York divided over plan for new ‘Roman quarter’ (hotel and 153 flats included)
No one in the column of tourists making their way to York Minster along the city wall even glances at Northern House. The slab of beige 1960s architecture is not a building that provokes much passion.
But the layers of mud beneath it are a different matter. A plan to demolish Northern House to unearth the centuries of history below and create a new Roman-themed visitor centre, hotel and apartments has caused a row among archaeologists.
York Archaeology Trust (YAT) has teamed up with a local developer, North Star, to propose the creation of an enormous underground museum filled with the Roman artefacts they are confident will be found below Northern House.
The “Roman quarter” development – to be called Eboracum, the name of the Roman precursor to York – would be funded by Northern House’s replacement: a 10-storey building with an 88-room hotel, 153 apartments and office space.
Yet the plan has opponents ranged against it from Historic England, which described it as “confused and contradictory”, to the Council for British Archaeology.
“We’ve been quite shocked by the brutal approach taken with this particular development,” said Neil Redfern, the executive director of the CBA, which represents more than 600 institutions. Normally archaeologists are brought on board after a development is proposed, he said, and digs are no bigger than necessary.
“What this proposal is doing is saying, no, we would like a visitor centre and to get that visitor centre we want to dig a very, very big hole to find the material that we might then put in that visitor centre. And to afford that, we’re going to need an extremely large building on top.”
“The present Northern House is certainly no beauty,” said Johnny Hayes, a former independent York city
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