2-8 King Cross Street, Hopwood Lane Gateway site, Halifax

Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, has identified the Hopwood Lane Gateway as a priority for regeneration. This triangle of under-developed land and underused buildings lies just inside the ring road on the western edge of Halifax town centre, close to the Elsie Whiteley Centre, which accommodates new high-technology businesses. Visitors to the new Centre and employees of the businesses that locate there pass this area of land en route to the town centre. The site is acknowledged to be an eyesore as well as a waste of economic potential, and may discourage businesses from investing in the neighbourhood. Formed by King Cross Street, Hopwood Lane and Hanover Street, the Gateway site includes several historic buildings at risk and lies within the Halifax Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) area. Some of the properties on the site are eligible for THI and Single Regeneration Budget grant aid.

2-4 King Cross Street stands at the apex of the site and is very prominent from the town centre. This semi-derelict grade II listed building may date from the sixteenth century and have agricultural origins, although its architectural embellishments (stone quoins, ashlar facings and pediments) seem to have been added in the late eighteenth century, when the property was known as Hopwood House.

6-8 King Cross Street was added in the early nineteenth century and was probably built as a pair of semi-detached houses for professionals, such as doctors or solicitors, who practised from office accommodation on the ground floor. Today the buildings are in reasonable order and provide business accommodation for a number of small commercial enterprises. Original plasterwork and joinery has been lost or is in poor repair, however, and roof is in need of an overhaul.

Behind 6-8 King Cross Street there appears to be the remains of a rather fine stable courtyard, although the pediment of the stable wall has been lost and all the arched openings infilled. Behind this elegant façade, a row of cottages at 5 to 11 Hopwood Lane, built within the footprint of the former stables, is in a seriously dilapidated condition and is the subject of a public safety order. The interconnected barn or 'coach house', which may be one of the oldest buildings on the site, is also in a condition beyond economic repair.

Much of the rest of the Gateway site is vacant, with car parking on previously developed land (where a mill and terraces of back-to-back cottages were demolished in the 1960s). The Playhouse, built as a Methodist Chapel in 1836, is still in constant use and a number of businesses operate from the Crown Works. 22-24 King Cross Street is a semi-detached Edwardian tenement building with two ground floor shops and flats above.

Heritage Works was commissioned as part of a consultant team to undertake a conservation assessment for the Hopwood Gateway site and to explore the potential to regenerate the listed historic buildings (2-8 King Cross Street) within the context of a wider regeneration scheme. Yorkshire Forward, Calderdale Council and the Architectural Heritage Fund contributed to the cost of a study, which prepared an Options Appraisal report for the listed structures. Uses under consideration for these buildings and the stable courtyard include residential apartments, offices within a managed business centre and a café in Hopwood House, looking towards the town centre.

In order to lever in grant funding, in June 2007, Heritage Works took ownership of the listed buildings at 6-8 King Cross Street with funding from Yorkshire Forward, and is managing these tenanted properties on behalf of the development agency. Having secured SRB funding and matching funds from Yorkshire Forward / Calderdale Council and Halifax Townscape Heritage Initiative, the Trust is now undertaking a £500,000 emergency works contract, which is planned for completion by mid June 2008.

Meanwhile, the Hopwood Lane Gateway site is the subject of a developer competition to select a private sector partner to complete the restoration and conversion of the King Cross Street properties, alongside new-build residential and commercial development. A public consultation event will take place in June, with the announcement of the preferred developer being expected in July 2008.