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08
Aug
Harrogate's 'little temple' to be demolished for £12.1 million Station Gateway
The 'little temple' on Station Square in Harrogate is to be demolished as part of the £12.1 million Harrogate Station Gateway.
The scheme, which is due to get underway in autumn, will see major changes to Station Parade and Station Square.
Full plans have not been released yet — and there will be no public consultation on the final designs.
But after newly released visuals of the scheme didn't include the tempietto, the Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Council if it would be removed.
Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways and transport, said:
The council has previously applied for planning permission to remove the tempietto. It is being removed to make more space available for events.
We looked at relocating the structure, but it would cost significantly less to build a new one than it would to carefully dismantle and rebuild. As the structure was built in the early 1990s, it is not considered to be of heritage value and will be disposed of.
The tempietto, which is inside Harrogate Conservation Area, was built between 1988 and 1992 as part of the redevelopment of the area to create the Victoria Shopping Centre.
Made of Jedburgh sandstone, its classical design was based on the work of 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio’s basilica at Vicenza in Italy.
Proposed move to Starbeck
Starbeck postmaster Andrew Hart campaigned to move the tempietto to Starbeck when the now-defunct Harrogate Borough Council applied to remove the structure as part of the original gateway plans in 2022.
But demolition was put on hold when the council admitted its original gateway proposals breached public law and drew up revised plans.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Hart said Harrogate Borough Council made a promise to seriously consider moving the tempietto to an agreed site in Starbeck and North Yorkshire Council should honour that.
He added:
The Starbeck Community Group are very disappointed that they will not, after all, receive the tempietto. Yet again, Starbeck will not be considered when Harrogate is almost certainly going to get a £12.5 milion investment. We need investment in our High Street too.
Harrogate Civic Society also expressed concern when the tempietto’s future was previously in jeopardy.
Its website published an article in January 2023 which said:
The tempietto is not a historic structure but its design was carefully based on the work of Palladio and it has been an attractive element within the Harrogate Conservation Area for approximately 30 years.
Careful dismantling of the tempietto would allow it to be incorporated into the re-design for Station Square but this does not appear to have been seriously considered. Alternatively, another location elsewhere in the town would be possible.
The society strongly objects to the waste of a well-designed, stone-built artefact and has written to the council indicating that, at this stage, no application to demolish the Tempietto should be determined.
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