The George Hotel Handover
Last Friday saw the official handover of the repair works on the Grade II* listed George Hotel in Huddersfield.
Our Head of Heritage and Conservation Architect, Helen Walker, was on site to see the contractor, William Birch & Sons Ltd, hand the building back to Kirklees Council.
Bowman Riley provided conservation architecture to Kirklees Council on the George Hotel, which forms part of the Council’s Station Gateway project.
Our in-house photographer Rebecca Jones captured the incredible detail of the stone masonry works, new windows and roof repairs at the George Hotel handover.
The 1851 landmark with an Italianate façade next to the railway station was built to meet the needs of the Victorian traveller. However, the 60-bed hotel closed in 2013 due to competition from chain-budget hotels. An essential part of Huddersfield’s history, the Council purchased the George.
Working with the Council, Historic England, a CARE-accredited structural engineer from Ramboll, a specialist scaffolding company, Everlast and the contractor, William Birch, we provided expert advice to inform the repair strategy on the building. Our role was to help bring this listed building back into use, prolong the life of the building fabric and enhance the significance of the external façade by replacing inappropriate interventions and advice on the re-purposing to ensure no harm to the buildings’ heritage significance.
With the repair works now completed, the project can move onto the next phase, to transform it into a 90+ bedroom Radisson Red hotel working with the development partner, Queensberry.
Read more about the project on Kirklees Council’s website.