I’ve been trying to get out for a short stomp around the local patch a few times a week, and I’ve found it quite interesting, in these strange times in early 2021, to resume something similar to my original York Walks of 2004, while thinking about all the walking, and writing, since. At this time paying attention to catching up on certain places, on demolitions and developments.

As I didn’t write much for these pages during 2020, and didn’t go into town much in 2020, there’s a lot to catch up on. There are changes and developments on many of the ‘brownfield’ sites I’ve written about a few times in the past (in some cases many times).

I’ve recently had a look at the Cocoa Works (Rowntree factory) site, and Hudson Quarter. Most recently, 1 Feb 2021, late in the day on a sunny afternoon, I had a quick dash over to Heworth Green, to the large site that was once part of the city’s gasworks.

I headed up Bridge Lane, and crossed the junction in front of Groves Chapel. It’s a busy junction, and one where you often have to wait quite a while to cross.

As I pushed the button on the pedestrian crossing, a song came to mind, one that often comes to mind at the traffic lights, at pedestrian crossings …
‘Walk don’t walk, talk don’t talk …‘.
The Boomtown Rats ‘Rat Trap’ stayed with me as I crossed,
(‘Hey Billy … take a walk with me…‘)
— and went into the soaring saxophone part as I headed into Lowther Street.

Then remembering some of the song’s opening lines … ‘Just down past the gasworks, by the meat factory door‘. Gasworks in our towns once, not any more.

On Lowther Street, noticing that there wasn’t any traffic, I realised that there was no need to stay on the pavement and worry about the social distancing thing as other pedestrians came towards me, but that I might as well just walk down the middle of the road. Walking down the road, remembering more of that song, gaining momentum, glad to be out — ‘It’s cold on that road, but it’s got that home beat‘.

…

There’s a road closure scheme here on Lowther Street, to try to calm traffic on a road that has long been a popular cut-through (often referred to as a ‘rat run‘) for cars between the junction at the end of Clarence Street at one end, and Huntington Road at the other. Concrete blocks prevent that now.

Barriers on Lowther Street, The Groves, 1 Feb 2021

On Huntington Road I stopped for a moment by the Foss, admiring its calm tranquility in the late afternoon sun, with the river level normal, and Monk Bridge in the distance.

Monk Bridge and the Foss, 1 Feb 2021

That’s about as picturesque as it gets on this particular walk, as we are after all heading for the gasworks.

After crossing Monk Bridge I was on Heworth Green. Hoardings along the perimeter of the former gasworks site advertise the new development planned for the place.

Heworth Green, gasworks site, 1 Feb 2021

It’s many years since the earliest planning applications went in for this site.

From Heworth Green, from a photo taken on one of my 2004 York Walks, part of the old gasworks wall:

Gasworks wall, Heworth Green, 15 Aug 2004

‘I met my love, by the gasworks wall …‘

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to see anything gasworks related — particularly bits of wall —  without hearing in my mind Shane MacGowan singing the opening lines of Dirty Old Town.

On a muddy winter day it did look like a dirty old town, here in old York. But great things are promised on Heworth Green, for the future. Iconic buildings even.

Hoardings around the Gas Works development, Heworth Green, 1 Feb 2021

Work has now started here to clear and clean the site. Quite a difficult and complex procedure. I remember, during my 2004 walks, seeing the work underway on the piece of former gasworks land adjacent to this, before the residential accommodation was built, on a new road called Eboracum Way.

Eboracum Way cuts through between the roads of Heworth Green and Layerthorpe. Alongside it, and there long before it, is an old narrow snicket/alley that used to run through the middle of the gasworks on this side of the Foss. The pedestrian pictured in this photo is walking along it, past some of the few remaining gasworks buildings.

Remaining gas works buildings, from Eboracum Way, 1 Feb 2021

I walked along the alley to have a look into the site. Nothing interesting or photogenic, but important to note that the last remaining gasometer has now gone. It wasn’t one of those Victorian ones with impressively fancy bits, but a fairly modern-looking structure.

Site clearance underway, gasometer gone, 1 Feb 2021

At the end of the old alley it opens up a bit to a short stretch of road that then meets Layerthorpe.

On the right, a gate in the boundary offers a view towards town, with the Minster on the horizon. Going back a bit, to summer 2015, a photo taken then through that gate shows how wild weedy growth had obscured the Minster from view.

From gasworks alley – 2 Aug 2015

— another illustration of the fact that ‘brownfield’ sites often end up exuberantly green. Usually with a lot of buddleia.

But it’s definitely brown now, another site cleared for redevelopment.

From the gasworks alley towards the Minster, 1 Feb 2021

The Minster visible on the horizon, across the road called Eboracum Way, with the sun setting over the Travelodge and the Costa Coffee York Drive-Thru.

Time to head back, down the gasworks alley, between the old rusted railings painted in gas board blue, and a surviving fragment of the old gasworks wall.

By the gasworks wall, 1 Feb 2021

All together now …
‘I met my love, by the gasworks wall, dreamed a dream, by the old canal …‘

. . . . .

Thanks to everyone who has recently supported this site, one resident’s record of York and its changes.

The post Just down past the gasworks … appeared first on York Stories.

Gasworks railings, between Heworth Green and Layerthorpe

This week we’re heading (again) down the snicket between Heworth Green and Layerthorpe, by the side of what’s left of the gasworks site. Its boundary is still marked with now rather rusty railings, painted with a colour I’ve heard referred to as ‘gas board blue’.

This old snicket was at one time known as Fawdington’s Lane, apparently, a name which probably meant something to the people in the area, as the old names usually did.

Not sure about the new names. Here’s one of them, for the road running alongside it, partially constructed in recent years:

I’m not sure but I guess that the ‘Eboracum’ bit is connected to the naming of the buildings in the new residential development between this road and the Foss, which I mocked rather rudely some years back in a page titled ‘Selling York’.

There’s a large office block here, on the part of the old gasworks site redeveloped some years back. It reflects what’s left of the gasworks, and this red brick building in particular, which I’ve been told is the old gasworks social club.

Eboracum Way passes this office block and then ends abruptly — basically a road to nowhere. It has been that way for years.

But in recent weeks the other half of it has been under construction, while for many months before that, as briefly mentioned on a previous page, a building has risen up to one side of this site, near the Foss. It’s a new hotel, a Travelodge, pictured here on the right as we look across towards Layerthorpe. That Foss Islands chimney so prominent on last week’s page is again a landmark on this photo.

From the photos on these pages of mine you might get the impression that it’s always sunny in York. Not the case, of course, but I’ve always tried to capture my images of this place on bright days. And the same on this walk, the target of which is this rather controversial new hotel building. It seemed even more important in this case to get good sunlight on the thing, to show it to its best advantage, to see if we can find any merit in it, as the comments I’ve seen online suggest most people really aren’t impressed.

And as it was cloudy and dull on my first attempt I went back to try again. Actually I’ve been taking photos of the development for months, but building sites and buildings under scaffolding aren’t enormously interesting to a wide audience, so I thought I’d wait until it was unveiled. And here it is, the new Layerthorpe hotel, captured from various angles. This photo taken through the barriers at the end of the snicket isn’t the greatest quality but it does show an important angle, with the Minster in the background:

The Minster looks a bit shocked.

It’s huge and dominant, this new building. Perhaps that wasn’t seen to matter in this particular place, as the Layerthorpe area has already been destroyed and rebuilt and its earlier character and history obliterated. (See the Layerthorpe page on this site and my accompanying Layerthorpe project site for more on its recent history.)

Here’s the new hotel from the other side, viewed from Monk Bridge at the start of Heworth Green:

It perhaps looks better when reflected in the Foss. Here we’re following the curve of Foss Bank, back towards town:

The round iron structures on this side of the river are apparently the old supports for a bridge that once carried a small gasworks railway over the river. As pictured on an earlier page:

The hotel site is part of what was once a very large gasworks, occupying land on both sides of the Foss. I’ve written a few pages about the gasworks.

When work began on the hotel development it initially involved removing the legacy of that previous use. In spring 2016 fragments of old ironwork were visible through the building site fencing:

Part of a gasometer perhaps? Or part of the gasworks railway? Rather handsome, isn’t it.

I have several photos of the lumps of rusty iron the site clearance revealed, and may share some more with you, dear readers, at a later date. I bet you can’t wait.

There used to be several gasometers in this area. Now there’s just one, no longer used, sitting on the site on the other side of the snicket we’ve just been down, looking rather flat and low:

Development of the hotel site was held up by this gasometer, according to the report prepared for the meeting at which the hotel planning application was decided, back in 2014 (PDF on this link).

That same report makes clear how many holdups and setbacks there have been to the redevelopment of the hotel site:

An application was also made in 2004 for 158 residential apartments at the site (with basement parking). The scheme was approved by members, subject to a legal agreement to deliver affordable housing, offsite open space provision, a bond for remediation of contaminated land, a contribution toward a car club and access arrangements to a riverside walkway. The legal agreement was not signed and the application withdrawn as the scheme was not financially viable.

And:

Planning permission was granted for the same type and amount of development in June 2012 (application 11/02210/FULM). It has not been possible to implement the previous permission as the hotel aspect could not go ahead until the gasholder, which is to the northeast, is de-commissioned. This was a requirement from the Health and Safety Executive due to the scale of the hotel and its proximity to the gasholder. The gasholder is yet to be de-commissioned, therefore applicants have come forward with an alternative scheme which moves the building further from the gasholder to the extent that the HSE requirement would no longer apply.

(23 October 2014 committee report: PDF)

So there it sits now, the new hotel, almost finished, on its site by the Foss where the old gasometers used to be.

Looking at it from further up Foss Bank I was particularly struck by this view of it:

The other sides are full of windows. This side, facing the city centre, has very few, and those that are there look like windows on corridors. Standing here looking at it, then turning round and facing the other way, I could see the Minster. Why was the building designed to face the other way?

It might be, of course, that the Sainsbury’s on Foss Bank and the large former hospital building behind it block out views of the Minster from the new erection, hard to tell from down at street level, but surely something of the city’s handsomeness could be glimpsed from windows facing that way? So why is the whole thing orientated the other way, turning its back on the charms of the city it’s wanting to make a profit from?

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this development, at least from my point of view, is a new access to the Foss riverside. A riverside walk, following on from a section of riverside that already has benches and a path.

That existing section, however, is gated with a security lock and a ‘private property’ sign:

So I’m not sure how and when it’s going to be opened up to the public.

A revisit may be a good idea when the new road is open, and when the new riverside walk is accessible.

On the site boundary on the old snicket of Fawdington Lane there’s a noticeboard with information about the building work, a site notice for a licensing application, and this invitation:

Not sure what kind of suggestions they’re hoping for, and it would be interesting to know if they’ve had any.

Meanwhile, your views on this new addition to the skyline are welcome here via the comments form below.

Map

Following a request from a reader I’ve marked the location of this week’s wander on a Google map: see this link.

Footnote: then and now

I’ve been writing about York, and taking photos of York, and freely sharing it all online for many years now. Some of those earlier pages I’ve linked to above — for example this one from 2007 — have really small photos, because that was appropriate in those ancient days when most of us didn’t have broadband. That’s how long I’ve been doing this.

As I now have my own archive going back more than a decade, and as I now have more of an understanding of how it all works, these plans and changes, it seems a good idea to keep producing these pages. On the other hand it’s working for free, and that can sometimes be hard to justify. So if you’d like to express your appreciation and power more pages, here’s a way to do that, with my groovy new ‘buy me a coffee’ button. Thanks to the supporters who powered this week’s page.

(via ko-fi.com. “Ko-fi helps creators get support from people who love what they do”)

Pages now usually appear weekly, on Tuesdays. For notifications of new pages appearing, join the mailing list or follow me on Twitter.

The post By the Foss: Layerthorpe hotel, old gasworks site appeared first on York Stories.

The gas works which once occupied Foss Bank and part of Heworth Green. Hard to recognise now as it’s all changed utterly, but the curving road tracing the shape of the Foss here is the same. Within its curve is now the Sainsbury’s store on Foss Bank, and Go Outdoors (was Homebase). The area to the right has been redeveloped in recent years with apartments, as covered in older pages on this website.

It’s again thanks to a visitor to these pages that I have these photos. Sent in response to an earlier page on the ‘Gasworks gang’.

I was so pleased to see these, not only because they provide the answer to the query on that earlier page, but because they’re a brilliant record of a lost industrial landscape. The Hutchinson and Palliser guide to York, published in 1980. notes that ‘the gas works once provided an industrial landscape of some grandeur.’

From the same place, but looking towards the city centre. With, in the foreground, gasometers and part of the gas works (or gasworks as I tend to call it, running the words together, as I do with the carriageworks), and the demolished streets off Layerthorpe, including one called ‘Downhill Street’ according to the old maps. Somewhere at the back before the river bends round is ‘Chicory Yard’. Over to the far left, further away, is the Hungate area, chucking out smoke.

Here’s the photo I included last March, asking if anyone could help me place where it was taken. I thought the buildings in the background were the gasworks, but which part of it, from which angle, wasn’t clear. As can be seen from the above, it was a massive site, on both sides of the Foss, on Heworth Green as well as Foss Bank.

16 months on we have a proper location. We were almost right, but we needed to be over the wall, on what is now part of the Sainsbury’s site.

I cared so much about that picture not only because it’s a great photo capturing a happy moment in a now lost landscape, but because the man on the right is my partner’s father. Sadly when this photo turned up in recent years I couldn’t ask him about it. He died in 2002. I remember him telling me about the gas works, about people he worked with, including Wally Knot, in his shed, smoking a pipe.

Thanks to Peter for the photos above, and to everyone who added comments on the page last year to help place the 1955 photo.

More (bigger)

I’ve limited disk space on my web hosting, and I’m getting near the limit. The original photos are much larger and I don’t have the space for them here. I’ve put the two aerial views into a Picasaweb/Google album where I hope they can be viewed at their original size, or at least bigger than they are above:

Aerial views, industrial York

If the embedded widget thing doesn’t work, try this link.

I’ve got no information on the photographer or on who, if anyone, owns the copyright on these.

And previously

An earlier page on the Heworth Green development: photos from Foss Bank (2008); some thoughts on the marketing of the development on the gas works site (2007); and a brief mention on a really old page (2004) from when they were digging and decontaminating the site.

The post ‘An industrial landscape of some grandeur': gasworks appeared first on York Stories.

The post World tour of York, with barrow – 1940s appeared first on York Stories.

There’s been some discussion over whether this is definitely York. The background – industrial-looking – is perhaps not how we picture York. But these men worked at the gasworks on Foss Bank, and the buildings in the background look very much like the photos of those long-demolished buildings in Jane Hatcher’s book The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire.

Obviously they’re not dressed for work. They’re on their way to the FA Cup semi-final – York City v Newcastle – at the Hillsborough ground in Sheffield, which took place on Saturday 26 March 1955. Hence the scarves and rosettes and the YORK badge on the front of the car.

I’d like to be able to place this photo more exactly, so it can be pinned on historypin.com. Does anyone recognise which part of Foss Bank/Heworth Green/Layerthorpe this was taken from? It can be enlarged.

The match they watched – on what looks like a sea of mud – is preserved by britishpathe.com, and viewable online.

A report of the match on the official club website notes that it was ‘a gruelling cup tie played in terrible conditions’ and that York City had made history by becoming the first Third Division side to force a semi final replay.

I’m sure many people out there remember the game. But I’m hoping that people out there also remember the gasworks on Foss Bank …

The post Gasworks gang, 1955 appeared first on York Stories.

14 March 2008

These buildings have appeared along the side of the Foss, at Foss Bank, since last year. I was rather rude about this development after reading the silly promotional blurb, but have to say that they look alright. Okay, they look quite handsome. And the riverside bit here, alongside them, looks rather stylish.

Later in my walk I ended up rather angry about the state of the Foss, particularly further along, but early in my wander I was pleased to see this rather impressive Foss Bank frontage, to Roman Villas, or whatever they’ve called them.

I’m no expert of course, but standing on the opposite bank of the river and looking across, I thought this particular bit of view was pleasing. I think it’s because there are none of those horrible confused twiddly bits we seem to have put on buildings in some kind of sad pastiche of previous centuries. These buildings look confidently of their time.

Maybe from this perspective the most attractive element is the colour of the brick – the way it reflects the spring colour of the willow trees. This may be accident, or careful architectural design . . .

The riverside here looks like this bit at least is cared for, and there are benches. Again, modern, solid, without daft twiddly bits. It looks all quite plain and functional, but in a good way. Perhaps as a homage to the gasworks that was here before?

Where the road winds round by the Foss, behind Sainsbury’s and Homebase, a couple of old iron structures remain, clinging to the bank. These are, it seems, remnants of the days when the old town gasworks occupied this area around the Foss, and a branch of the railway line came into the part of the gasworks site, over the river. Isn’t that green on the rusty iron beautiful? – or is it just me. Anyway, moving on . . .

Just past the new apartments, where the river bends, there’s an obvious division, an iron fence, where the tidiness stops, and next there’s a wilder area, rather a contrast. I noticed magpies under the trees, and then a brown furry creature lolloping about on the riverbank. It was rather a surprise to see a rabbit here, near Netto and Sainsburys and the building works and the car showrooms. I had a rather inadequate camera with me, and this photo won’t win any wildlife photography awards. The rabbit, on the opposite bank from where I was standing, is very indistinct, and so indicating its presence with a big arrow seemed the best approach.

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