this decision. It’s like the 60s, and not in good way.

We can’t blame the club and its members. I don’t really want to ‘blame’ anyone. It just looks like a massive cock-up all round.

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Map and background information

Map showing demolition site: Google map

Relevant documents on the CoYC planning pages (ref 11/02761/DMNOT) include a location plan and a report, containing historical information on the site.

Historical significance

The buildings being demolished include the remains of 19th century iron foundries, as stated on the Local List website (Iron foundries, Leeman Road) and the City of York HER record.

The 1891 town plan on www.old-maps.co.uk marks the site and its (large) workshops as ‘Phoenix & Albion Works (Iron)’ (co-ordinates 458908 and 451986 should take you to the location). The ironworks buildings wrap around to the west and to the south of the terraced streets of Carlisle St and Carleton St, where the workers lived. (Carlisle St was once built up on both sides, with one side backing on to the foundry wall. This is now a grassed area and may have been cleared after bomb damage in the war.)

Foundries lecture: January 2013

Railway historian Bill Fawcett recorded the site before demolition. He has produced an illustrated report covering the history and development of the Phoenix foundry on this site. Alongside the demolition site are buildings which formed the Albion foundry. The history of both these foundries at Leeman Road and at their earlier site is the subject of a YAYAS lecture on Wednesday 16th January 2013 at the Friends’ Meeting House, Friargate, York. More information

Bill Fawcett’s research on the foundries featured in a piece in The Press, in 2003: Teardrop treasures.

Photos

I took a few photos of the exterior of the older buildings on the site in 2004, and on a couple of visits this year before demolition. See my album on Picasaweb

Nathan Reynolds has excellent photos of these and other buildings, and has been keeping a photographic record of the recent demolition work in a set on flickr.com.

Also on flickr.com: photos by Dash Wortley, and me.

Why it matters

Comments by the Conservation Area Advisory Panel, from the report mentioned above:

The other view

A body called the Railway Heritage Trust had apparently been consulted regarding the demolition notice, so I emailed to see if they had a view. The trust’s website states that it is independent of Network Rail, but that Network Rail is one of its sponsors, so I’m not sure how that works. Anyway, in the interests of balance, this is the Railway Heritage Trust’s view of the buildings:

Permanent Way

The sign on the gateway still says ‘Permanent Way Engineer’. See also: Keeping it all on track (The Press)

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