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.

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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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The post Then and now: demolished and replaced appeared first on York Stories.

The abandoned Bonding, in winter sunlight, 2004

So work is now underway at the Bonding Warehouse. It has been empty since the floods of 2000. Well, most of the time. It has been briefly occupied several times in the last fourteen years – by builders, for a time, by protest groups on two occasions. By pigeons all the way through all of that.

For the last ten years I’ve been taking photos of it, every now and then, and captured some of this recent history. This page covers the years 2004-2007, to the point just before it was sold.

These first photos date from one of my earliest ‘York Walks’ (as I called the first pages of the York Stories website) in 2004. Yes, a whole ten years ago.

Once famous for live music

Though it hadn’t hosted any live music or functions for four years or more, the sign by the door remained.

How green is my brickwork

Bright winter sunlight lit the bright green mossy growth covering much of its exterior. An aesthetically pleasing combination against the Victorian red brick, but probably not a good sign. It looked generally mossy and damp, as if it had never quite dried out. As if four year old Ouse floodwater would come flowing out if you opened the door.

Pigeons provide added ornamentation

And the famous sign, with its missing letter, so the Press ended up calling it the ‘Bo Ding Warehouse’. Pigeons perching there, soaking up the sun.

No one seemed to care much about the Bonding Warehouse, at this point. It was just sitting there quietly rotting, or so it seemed. Until …

Briefly occupied, in summer 2004

In the summer of 2004 it was opened up and occupied by the York Peace Collective. I went along to have a look but didn’t venture inside, as the atmosphere at that point wasn’t quite as peaceful as the banner suggested.

Banners mention someone called Blair …

Another banner on the riverside during the 2004 occupation. Remember Tony Blair?

Stencilled stonework and decorated windows

Around the other side, graffiti stencilled onto the stonework.

Massive pigeon conference on Bonding Warehouse roof

While we humans couldn’t quite decide what to do with it, the pigeons claimed it. By late 2005 its roof was full of pigeons, and among the huge flock the occasional gull perched at the corners.

How green is my balcony

Nature takes over what we neglect. The building became very wildlife-friendly, growing its own little eco-systems. By 2006 a lawn appeared to have established itself on the riverside balconies.

On 13 September 2006 the Press reported that the building was to be sold.

That winter, squatters again occupied the building for a brief period (see links, below).

All this time – and in the years before the closure – the building was ‘ours’. The sense of ownership demonstrated not only by the occupations, but in letters to the paper. A letter from Alison Sinclair suggested that the building should, if sold, provide some form of leisure venue, as in the past:

Even if it is eventually sold off, if this function could continue, it would keep a building which belongs to the city, and is bound up with its heritage, accessible to the public.
(full text here)

Wasn’t to be. Sadly our Bonding Warehouse is lost to us.

I kept calling by and taking photos every now and then, as building work started and then stopped again, as the gates displayed thought-provoking graffiti. So let’s continue to page 2 of this recent history – 2007 to the present time …

More (press stories/further info)

Links from The Press in York, with more information on some of the events and developments (or lack of them) during these years.

29 June 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/06/29/7884205._Bo_Ding_Warehouse__tarnishes_York_Pride/

12 July 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/07/12/7883561.What_next_for_York_s_empty_Warehouse_/

17 July 2004 – http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/07/17/7883247.Talks_continue_over_future_of_derelict_pub/

14 August 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/08/14/7880381.Squatters_take_over_York_pub/

16 August 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/08/16/7880332.Gang_gatecrashes_York_squatters__party/

18 August 2004 – 
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/08/18/7880233.Squatters_leave_pub/

19 August 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/08/19/7880187.Leaseholders_at_war_with_council_over_derelict_pub/

20 August 2004 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/08/20/7880097.Trashed/

14 September 2004 – 
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2004/09/14/7878826.Youth_plan_for_eyesore/

15 March 2005 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2005/03/15/7867928.Bonding_Warehouse_tenants_in_council_rent_fight/

15 November 2005 –
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/2005/11/15/7975663.Future_of_the_Bonding_Warehouse_up_in_the_air_as_tenants_allegedly_say_____no__to___250k/

1 September 2006
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/902763.Homes_plan_for_city_eyesore/

2 September 2006
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/905082.United_front_for_eyesore/

6 September 2006
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/readersletters/908382.Ignominious_fate/ (letter from Alison Sinclair)

8 September 2006
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/912612.City_eyesore__We_reveal_the_truth/

13 September 2006
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/917899.Derelict_former_pub_to_be_sold/

20 September 2006
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/927934.David_Hattersley_sees_Bonding_Warehouse_as_luxury_hotel/

27 October 2006
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/990290.Bonding_Warehouse_shops_plan/

10 November 2006
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1014311.War_of_words_erupts_over_future_use_of_The_Bonding_Warehouse/

15 December 2006
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1076988.Students____squatting_protest_in_landmark_city_building/

19 December 2006
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1080550.Squatters_leave_Bonding_Warehouse/

28 February 2007
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1224049.Swanky_flats_on_waterfront/

5 March 2007
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1235048.People_power_must_decide_future_of_landmark_buildings__says_Green_Party/

The post The recent history of the Bonding Warehouse, in pictures: 1 appeared first on York Stories.

Sold

So here it is, in June 2007, displaying a ‘Sold’ sign. This obviously seemed significant enough to take photos of, but it’s only very recently that I’ve realised – seeing the redevelopment work, the private bridge being constructed to the expensive apartments – just how significant.

I said it had been ‘ours’. I meant ours in the sense of being a venue we loved, back in the 1990s. A place I spent many memorable happy times. More on that story later. But of course it was ‘ours’ in a bigger sense. It was, for all its former life, until this sign appeared, a council-owned building, built for the local authority and still owned by the council (and occupied by leaseholders). If it’s a council asset then it belongs to ‘the city’, to us.

All that ended, inevitably, probably. It’s a difficult building, because of the flooding problems and because it’s a listed building. It clearly needed a massive investment to make it flood proof and to repair the years of neglect, and so the only way to finance that is to turn it into expensive, exclusive accommodation, I guess.

There may be, later, a restaurant on the ground floor. So some of us may be able to afford a meal there. But some of us know what we’ve lost. As the next picture, from 2007, shows. It’s one of my favourite images from the ten years this site has been online.

Private, exclusive, expensive … What else could you be?

The gates facing Skeldergate decorated with thought-provoking graffiti, in the summer of 2007. I wrote about this earlier. And saw it fade, later.

Those gates will be gone now. Iron security gates will probably replace them.

Its river-facing side, looking particularly dilapidated

Several people had been keen to get their hands on this building and it all got a bit heated. Local businessman Marti Dix and beggar-hating entrepreneur David Hattersley had a ‘war of words’ in the pages of the Press, flinging around phrases like ‘yuppie playpen’ and ‘old hippy rubbish’. In the end, it was sold to William Legard, and his planning application was submitted in November 2007.

Site notice for planning application to convert to office and residential use

Still perched on by pigeons

More letters lost from the once proud signage on the end of the building, but the pigeons didn’t care, and perched on it as they had for years.

Redevelopment halted, summer 2011

Work began. Materials and scaffolding filled the yard. On the walls were signs advertising the involvement of Watson & Son, a long-established local firm, in the building work.

The Press reported, on 2 June 2011, that the scheme had collapsed, and that the Bonding Warehouse had been repossessed. Which is why I revisited to take yet more photos.

Watson & Son also went out of business, so I understand, as a result of the collapse of this redevelopment scheme.

For Sale, again …

So here we are again, with the Bonding Warehouse ‘For Sale’ again, in 2011.

Water, water everywhere

And here we are again, with the building surrounded by flood water, in the autumn of 2012. A reminder of the floods of twelve years earlier which had led to its closure.

The Watson & Son sign is still there, a little reminder of recent history.

Handsome place, still, isn’t it, even after all the neglect, and the half-done redevelopment.

View from the (temporary) bridge, Skeldergate

And around the other side, with flood waters reaching up to Skeldergate and the road along the front of the building, the one I walked along to take those photos in early 2004. I took this from a temporary bridge put in place to help the residents of the flats next door access their property.

On its way to a new use

And eventually, we get to the present time. The residents of this building apparently can’t make do with a temporary bridge but have to have a permanent bridge, which is being built across the small green area opposite. I don’t recall there being any opposition to this. After fourteen years I guess the council and other organisations were desperate to see the place rescued and brought back into use.

The roof line has been altered (ruined, in my humble opinion) by cute little windows peeking up above where the roof used to be, where the pigeons gathered. Signs are hanging off the end advertising apartments only very few people could ever afford.

In a different city, perhaps this place would have been kept by the local authority? In recognition of its value to the wider community?

Anyway, it’s goodbye, Bonding Warehouse, as you’re turned into a shadow of your former self.

Many of us remember this building when it was full of music and people laughing. More on that story soon.

More (press stories/further info)

Reports from The Press in York during this period. See also the links on page 1 of ‘Recent history of the Bonding Warehouse’.

28 June 2007
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1503312.Buyer_of_Bonding_Warehouse_is_named/

2 July 2007
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/readersletters/1512948.Bonding_history/ (letter from Alison Sinclair)

2 June 2011 – http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9062034.Bonding_Warehouse_scheme_collapses/

6 June 2011
– http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/readersletters/9067526.Sorry_state_of_Bonding_Warehouse/

16 November 2011
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9365911.___Preferred_bidder____boost_for_Bonding_Warehouse/

2 May 2012
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9684419.Bonding_Warehouse_set_to_be_brought_back_into_use__12_years_after_closing/

15 Oct 2012
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9984818.Future_of_York___s_Bonding_Warehouse_in_doubt/

8 July 2013
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/business/news/10532291.Green_light_for_Bonding_Warehouse_redevelopment_plan/

22 Jan 2014
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/10953821.Bonding_Warehouse_flats_put_on_market/

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Bonding Warehouse, York, Feb 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The other side of the engine house, six years on, in August 2013.

Everything looks better under a blue sky, but then this building has always looked good, even when dilapidated and empty. And the area behind it was always photogenic. Which is why I find I’ve many photos of it, too many to fit on a page. (An album to follow.)

(Here it is: Engine house and nearby, photos 2004-13)

In case you’re wondering where it is, here it is in its context, pictured in January 2011, from inside the Museum Gardens, from the bank of the city wall. That short stretch we tend to forget is a section of city wall, heading towards Lendal Tower. In the distance, on the left, the former railway offices across the river. To the right, the Museum Gardens. Near the engine house, to the left, is the toilet block, demolished as part of the work taking place here.

I’m not in the mood for a history lesson, though the history of the engine house is interesting, instead I’d like to mention that this was one of my favourite forgotten corners, behind the engine house, all peeling paint and piles of old fencing and ivy and weeds.

In the summer of 2007 the land behind the engine house seemed to be a bin graveyard, with disheveled ranks of 1970s style bins.

Cut into the bank of the city wall, a short tunnel, an archway, here stuffed full of more junk, in the summer of 2007.

Lendal Tower itself and the houses in its shadow were refurbished, but the engine house remained empty for many years, with the proposed redevelopment as a restaurant apparently stalled. But this year it’s all started, the transformation of this place. It’s not a quiet corner now, but full of activity and cement and steel and men in hard hats.

The door in the archway is open, and passers-by on the slope down to the river next to Lendal Bridge can see the work taking place around the engine house.

And here’s what they’ve been making. Photo taken a couple of days ago from the riverside walkway near Lendal Bridge. The old engine house in the background, with a new extension to one side (where the toilet block used to be). All part of The Star Inn the City, opening this autumn.

So much more could be said, but perhaps readers can share their thoughts. I know many people who read these pages are now many miles away, but like to keep up with changes and developments. This, so close to Lendal Bridge, is I think an important one, after the engine house was empty for so long.

Many readers will know the building as the offices of York Waterworks. I’m interested, as always, in our more recent history, the meanings buildings have to residents, and the stories connected to those buildings we perhaps take for granted, like this one. So please add a comment if you have information to share.

More

Information from Heritage Explorer

The engine house was mentioned on an earlier (pre-blog, 2009) page on this site, which includes historical information

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