Flowery delights by St Helen’s church, 7 July 2018

It has been a while, hasn’t it. But I can’t let another month go by without an update to this long-running record of York and its changes, so thought I’d share some images and thoughts gathered over recent weeks, during a summer that has been surprisingly hot and sunny for weeks on end.

This summer saw the first Bloom! York festival, celebrating all things horticultural, with some fantastic displays of floral loveliness. After dashing across York on a very hot afternoon earlier this month I particularly appreciated the coolness of Holy Trinity church on Micklegate, enhanced by the relaxing greenery of trees.

‘A Congregation of Trees’ – Bloom York, Holy Trinity, Micklegate, 7 July 2018

A cool place for quiet contemplation, with trees in tubs and birdsong through the speakers. Beautiful.

I didn’t get to see much of Bloom York, but what I saw was cheering and uplifting. Like Etty looking pretty, in Exhibition Square, adorned with flowers.

Etty statue, Exhibition Square – Bloom York, 7 July 2018

A fountain of flowers around the plinth, even some on the palette he’s holding.

I’ve written about Etty and the fountain and Exhibition Square many times before. The square is often virtually deserted when I pass in the evenings, when the art gallery overlooking it is closed. Quite a contrast to see it on this sunny Saturday afternoon, and good to see so many people enjoying the square, and particularly its fountain.

Exhibition Square, Bloom York, 7 July 2018

A page I wrote some years back about this fountain included this quote from a York Civic Trust annual report, published many years ago:

‘It is a pleasing thing to see young children running round the square thrilling to the dancing water.’

As it was in 1971 so it is now, or at least on this particular sunny summer day in 2018.

The greenery and flowers really did bring a feeling of celebration to the fountain and the square. (On that particular day when I took the photo above there was a general feeling of celebration, as I emerged from the quiet of the library to streets where people were spilling out of pubs singing ‘football’s coming home’ …)

Not far away from Exhibition Square is Dean’s Park, where greenery and flowers can be enjoyed all year round. And, usually, it’s a nicely calm and quiet place. Not so quiet this summer though, as there’s a summer attraction occupying part of it.

Sol Ast, Dean’s Park, 14 July 2018

According to the York Minster website this new bar/restaurant is from the team behind Thor’s tipi bar, which I think is usually in Parliament Street at a different time of the year, (and, according to the York Minster website, it’s ‘legendary’).

I sat on the grass outside the Sol Ast enclosure and observed its ambience. Clearly lots of people having a good time. The music from it rather clashed with the joyful exuberance of an excellent group of buskers performing within earshot in front of St Michael le Belfrey nearby. All very lively. Though I didn’t seem to be in the city centre at the right time to see and be shocked by all the stags and hens and general debauchery that I keep reading about in the local media.

York is often these days described as ‘vibrant’, and seems particularly lively on summer weekends. I’ve not been feeling particularly vibrant, after a recent family bereavement and illness, and an earlier attempt to venture to the vibrancy of Piccadilly left me saying to my companion that it was all too vibrant for me and that I wanted to go home and sit in the garden.

Some time later I revisited a site I’ve been following with interest for some years now, where the Spark:York development is now open.

Spark:York, Piccadilly, 20 June 2018

It’s certainly striking, as you approach from the junction with Merchantgate.

What was perhaps the most interesting aspect was hearing the sound of voices, many voices, people chatting while sitting out in the sun on the first floor level above the street. So much activity, on a site where I can still remember the quiet dereliction and emptiness of the Reynard’s garage building.

The opening of Spark:York hasn’t been universally welcomed, it’s fair to say. Yes, I’m choosing my words carefully and going for understatement rather than stoking things up further, as here on these pages we like to weigh things up and try to see everyone’s point of view.

Of interest at present regarding the Spark:York site is a follow-up planning application, requesting the approval of the exterior, which isn’t quite as presented in the original planning application.

Spark:York, side view from Piccadilly, 20 June 2018

The shipping containers were supposed to be behind ‘soft timber cladding’, according to the earlier plans as approved. Instead there’s some graffiti art on the side. The Guildhall Planning Panel comments on the planning application note their disappointment that the result is ‘more edgy than originally proposed’.

It may seem like a minor point but it does raise wider questions, all too complicated to go into on this page. Personally I’d rather valuable resources went into other things, rather than essentially pointless cladding to cover up some paint. But anyway, it seems that the matter is to be discussed and decided by the planning committee in August.

To clad, or not to clad, that is the question …

Guess where we’re going next …

Rose Theatre, side view, 14 July 2018

Just a stone’s throw away, on the other side of the Foss, is the much-anticipated ‘Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’, here for the summer on part of the Castle car park. The side of the theatre structure looked a bit more shiny and modern than I was expecting, as I approached it from the riverside walkway by the Coppergate centre.

Is this some cladding which I see before me?

Rose Theatre, side view detail, 14 July 2018

Perhaps it could be donated to Spark:York when the theatre is taken down.

Inside here there’s what sounds like an impressive structure: ‘state-of-the-art scaffolding technology, corrugated iron and timber with the historic 13-sided design of a 16th century Shakespearean theatre’, says the website.

In my usual way, I’m doing the ‘observing from the outside for free’ thing. Here’s a photo of the entrance, which has heads on spikes and pigeons. The pigeons aren’t real ones. (And neither are the heads, obviously.)

Rose Theatre, entrance, 14 July 2018

Again, as on Piccadilly, what I noticed most was the noise, laughter and voices, happy people on a sunny afternoon. At Spark:York and at the Rose Theatre new structures had brought new life to these particular sites, in creative and interesting ways. Does it matter what the outside looks like? These things are only here for a while.

Whereas some structures have been here for centuries, loved and cherished. I’ll end this page with a familiar building I’ve written about many times in the past. It has known many many summers, and this summer it’s overlooking the Rose Theatre’s temporary site in the car park below.

Clifford’s Tower, 14 July 2018

Clifford’s Tower, with its grassy mound all brown and dry from the summer’s heatwave.

In recent months the controversial plan for a new visitor centre here at the foot of the steps has been abandoned, as I’m sure most readers know.

It will be interesting to see what new plans come to light for this area. It would be good if they could better represent the complex histories of this castle site, and how its buildings are linked, and how it has been shaped over the centuries.

. . . . .

So much happening in ‘vibrant’ York, and so much change and development, since I started this (my salad days, when I was green in judgement). Despite my recent rather long silence I’m still reading about many happenings — petitions and planning applications, demolitions and developments. It’s all very interesting and I’m sorry I’ve not had the time or the mental space to write much recently. I will do my best in terms of more regular content creation.

As I’m increasingly tired of social media and so many other online platforms (full of sound and fury), it feels more important than ever to preserve and continue this independent and carefully compiled online space of mine, even though it now means wading through more rules and virtual roadblocks (a sea of troubles), like trying to make an old site like this comply with GDPR regulations …

If you appreciate the perspectives on these pages, and enjoy this record of York and its changes then you can support it, and me, with virtual coffees via ko-fi.com, to power more pages, and help me with (the slings and arrows of) my bills …

Thank you.

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Coppergate Centre multi-storey car park and Clifford’s Tower, from Foss Bridge (2006)

On the previous page, after serious thoughts, and not wanting to ‘close low’ on this series of pages on the Castle Gateway area, I thought that it might be nice to take imaginary flight, picturing perhaps one of the city’s pigeons, so that we didn’t have to concern ourselves with the mundane issue of crossing the busy road of Tower Street.

Flying a short distance we find ourselves at the multi-storey car park attached to the Coppergate Centre. From up there on its higher levels we get a bird’s eye view of the area around it. Ten years ago I took a few photos from up there, and revisited this summer to capture similar views ten years on.

Here’s the first 2007 view, looking over part of Piccadilly:

Piccadilly buildings from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

Note the building in the foreground, with greenery growing from its gutter, a former car showroom apparently. To the left, a little further back, the old Reynard’s Garage (and former Airspeed factory). Also prominent is Ryedale House.

And here we are in 2017:

Piccadilly from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

Ten years on, the building in the foreground looks smart and clean. It’s now known as Piccadilly Lofts. I always liked that building, and it’s pleasing to see that it’s still here alongside the Foss. Also striking, I thought, in the photo above, is how Ryedale House looks better now it’s empty, without the various colours of blinds and curtains at its windows. Though there were plans to convert it to residential accommodation there’s been no progress on that front.

The other major difference is that the Reynard’s/Airspeed building on Piccadilly has been demolished. As previously mentioned, the cleared site is to be home to Spark:York, housed in shipping containers.

The former Reynard’s garage is more prominent in this closer view of Piccadilly, again from summer 2007:

Piccadilly and the entrance to Merchantgate, view from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

And this summer:

Piccadilly from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

In 2017, there’s an open area where the Reynards/Airspeed building used to be, and on the back wall of it a colourful mural is visible.

We’re close to the Foss, and moving to the left, we’re looking out over and along it, upstream. In 2007:

River Foss from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

And 2017:

River Foss view from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

The main difference is the new large St John Central building, student accommodation, in the Hungate development area, closing the view along the riverside towards Peasholme Green/Foss Islands. But the ‘Destructor’ chimney is still a landmark, as is Rowntree Wharf, to the right.

We’ve now moved beyond the ‘Castle Gateway’ area, as it has been defined. Here’s another view from ‘on high’, in 2007, taking in the wider landscape, to the Walmgate/Navigation Road area.

View across the Piccadilly and Walmgate area from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

We’ve moved to the right of where we were before. The building now known as Piccadilly Lofts is in the foreground, with the Foss just below it. Piccadilly is behind it, hidden from view. St Denys’s church on Walmgate is a landmark. There’s a large crane to the left of the church. In the far distance, hills are visible, an open landscape.

So much change, in the ten years since. Summer 2017:

View across the Piccadilly and Walmgate area from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

Student accommodation blocks on the horizon to the left, in the Walmgate/Navigation Road area. Close to St Denys’s church a development of town houses on a back plot behind Walmgate, next to the Spark:York site. Looking at them, with the grey and rather boxy/industrial upper storey, and noticing a similar look to other bits of the skyline around here, I’m wondering why there were so many comments suggesting that the Spark:York shipping containers were going to look horribly out of place in this area.

Here’s a closer view:

Piccadilly and Walmgate area rooftops, August 2017

In 2007 I didn’t take many photos of the views from up here. But on the recent visit the light was wonderful and everything was looking bright and handsome, so I took quite a lot, including, of course, a fair few of Clifford’s Tower.

Clifford’s Tower and its car park, August 2017

Recently there’s been so much focus on the more familiar view of this building, from the street level, from the front and the steps. Interesting to see it from up here. From here it looks a bit odd, that green mound, like the car park was there first and the historic structure has been plonked down on it. It reminded me of a jelly mould. A wider grass ‘apron’ around it might be more elegant and appropriate.

Clifford’s Tower, a less familiar view

And then here, it was like seeing a familiar thing afresh, and I realised that I rarely look at it from this side, or of course from so high up. From up here, looking across to it, it was good to see it framed by the greenery of trees rather than surrounded by tarmac.

Then to move round to another viewing point and see it rising above brick and pantile.

Clifford’s Tower across rooftops

And alongside the standalone iconic structure of Clifford’s Tower I also admired this pleasing streetscape, looking towards Peckitt Street, heading down to the Ouse. Again, the trees enhance it.

View across Tower Street towards Peckitt Street

To finish this page of ‘bird’s eye view’ images, a view of the Foss.

View of the river Foss by Piccadilly, looking towards Castle Mills, Aug 2017

So pleasing, I thought. It’s clear, from up here, that a green corridor has been formed by the Foss and the trees, shrubs and weeds around it, and on its (usually slow-moving) waters. We’re looking downstream, towards Castle Mills, the Foss Basin and the confluence, where we were on the previous pages. On one side of the river we have the Castle car park, stretching almost to the river’s edge, with a bit of walkway, grass and trees at its edge. At the other side, by Ryedale House, there’s the rather scruffy building, with the humped low roof. I’ve always found it rather pleasing.

Looking at this we then have to imagine what the proposed developments might change here. There’s an application to build a hotel (17/00429/FULM) on the site where the single storey building is now. That, of course, will be much taller, five or six storeys. Much loftier and more dominant than what’s there now. And if we lose the Castle car park and get more public space close to Clifford’s Tower we’re likely to get another sizeable building at the river’s edge, as suggested in published plans. So the reflections in the river will change, reflecting buildings, not light and sky so much.

Time to leave this area and focus on other things. There’s a lot to cover, and I’ve been thinking about Holgate. Time to fly off over there.

. . . . .

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Let’s go for a little walk … starting by the gasworks wall. A fragment of it remaining, on the snicket between Heworth Green and Layerthorpe, next to a building site.

Hotels, hotels, hotels … Layerthorpe

There’s a hotel being built here. At the end of the snicket, turning right towards town, we meet the junction at the end of Hallfield Road. Looking back to where another section of gasworks wall used to be until quite recently, where a new road is coming through. The new hotel is on the left of this photo.

More on that story later perhaps.

… and Peasholme Green

Continuing on towards the city centre, in a straight line up Layerthorpe and then onto Peasholme Green, we arrive at the Black Swan, a well-known historic pub. Here it is pictured in May 2014.

Since the photo above was taken the Black Swan has had the Hiscox building overshadow it on the right, but the curved glass of that building reflects it, in what is generally seen as an impressive addition to the cityscape.

The view shown above would be drastically altered by a large hotel building planned for the site behind it. This planning application will be decided at a planning committee meeting this week — Thursday 23 March. Further details and documents for the application are on this link:

16/02801/FULM | Erection of five storey hotel (use class C1) | Former Haymarket Car Park Dundas Street York

York Civic Trust have objected, referring to the planned hotel as ‘uninspiring in design and consequently detrimental to both adjacent properties of historic and aesthetic merit’. Historic England state that ‘we are somewhat disappointed with the architectural massing and appearance of the scheme’. Many individuals have also objected.

Nevertheless the report prepared for the meeting (on this link, PDF) recommends approval, as these reports so often do.

Developers often have to make some kind of contribution to the local townscape/community, in the form of a section 106, as is the case here. The report suggests that the developer could contribute £18,000 to street improvement works on the opposite side of the road. Seems a very small contribution from such a large profit-making development?

Apparently it would be a ‘Moxy’ hotel. I’ve struggled with this brand name ever since first reading it. I can only think of the word ‘poxy’, and the ‘m’ makes me think of words like maudlin and morose. Maybe that’s just me. But anyway, I’ve just been reading about these ‘Moxy’ hotels. Apparently, according to the official info, a Moxy hotel ‘comes at a cost to build that is very easy to digest’. The link also leads to a PDF referring to ‘a robust demand generation engine that drives top-line revenue while maximizing bottom-line savings’.

So if they’re not too expensive to build and the staff aren’t going to get paid a lot perhaps a bit more could be reinvested in the streetscape then, so we can admire the paving rather than having to look at the hotel? Or perhaps elected officials could refuse to grant permission and wait for something that doesn’t just feel like yet another investment opportunity being plonked into our streets.

It’s important to note that York is a hotel ‘hotspot’, placed second in this year’s UK Hotels Market Index. We’re almost top of the league when it comes to being a desirable location for investors to acquire an existing hotel or develop a new one.

Doesn’t fill me with joy, I have to say. Does it you?

As usual the meeting to discuss this and other applications will be webcast live and also available to view later too if you miss it. The agenda for the meeting and further info is on this link.

… and Piccadilly

We continue on from Peasholme Green, along Stonebow and Pavement, turning left into Piccadilly. We were here a couple of weeks back, and we’re back again as it’s all happening on Piccadilly. The plans for 46-50 Piccadilly — next to Ryedale House — are now online and open for viewing and comment.

Another hotel.

17/00429/FULM | Erection of part 5/part 6 storey hotel (140 bedrooms) with ground floor restaurant and 6 storey building comprising 8 no. apartments (class C3) | Proposed Hotel 46 – 50 Piccadilly York YO1 9NX

The Press reported recently that Northminster, who own the site, might withdraw their plans because of the Spark:York planning application for the site over the road.

Interesting on so many levels. The comments under the Press article cover many of the thoughts many of us may be having about the various perspectives on and interpretations of this situation, so I don’t think I need to go into them here.

The main thing, perhaps, is the bridge access the Northminster plans offer. The hotel plan includes space on one side for access to a pedestrian bridge across the Foss, or as the Design and Access statement puts it: ‘Boundary treatment is pulled inboard of the site boundary on the south-east edge of the site to facilitate access to any potential pedestrian bridge planned as part of the Castle Gateway proposals by CYC.’ The bridge has been part of the wider plans for the area for many years. It’s included in the council’s Castle Gateway plans I wrote about earlier.

The Castle Gateway plans depend on various parties working together. Not looking that good so far is it, with Northminster already wanting to control what happens on other sites nearby that they don’t own.

More on this story later perhaps, when we know a date for the Spark:York application going to the planning committee for consideration.

Let’s head back up Piccadilly, and get some motorised transport perhaps, as we’re heading for the suburbs — to the mean streets of Clifton …

Corner House becomes Heron Foods

Heron Foods used to occupy a retail unit in the centre of town, on Stonebow, but it had to close for the gentrification of Stonebow House. At least one person missed it enough to write a letter to the Press.

Guess where it’s relocated to? To my patch, the Clifton area. To that building I wrote about a few times: the former Corner House pub.

The shop opened this week, on 20 March. The signage is a bit garish, but at least this reuses a building rather than flattening it, which is what should always happen, wherever possible, (and should be possible with that other building I wrote about recently). We can still see that it was built as a pub, even if it isn’t one anymore, and it links us back to the history of this residential area.

A quick walk up the street and round the corner takes us to Bootham Crescent, the home of York City FC. Which takes us to the last ‘H’ of this week’s title …

Happy Wanderers

On Saturday a line of coaches full of York City supporters set off from the Bootham Crescent ground. Many of us who didn’t travel to Lincoln listened attentively to the game on all the various devices the 21st century offers us. Some of us managed to listen to it on an old AM/FM radio out in the garden by wrapping an piece of wire we found in the shed round the stump of a snapped-off aerial, to get the FM frequency. Or maybe that was just me.

So, the club is celebrating getting to Wembley again, for the FA Trophy final. Hurrah. That will be in May. For now, in March, a reminder of another happy time in the history of York City FC, from another March, 62 years ago:

It’s the other half of a pair of programmes that had managed to survive intact in a cardboard box under a leaky roof. It belonged to George, who is on the right of the photo of the ‘Gasworks Gang’, on this page from some years back. This ‘souvenir pictorial record and story’, as the cover puts it, seems to have been produced for that game they were going to on 26 March 1955. Note the illustrations of birds dressed as footballers/supporters on the front cover. They’re robins, for reasons explained here.

And the Happy Wanderers thing? I wondered too. It’s from a song, popular at that time. I think this might be the one.

I found a couple of other songs coming to mind as I started this page, which I thought I’d share in case anyone’s feeling a bit jaded and in need of relaxation or jolliness after all that reading. That fragment of gasworks wall where we started always brings to mind the first line of this rather poignant tune, and the page started with the first line of this 1970s delight. Watch Showaddywaddy in the 70s and try to forget about how much of York is being bought up and overdeveloped to service the requirements of outside investors?

Well, it looks like that to me. Quite happy to be wrong.

. . . . .

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Plans for Spark:York at 17-21 Piccadilly, from the planning application documents

Planning application, Spark:York, at 17-21 Piccadilly

Some months back we looked at the initial proposals for Spark:York. The planning application for this has recently been submitted, and is open for comment:

17/00274/FUL | Erection of two storey multi unit mixed use development ….. Site Of 17 To 21 Piccadilly York

This is the project based around shipping containers, and making use of the now empty site where the old Airspeed factory/Reynard’s garage used to be.

It’s worth a look at the documents for the planning application. Have a read perhaps of the statement of community involvement (PDF on this link, or scroll down the list of documents on this link). It suggests an impressive level of engagement and a genuine approach to involving as many people as possible. I’ve read a lot of planning application documents in recent months/years and I don’t recall seeing that level of concern and involvement from property developers wanting to build hotels and apartment blocks.

Plans for Spark:York at 17-21 Piccadilly, from the planning application documents

As a result of public reaction to the initial publicity the ‘shipping container’ look seems to have been softened/obscured in these plans.

The proposal is a creative interpretation of the industrial past of the site but it has been designed to carefully balance this with the need not to unduly dominate the street scene. Following consultation with local residents and interested groups, it has been decided to add a soft timber cladding to the exterior of the containers along the site frontage. This high quality finish will soften the industrial nature of the containers and it is not considered to harm the character and appearance of the conservation area or setting of St. Denys Church or the Red Lion public house. Visible green roofs and greenery around the site will be a welcome addition to the streetscape.
– Heritage Statement (PDF)

Personally I quite liked the original bright and bold version, rather than the colour scheme suggested in these documents:

Plans for Spark:York at 17-21 Piccadilly, from the planning application documents

From bold to the other extreme, colour-wise. This seems a shame and the effect looks a bit drab/depressing. I’m also a bit concerned about what will happen to the planting — apparently to include climbers and trees — when the project finishes.

But they’re just minor concerns, clearly. In general I think it’s an exciting and impressive-looking project and a good use for the site at this point. It will at some point soon go to the planning committee for discussion and decision, and I’m sure many of us will be following developments with interest.

The bright lights of Piccadilly

While we’re waiting let’s have a wander further down Piccadilly, heading out of town. An email alerted me to some rather striking lighting effects on the front of the new ‘Piccadilly Residence’ accommodation, facing the corner of St Denys Road.

Piccadilly Residence, bright lights on a winter’s night

It is clearly visible from some distance, a tall column of lighting above the main entrance.

Standing opposite the entrance I watched it change colour:

Not sure what to think. Soothing and restful, or flashy and brash? Opinions vary.

The Piccadilly Residence is another of those office to residential conversions, recently completed. It contains 119 apartments, for students and young professionals. The website suggests that they’re all occupied, that the building is fully let. Presumably this area is already a bit busier and livelier than it used to be.

It will be interesting to see how Piccadilly changes further if the Spark:York plans get the go-ahead.

And over the road … 46-50 Piccadilly?

I was hoping to be able to link to a planning application over on the other side of the road, mentioned in a comment on this site a few weeks back, and reported in the media as being about to be submitted, then as submitted, but it’s still not showing up on the ‘planning access’ pages. Perhaps the planning department is a bit snowed-under at present. There seems to quite a lag between applications being validated and their showing up for public viewing and comment. More on this story later perhaps.

When it is added to the online system, as it might be by the time you read this, it should show up on the link below if you put ‘Piccadilly’ or ’46-50 Piccadilly’ in the search box:

https://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/

Update: 9 March

The application went online yesterday:

17/00429/FULM | Erection of part 5/part 6 storey hotel (140 bedrooms) with ground floor restaurant and 6 storey building comprising 8 no. apartments (class C3) | Proposed Hotel 46 – 50 Piccadilly York YO1 9NX

. . . . . .

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The former Reynards/Airspeed site, Piccadilly, earlier this year

Let’s leave Clifford’s Tower and dash across to nearby Piccadilly, to the site of the old Reynard’s garage/Airspeed building, pictured above earlier this year. It has been looking a bit empty and boring since the demolition of that building. Nothing had been planned to replace it, and I thought we might end up with a buddleia forest, as on so many other empty ‘brownfield’ sites. But last week local media reported ‘Bold new street food plan for York eyesore site‘ (York Press) and ‘Shops and street food – inside shipping containers! Bold plan for York city centre revealed‘ (York Mix).

I was at the computer doing something tedious and boring when this news story appeared, and it seemed to brighten a dull November afternoon. ‘Wow’ was my initial reaction.

Comments on the York Mix piece and on Twitter seemed also generally positive. Comments on the Press article seemed mainly negative. There were, as I thought there might be, immediate calls for cladding of some description to make it all look nicer and more in keeping with historic York. (My favourite comment suggested we might go for ‘wattle and daub’.)

The Reynard’s garage/Airspeed site is somewhere I’ve been interested in since first noticing the building on that site in 2004, during my urban wanders. Yes, a whole 12 years ago. So I was really sad to see the building go. But now it’s gone, and it’s an empty site, in a central location, and it needs using, and this seems like a good plan to use it. I’m not quite clear on how the arrangement of shipping containers is going to fit, as it’s a narrow site, but the press reports included illustrations like this:

Proposed for Reynard’s garage site, Piccadilly, from Spark:York

Personally I’m not offended by the idea of shipping containers, or any other ‘ugly’ and functional thing on this particular site in Piccadilly. The plan is for a temporary construction, on an empty site, and therefore involves no obvious harm. In fact it seems like a fairly good fit to the spirit of the place. Piccadilly’s not an ancient York street, it’s relatively new, this bit being an early 20th century construction. It was made to serve the needs of the early 20th century and now needs to fit with the early 21st century.

This part of York, in the Fossgate/Walmgate/Piccadilly area has changed in many ways in the time I’ve been doing this website, both culturally and in terms of its built environment — almost unrecognisable in parts of nearby Walmgate. The same as many ‘York born and bred’ people of a certain age I can’t help but have mixed feelings about all these changes, because there’s a certain amount of loss involved. But I can’t see that anything will be lost in this proposed plan, apart from perhaps a loss of light to some of the nearby properties. But not half as much as when the inevitable tall building appears on the site, at some point in the future.

This isn’t the first mention of the possible use of shipping containers as temporary accommodation for start-ups. A document prepared as part of the UNESCO City of Media Arts bid (PDF on this link) includes a reference to ‘stripped and refitted shipping containers on a 99-year lease’ as part of the York Central development. Also, Googling revealed that Goole got some in 2010, they’re perhaps still there.

The Spark York project website includes a PDF with more background information. It includes an interesting comment from Grace, a student at the University of York:

Having been a student in York for three years, I feel that there’s a need for more social cohesion, namely between the student community and local residents. … Students already contribute great things to York; young talent, creativity and investment but this needs to be harnessed more through a project such as the one proposed.

Grace isn’t alone in feeling that there’s a need for more social cohesion. To hope that this or any project could bridge what appears to be a growing divide between the student communities and local resident communities is perhaps to expect too much, but surely it’s better that the site is used, as soon as possible, and personally I admire the boldness of it. And can’t see, on what I’ve read, any grounds to object to putting functional temporary structures on an unused piece of land in Piccadilly.

Spark York’s proposals for the Piccadilly site are on the agenda of the council’s Executive meeting this Thursday, 24 November. (Agenda on this link, see item 11, and linked PDF for report.)

It’s a packed agenda with many things of interest, one in particular of great interest to me. Should be an interesting meeting to watch on the webcast.

Update

Since this page was written a planning application has been submitted. More info on this link.

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Ryedale House, Piccadilly

Returning from some offline time I thought I should peruse the planning applications received by the council in recent weeks. This led me to several for further perusal, but perhaps the most worthy of note at the present time is an application for a change of use for Ryedale House on Piccadilly, from offices to residential:

16/02022/ORC | Proposed change of use from offices to 73 apartments (use class C3) under Class O Part 3 Schedule 2 of Article 3 of The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 | Ryedale House 58 – 60 Piccadilly York (link to relevant documents on the City of York Council website)

I’ve written about this building before, as part of a short series of ‘office block studies‘, when it became obvious that several of these 1960s/70s blocks built for the huge numbers of staff employed by large organisations seemed likely to be gutted and remodeled as residential accommodation, a change of use more suited to 21st century needs.

… although the building occupies an excellent and sustainable location within York City Centre, close to the railway station and local amenities, the building remains vacant. This implies that office uses at Ryedale House are not currently attractive to the market, and therefore its conversion to residential provides a viable opportunity to invest in the long term future of the building in the heart of the City Centre, increasing the vitality of the local area.
(Planning Statement (PDF))

Ryedale House tends to be seen as ugly and a blot on the landscape, because it’s big and it’s modern. But if you see it in bright light from the other side of the river, with blue sky behind it, it’s handsome in its own way, and part of the story of the 20th century development of the city.

Ryedale House from the other side of the Foss, March 2012

Opposite Ryedale House is the Piccadilly Residence development, pictured below earlier this year. It is I think now completed and all its apartments are taken, according to the website. So perhaps there’s enough demand for the 73 apartments proposed in Ryedale House.

From Ryedale House, across Piccadilly

Future developments will presumably fill the length of Piccadilly to its junction with Merchantgate with similarly tall light-blocking buildings. Ryedale House was the first and biggest on this street, but knocking it down wouldn’t improve anything, so probably best to remodel and reuse?

So many people must have worked in Ryedale House. If you have memories of it, or thoughts about the change of use, comments are welcome below.

More information

Background/more info on Ryedale House, my earlier ‘office block study’

Planning application documents, on the City of York Council website

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