Great news(!) The owner of Chicago rock plans to build a development on the land

The owner of Chicago rock which caught fire in suspicious circumstances has announced, following his hasty decision to demolish rather than save the listed building, that he will press ahead with plans to build a development on the land.

It's unfortunate that it caught fire and that the owner never appointed a recovery team to save the building isn't it. It means the poor sod will now get to build something he wants there instead of a loss making building.

 

Careful...

 

Don't worry I think he will go for the idiots on Facebook who are outright calling him an arsonist and saying it's an insurance job. I'm simply saying it's worked out ok for him long term.

 

I did notice that on the We Are Barnsley Facebook page, either some very brave or stupid people out there. "I'm not saying he did it, but it's my opinion he did it" Oh that's alright then love.

 

That's exactly what I said to Mum the day it caught fire (the day after the QPR game iirc) the minute she said it had been in the Independent that there were plans for a redevelopment.

 

I don't think it was the owner who took the decision to knock it down on his own , it just wasn't safe enough to renovate and the Council couldn't really afford for the main road going through the town to be shut for a few months whilst they do it

 

id favour stupid.

 

Surely the fire brigade will decide how it was fired
Then it's up to the police if there's a case to answer

At the moment the town looks like it is still in the blitz- which will be reflected on how people perceive and treat the town. That is to say - while it's a dump people will treat it like a dump.
It's a real shame

An attractive building and a part of our heritage has been lost to Barnsley forever
And after the thick b@stards who ran the council in the 1960s have left us with very little - then we haven't that many nice buildings to lose

 

I never thought for one minute that the London based owners set fire to a historic, landmark building in order to claim the insurance and clear the land for lucrative development. Nor do I think that the decision to demolish the building, was taken without first looking into all restoration possibilities.

Neither do i think that such malicious allegations should be shared and do not condone any future boycott of businesses operating from the new development, which I'm sure will be lovely and a credit to our town...

 

It was listed because it is an early example of a building with a cast iron frame - the forerunner of the steel frame process used in almost all multi-storey buildings today. That's what enabled the large glazed front area.

I only hope there was a thorough investigation into how the fire started - Hmmm

 

It's listed details can be found at https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1192019

 

Very combustible these listed buildings - happened a few times here as well. Buildings left empty for a while then catch fire only to then be demolished and a new building take its place.

 

The We are Barnsley facebook page, good god are they all Schizophrenic.

"WAB report that the Hedonism building which isn't owned by the council could be demolished, the decision is in the hands of the owners....."

Replies:

"Fecking council"
"BMBC at it again"
"Same old Barnsley council"
"They've done nothing for our town etc etc"

In other news Labour have won the Barnsley election by a landslide 99.9%

 

The WAB page is hilarious, always brightens up my day.

 

' An attractive building and a part of our heritage has been lost to Barnsley forever '

Yes it was , but lets be fair , no-one gave a **** about it before it burned down , but now we're all local preservationists and historians all of a sudden . I do blame the council though, because if, like they say in the Chronicle , the building meant that much to them they would have made the owner restore it long before the fire . Hypocrites the lot of us .

 

There are actually more attractive towns that were flattened by the Luftwaffe.

That's what you get for voting Labour though, ugly buildings and crap schools (and a nice new air-conditioned office block for themselves).

 

Never seems to be though does there when old buildings burn down and then there are houses built on the site, can't think why.

 

Think ugly concrete buildings were a 60's thing rather than a Labour thing - lots of towns/cities have this style of building

 

I'm with you brother/ sister . This coucil are a disgrace they've had billions over the years and basically done sod all with the town . We should have the best town in Northern England . They started re-making barnsley years ago remember the Halo in the sky crap it must have cost rate payers millions but all they do is blame the recession or the govt.

 

Not just Barnsley though - lots of towns - especially in the North have suffered to recover from collapses of their industries. These are the places that receive year on year cuts to their budgets ...