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09
Jan
Developer of Harrogate's Herald Buildings gives update
Work on Harrogate’s Herald Buildings, the historic property on Montpellier Hill, is set for completion in late spring, the Stray Ferret can reveal.
The building, whose ground floor was occupied by the Slug and Lettuce pub until 2021, is currently undergoing conversion into four ground-floor retail units with five flats above, including a penthouse.
When we first reported in February 2024 that work had begun on the property, we were told that it would be finished by spring 2025. But delays – including one caused by a small fire in June 2024 – have seen the expected completion date slip by a year.
The gilded sign above the main entrance.
The building was for a long time covered in scaffolding, but most of that has now been removed. However, some remains at the back of the building.
Richard Baker, senior development surveyor at Rushbond plc, the Harrogate-based firm behind the project, told the Stray Ferret:
We demolished a stairwell at the rear of the building and are replacing it with a new staircase and lift, so the apartments will be accessible either through the main entrance at the front or via a new rear entrance.
The apartments themselves are at various stages, but the majority of the work is now just internal fixtures and fittings.
Scaffolding remains at the rear of the building.
Two of the ground-floor retail units have already been let, but the flats are not yet being actively marketed by Fallowdale Homes, Rushbond's housebuilding arm.
Herald Buildings was home to Ackrill Newspapers – publisher of the Harrogate Herald and the Harrogate Advertiser – from the 1850s until 1990. Large painted signs remain on the brickwork, advertising Ackrill’s and the Advertiser’s weekly list of visitors to the town during its heyday as a fashionable spa. Rushbond's redevelopment has retained these features.
The building's brickwork retains its original painted adverts.
Mr Baker said:
The end product of conservation projects and the refurbishment of period buildings is generally more rewarding than other types of redevelopments.
Photo: Fallowdale Homes.
Rushbond has been behind some of the most high-profile transformations of historic buildings across the region over the last four decades, including Bretton Hall near Wakefield, River House and Little Stonegate in York, and the Corn Exchange, Brewery Wharfe and the Majestic (now home to Channel 4) in Leeds.
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