Hudson House from city walls, April 2016

Regular readers of these pages may be thinking ‘Why does she keep going on about Hudson Quarter?’ Maybe people are thinking that I’m one of those influencers and that my influence is so enormous that the developers have offered me a flat in the building in return for my recent coverage of their development.

I’ve just found it all very interesting, from various angles/points of view. From thinking more about Hudson House and large office blocks like it, to following the lengthy process of its demolition and thinking about the history of the site it was on, then looking at what has replaced it.

We are moving on to other things, but before we do, I just wanted to include a few ‘then and now’ comparisons, which I’ve been looking at while compiling the previous page. It’s easy to forget what used to occupy a piece of land, once its replacement is built.

So here’s a reminder of the old Hudson House, from the city walls, looking towards town, five years back.

Hudson House and West Offices, 24 April 2016

And here’s its replacement, from a similar perspective (not exactly the same place, a little further along the city walls).

Hudson Quarter and West Offices, May 2021

From a bit further back, before this point, it appears that more of West Offices is blocked from view than was the case previously, as the Hudson Quarter buildings seem a bit closer to the edge of the access road than Hudson House was. (See the sixth photo on the earlier page.)

As I mentioned on the previous page, there has been some work on the repaving of the access road. The photos from some years back, looking down on it from the walls, have reminded me how it looked before.

Hudson House access road, April 2016

It had a pointless pavement punctuated by planters. By 2016 they appear to have contained no plants, but for some reason sat there. Many of them those concretey-looking ones, as if there wasn’t enough concrete already in the shape of the office block itself. Opposite the planters was a strange little area of grass, with more concrete bits punctuating it, and a wiggly path alongside.

The replacement paving (see previous page) seems like a definite improvement. Sad to see though that the Hudson House quarter appears to have removed a few trees. I hadn’t noticed that before.

Time to move on along the city walls walk, towards town, and other things. But as we leave this area, a glance back at the buildings old and new.

The old:

Hudson House, from the walls, April 2016

The new:

Hudson Quarter, from the walls, May 2021

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Hudson Quarter, through city walls arch, 7 May 2021

Late in the day yesterday the sun came out and I was pleased to be able to get out for a quick walk into town. I wanted to have a look at 2 Rougier Street, but on the way got distracted by the Hudson Quarter development.

I wrote about it back in January, but at that point there were still barriers around the site and people working on it. All completed now it seems.

Blue sky and brickwork

Down here in the old railway cutting the new brick buildings rising out of it catch the evening light in a way that the drab dark concrete of Hudson House didn’t.

Around the new buildings there’s new landscaping, paving, bike racks.

It all looked very new and clean. Enhancing the impression of newness and cleanness was the particularly noticeable and pleasant woody smell of chipped bark, recently laid around the planted areas, damp from the recent rain.

There’s a courtyard garden, with a path wending through it. This was gated when I visited but may be open during the day for public access through the site. (I thought this was the plan, though it might have changed.)

Courtyard garden

No one about down here, on this Friday evening. Not much sign of occupation at the moment. I was glad about this, as it made it easier to stand around for a while and look at it, and take some photos.

I stood for a while on the access road alongside, where the hefty wall on the left reminds us of the cutting in to the landscape of the city’s earlier railway station.

Access road by Hudson Quarter, looking towards war memorial

I hadn’t noticed, until looking at these photos back at home, that the road area here has a new surface. As you’d expect, it’s generally smartened up. More on that shortly, from a different perspective.

We’re heading back up to street level now, back through the arch in the city wall, over Queen Street bridge, then to the higher level of the walls walk.

Arch in city walls, with Queen Street bridge beyond

… And here’s how it looks once you’re up on the city walls, near the corner after Micklegate Bar, looking towards Lendal Bridge and the Minster. Or, more precisely, how it looked in bright sunlight, on an evening in early May.

Hudson Quarter from walls

As before, there’s a gap between Hudson Quarter and its (also quite modern) neighbouring building. In the photo below we’re looking over to the street known as Toft Green, and the blue signs on the front of Transit Motorcycles, and again the change in levels is clear.

Looking across to Toft Green, Hudson Quarter on the left

A little further along, at the end of the Hudson Quarter development, there’s still an important ‘gap’/view, which I’m glad hasn’t been lost as this area has been redeveloped. Behind the more recent buildings we can still see the older ones, on part of Micklegate, including Holy Trinity church, shining on the horizon, as these historic churches do.

Through to Micklegate – with Holy Trinity church visible

(Whereas the hotel building to the left … particularly baffled by the grey part. Even in the beautiful light of a May evening it looks odd/ugly? Whatever light I’ve seen it in, and from whatever perspective I’ve seen it from, it’s looked wrong in this setting, to me.)

I’ve been looking at some comparison views, the old Hudson House (demolished) and Hudson Quarter, replacing it. These can be found on this page.

….

As I reconnect again with the charms and changes of this city/my hometown, where everything is connected, and every bit of curiosity and research leads to something else, and one thing leads to another, and more words are gathered together, I’ve really appreciated your virtual coffees, and the kind and thoughtful comments added. Thank you.

The post Hudson Quarter revisit appeared first on York Stories.

Information board for the new Hudson Quarter, new buildings behind, 25 Jan 2021

Though so many other things have been paused, locked down, construction appears to have continued on the many building sites in and around the city. For this ‘resident’s record of York and its changes’ I’ve been thinking about buildings and building sites that I could do with catching up on, when out for my local stomp about.

One of these, within easy walking distance from my home, is the new ‘Hudson Quarter’, on the site of the now demolished Hudson House. I had a walk up there a couple of days ago.

I knew from media coverage that work on the new buildings had moved on apace, but I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing the new development. My expectations were quite low.

After crossing Scarborough Bridge and walking through the side of the station I emerged in what I think is known as Tea Room Square, between the old Station Hotel (as it used to be called) and the station portico. I wanted to see how the new development looked from that angle, and was expecting to see some hideously dominant thing looming over the walls.

By the station – Hudson Quarter development behind the city walls, 25 Jan 2021

But I didn’t think this was too bad. In fact quite like it. At least there’s a bit of variety and interest there, not just a big boring block. I can’t remember if we could see Hudson House from this viewpoint.

I had thought I’d go up onto the bar walls to view it from that vantage point, but then realised that the walls tend to be closed when it’s icy, as had certainly been the case earlier in the day. So I approached it from ground level instead.

Or rather, two ground levels. As previously discussed, the buildings here sit on the site of the old station, and the lines that used to go into it, and they’re in a cutting lower than the roads on either side. The access gate to the lower level was open so I had a quick dash down to have a look.

Through holes cut through the walls in the 19th century for the trains to come in, we can see a bit of 21st century development, the ‘Hudson Quarter’, in the glow of the late afternoon sun.

Sunset glow on Hudson Quarter and the city walls

After retracing my steps and crossing Queen Street bridge, I headed for Micklegate Bar and Bar Lane, rounded the corner into Toft Green, to be greeted by the new Hudson Quarter buildings. New brick alongside old.

From the corner of Bar Lane and Toft Green

I thought this view was quite pleasing, down Toft Green. Or rather, the top bit of it. Still not fond of the grey hotel further down.

The new Hudson Quarter buildings, Toft Green

Just wondering if I can find in my files an old view of the street, for a ‘before and after’, to compare with the above … Yes, here we are:

Hudson House from Toft Green, July 2018

So, just a quick update. More later perhaps, perhaps with a view from the bar walls.

I’ve written a lot about the old Hudson House in recent years. About its history and its demolition.

. . . . .

Despite the lockdown, or perhaps because of it, I’m doing my best to put more time into this ‘resident’s record of York and its changes’. If you would like to support this long-running series of musings and ramblings, fact-filled long-winded bits and thoughtful things, and help pay its hosting costs, virtual coffees are always appreciated.

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Hudson House demolition, September 2018

One of the most interesting changes in the city centre over recent months has been the demolition of Hudson House, an office block built by British Rail in the late 1960s, between Toft Green and the city walls.

Hudson House was one of my ‘office block studies‘ a few years back. It looked for a time like it might be kept and converted to residential use, as many other office blocks of a similar period have been, but a later planning application was made for demolition and a complete new build on the site.

I went along to have a look at the demolition in progress many times over the summer and autumn months. The walkway along the city walls gave a good view across the site, as the building was gradually reduced to piles of rubble and cleared from the landscape.

The removal of Hudson House has made it easier to appreciate and understand the site of the old station. As anyone interested in York’s history will probably know, York’s earlier  railway station — opened in 1841 — was built in this area within the walls (replaced a few decades later by the station still in use, outside the walls). Part of the old railway station remains, the historic buildings incorporated in the recent redevelopment of West Offices. Hudson House was built in the late 1960s across the other part of the old station site.

This old postcard image illustrates the area before Hudson House was built. We’re looking towards the city centre, the city walls are on the left and the white stone obelisk of the NER war memorial is a landmark just inside the city walls.

The old station, and the lines into it (source)

The old station apparently kept its railway lines and was used for carriage storage long after the ‘new’ station had replaced it.

It took me a while to find a comparison view among the hundreds of photos I’ve taken of the site in recent months. Here’s one from August this year, from about the same place on the city walls, when much of the bulk of Hudson House had been cleared.

Looking towards the old station (West Offices), across the Hudson House demolition site, 21 Aug 2018

From this angle, the ‘old station’ looks very much 21st century, because of the recent additions to the original station building, in the West Offices redevelopment. In the foreground is another relatively new office building. Between them is where Hudson House used to be. Its clearance makes clearer the way the 21st century redevelopment of the old station/West Offices reflects the older building, still looking like it’s respecting the long-ago-removed railway lines and the orientation of the old station. It was more difficult to appreciate that when Hudson House was in the way.

Here’s a reminder of how Hudson House occupied this piece of land inside the city walls. A bit of West Offices is visible behind it. As in the previous two photos, the city walls and the NER war memorial are reference points, to the left.

Looking towards the Minster from the city walls, with Hudson House on the right, 1 June 2013

Hudson House was quite a dominant building, wasn’t it.

Its demolition down to ground level has opened up again this area of land inside the city walls, where at one time the trains came in.

From the walls: Hudson House demolition underway, 1 July 2018

Perhaps the most interesting comparison came from looking straight across the site from the city walls walkway towards Toft Green. After I’d wandered along here for a look a few times I realised that it would be sensible to take some photos from roughly the same point, as demolition progressed. An access gate in the hoardings around the demolition site was one of my reference points.

Hudson House demolition, viewed from the walls, looking towards Toft Green, 9 September 2018

As the demolition continued, I realised that the gate happened to line up with the York Brewery building on Toft Green. In an earlier page I included a photo of Hudson House reflected in its windows. The York Brewery’s white-painted front became more visible, as Hudson House came down, in stages.

Hudson House demolition, viewed from the walls, looking towards Toft Green, 19 September 2018

Hudson House demolition, viewed from the walls, looking towards Toft Green, 20 October 2018

Hudson House demolition, viewed from the walls, looking towards Toft Green, 11 November 2018

Now Hudson House is gone it’s much clearer that ground level here is much lower, not just from the perspective of the city walls, but from the street of Toft Green, on the other side.

The people and vans outside York Brewery on Toft Green are at street level, some metres above the ground level of the old station.

Down to ground level on the Hudson House (old station) site, with Toft Green in the background, 11 Nov 2018

Looking across here should perhaps make us think of the earth that was moved to make a railway station, in the first half of the 19th century, when that exciting new thing called the railway cut in through the landscape. It was thought so important that it carved its way right into the heart of the city, through the historic walls, cutting holes through them too.

Many men and many hours of hard graft it would have taken to do this work, before the invention of the kind of machinery we have now.

That 21st century demolition machinery was something to observe in itself. I’ve not watched these machines before, the way the heads can turn on different angles, like creatures grazing, taking bites out of the concrete.

A man passing by while I was taking photos told his companion that they’re called ‘giraffes’. I can see why. Here’s one resting, after a busy day chomping on concrete.

Hudson House demolition, machinery resting, 21 Aug 2018

After looking at the demolition site from the vantage point of the city walls it made sense to descend from the walls at Micklegate Bar to have a look from the Toft Green side.

While the work was taking place the site was screened so there was nothing much to see, but now the whole building has gone the change is quite dramatic.

Here’s a ‘before’ photo, from summer 2014, taken from Toft Green:

Toft Green, with Hudson House prominent, August 2014

And ‘after’, taken earlier this month:

Toft Green, with Hudson House demolished, November 2018

Quite a ‘gap’ there now on the left.

There wasn’t much light available when I took the photo above, late in the afternoon on a November day, but what light there was will I imagine be reaching into neighbouring buildings in a way it hasn’t done for a long while, with Hudson House looming over things for the last 50 years.

Soon, of course, new tall buildings will replace the old tall buildings.

For now, in November 2018, looking down into the site from Toft Green, interesting remnants of what was below Hudson House are visible. Some archaeological investigation has been taking place here.

What lies beneath: Hudson House site clearance, Nov 2018

I’d been wondering whether the new development to be built on the site would keep the name or change it. I noticed a while back that the old name had been removed from a sign just over the other side of the city walls, on nearby Queen Street.

Hudson House sign, 1 July 2018, Queen Street

Hudson House sign, name erased, 20 Oct 2018, Queen Street

The new name is now prominent on the advertising hoardings around the site.

Advertising hoarding for Hudson Quarter, Nov 2018

The ‘Hudson Quarter’ is apparently going to include a new pedestrian access through from Toft Green to the station area. I’ll believe that when we can actually access it and find it goes from one useful place to another useful place. I hope that’s the case, but these things don’t always join up.

For now, I’ll end this page with a couple more photos of the end of that late 1960s building we knew as Hudson House.

I have quite a lot of photos of its crumpled concrete.

The moon landed on it at one point, in the glowing evening sun …

Hudson House remnants, and moon, 21 Aug 2018

And later, pigeons, settled in the sun, at the end of the day, when the ‘giraffes’ were resting.

Hudson House demolition, with pigeons, 9 Sept 2018

My father, who died last year, worked in the railway offices nearby, and would have seen Hudson House being built. I was born at around the same time. These British Rail offices on the site of the old station were part of my childhood and teenage years, and walking along the walls by Hudson House meant seeing so many people sitting at their desks, in that huge office block.

So much has changed since.

It felt important, to me, to observe and photograph the end of Hudson House.

. . . . .

I’m adding to these pages when I feel I have something original/interesting to add to the wealth of online content already available. It sometimes takes a while to properly cover things I’m interested in, as in this case. If you’d like notifications of new things appearing on this website, please join the mailing list.

Looking at the archive reminds me that it’s seven years ago today that this personal website (online in some form since 2004) went blog-like (though I’ve never really liked the word ‘blog’). My first blog-like post was a scan of a photo of the floods in 1978.

If you’d like to support what this 1960s-created weathered old structure known as ‘Lisa@YorkStories‘ has created and maintained online here at www.yorkstories.co.uk then virtual coffees are always welcome.

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Hudson House from the city walls, April 2016

Update – the text below was written in 2016. The building has since been demolished and there’s a new development on the site. I’ve written an update: Hudson Quarter (Hudson House site). For all pages on Hudson House see this link.

. . . . .

I had a walk along the walls yesterday evening to have a proper look at Hudson House. And here it is. Well, a bit of it. It’s quite large. Today’s ‘April daily photo‘.

Stonebow House, over the other side of town, has been the focus of much attention in recent days, following the emergence of plans to revamp the existing building. Meanwhile, plans for this 1960s concrete building have been approved (subject to a section 106 agreement) and no one seems particularly interested. So I thought I’d give it some attention, rather than Stonebow House, which these pages have covered in depth many times already. (We got so deep and involved we even wrote a poem about it.)

So, here we are at Hudson House, between Toft Green and the bar walls. Much of it is to be converted to residential use, keeping some office space, upgraded to ‘Grade A’.

I wrote a fairly lengthy page about this building some time back, one of a series of ‘office block studies‘. It included thoughts on the building from observers in decades past. We also observed that it had ended up rather grubby-looking over the years.

The plans will see it cleaned and its windows replaced. It will be interesting to see the effect of this, what kind of face it presents both to the bar walls and to Toft Green, when it’s all smartened up and people are living in it.

Googling for information on Hudson House led me to places I wouldn’t normally go — pages about finance and assets and shares and the like. I found myself on the London Stock Exchange website, as apparently Hudson House, which I knew in my youth as British Rail offices, is now the major asset of a company called Palace Capital. An article from December 2014 states:

Cushman & Wakefield valued the property at GBP4.3 million when Palace Capital bought it, and the valuation had increased to GBP9.65 million as of September 30 of this year.

(Source)

And presumably valued at even more now, in 2016.

The planning application documents are an interesting read. The Economic Statement, for example, quoting a 2014 viability study, states that ‘a speculative office scheme is unlikely to be viable in current market conditions’. So the proposed massive office blocks at York Central … ? Perhaps there’s an expectation that they’ll be massively desirable and viable by the time they’re built.

The need, of course, is for more housing. The Committee Report prepared for last Thursday’s meeting states:

The applicants are not proposing any affordable housing. The development has been subject to an independent viability assessment and this position has been accepted.

These new apartments will be for rent, not sale. Part of the ever-growing ‘private rented sector’ here in York.

See ‘More information’, below, for background and links to the relevant planning application documents.

This is just one of many conversions of large office blocks to residential use. The work on the former Holgate Villa has been completed recently, Hilary House has been remodeled as Biba House, and over on Piccadilly the United House office block is in the process of being converted to the ‘Piccadilly Residence’. (Across the road from it is Ryedale House, surely another candidate for change of use to residential.) The former Aviva building on the corner of Rougier Street, not far away, is also to be converted to residential use.

More information

See the planning application documents. Of particular interest: (PDF files), the Committee Report, the Heritage Statement, the Design and Access Statement and the Economic Statement.

More information on why so many office blocks are turning into apartments

Property veterans’ young venture Palace Capital has a spring in its step (thisismoney.co.uk)

Update

The building has since been demolished and there’s a new development on the site. I’ve written an update: Hudson Quarter (Hudson House site). For all pages on Hudson House see this link.

The post Hudson House: offices to flats appeared first on York Stories.

There’s a planning application, still open for comment at the time of writing, to convert this to … yes, residential accommodation. As with Hilary House and Holgate Villa and perhaps, at some point, Ryedale House.

Some years ago I had an email about this building from someone who wanted to research its history. Clearly it doesn’t have a long history, it’s about as old as I am, but I helped as much as I could, and hoped I’d hear back. As is so often the case, I didn’t. So I can’t tell you whether in fact this building won awards as my correspondent wondered. I can tell you that it looked photogenic in the bright sunlight of a summer morning. But then most things do.

It’s another of those massive office blocks, and like Holgate Villa it’s a British Rail building, or rather, was. Purpose-built for BR staff. BR had so many office staff here in York in the mid to late 20th century. Often forgotten, in the recent emphasis on the chocolate industry, that so many residents worked for the railway industry, not only for the carriageworks but also many hundreds (thousands?) in the railway offices.

It may soon be occupied by people making it their home rather than carving out a little space for themselves on an office desk.

It’s a building in an excellent location, and no doubt with excellent views too. It’s near Micklegate, which would benefit from having such a large increase in the number of local residents. It also has car parking space. If all that wasn’t enough to make it a potentially desirable place to live, fans of beer may be interested to know that it’s also right opposite York Brewery, on Toft Green. It’s shown here reflected in the windows of that building.

And here in its wider setting, in Toft Green.

We’re perhaps more familiar with it from the other side, from the walkway of the city walls.

And it’s from the walls that I remember this building, really well, going back 30+ years to the early 1980s, lunchtimes from school, when we sometimes wandered along here on the wall walk, and could see all those men at their desks. A lot of them, as I recall, seemed to be staring out of the windows, from their desks. Now, of course, we don’t need to look out of windows when we’re bored, we can look at Facebook and Twitter instead. A different kind of window on the world.

But let’s go back to those pre-internet times, via a few extracts from books published in 1970-1980, when this building was quite new. What did they think of it then, I wondered. My small library of books bought at secondhand bookshops gives some insight.

1970

Hudson House all new and apparently white/pale grey, a year or two after it was built. Compare with my 2014 photos above.

I’ve sometimes wondered whether its present colouring is a natural weathering or whether it’s had some kind of treatment in the intervening years. It looks surprisingly brown now.

In the accompanying text, from this book published in 1970, Patrick Nuttgens sounds quite impressed by this ‘well designed modern building’.

1975

An interesting perspective from 1975, from John Harvey. ‘Massively repetitive’ and ‘horrifying in its likeness to an inspection hive’.

1980

John Hutchinson thought it ‘one of the most successful of York’s new buildings’.

More information

Here on York Stories: more ‘office block studies‘

115 flats planned for city-centre offices (The Press, 12 Nov 2014). The comments are also worth reading. Note that the building, like Stonebow House, is referred to as a listed building in one comment. Like Stonebow House, it isn’t. Where do these myths originate, I wonder.

Planning application (ref 14/02579/ORC). The planning statement (PDF) is an interesting read

Interesting snippet of info discovered when Googling, on the sale of this building by British Rail (Residuary) Board in 2006-7

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