Just a few doors down from the Merchant Adventurers' splendid hall in Piccadilly is this rather delapidated building. Most recently used for paintballing, now empty, it was built in 1931 as the home of Airspeed Ltd. Hard to imagine aeroplanes being built in the middle of York nowadays. One of the directors was Neville Shute Norway, more famous perhaps for his literary career, and one of the original shareholders was Britain's most famous aviatrix Amy Johnson, a local girl from Hull. Should this be preserved as part of aviation history or knocked down as an eyesore?
Incredible to think of the history here. I am still a fan of Nevill Shute Norway, a great novelist. Amy Johnson perhaps still our most famous lady flier. Part of me would like it to be restored but they only made planes here for a few years I think.
ReplyDeleteMy ideal use would it be turned into a community centre of some sort, or maybe a local produce shopping market, with a nod to its heritage with a display of ts past inside.
ReplyDeleteI guess York isn't short of musuem already so could it sustain another one? Funding issues, of course will prevail...
Turn it into artist studios!
ReplyDeleteIt's less expensive, and better for the environment, to recycle a building than it is to tear it down and build a new one. So I vote for finding a new use for the place and renovating. An older building is almost always more attractive, at least in my view.
ReplyDeleteSome good ideas, York does not have an indoor market, nor artist studios. The site will be worth a considerable sum so whatever does move here will have to make money I guess. The connection with planes is slim as Paul is correct Airspeed were only here for a year or two.
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