I visited Pioneer House yesterday with ernie99_uk and seized an opportunity to finally get in. One of the buildings has been demolished which enabled access to the rest of the site on this occasion as you will see in a couple of the pictures. Darkness fell a bit quicker than expected which made getting the necessary shots a little more difficult because the building is rather exposed.
The building used to compose of many shops on the ground floor and had a cinema, snooker room, Italian restaurant in the upper floor and the usual co-op funeral directors.
Pioneer House is situated on Northgate and is currently being developed into 54 luxury apartments and 8 shops, as I’m sure comes as little surprise. The building next door is being replaced by a 6 storey glass tower block.
Pioneer house was originally built to house the Co-op society in 1872, which was later known as the Pioneers’ Industrial Society. The Grade II listed building was designed by Holtom and Fox architects who were also responsible for designing the town hall which was build in 1889.
Cheers
~R