Pioneer House, Dewsbury 20/07/2008

[Rebel]

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.

Just before it closed

^^ © Copyright Humphrey Bolton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The externals:


Only the door-way survives...




Shop fronts


The Cinema (no projectors, only half a cinema reel)


You can just about see the top of the original proscenium arch


There were loads of original Victorian style tilling everywhere:


Hook for the lift


This was up in the projection room?


View out of the window


In the tower holding the lift motor


This was in the room also


Above the dome was the clock tower...










The clock is driven by an electric motor. The four bells were located above.




Ceilling in one of the rooms




Stairway tiles next to the restaurant


The restaurant...






Outside view...


Stonework detail...

Cheers

~R

[Rebel]

one for Elvis Ernie found this amougst the various records...

[ERNIE99_UK]

Historical images:


Architects plans 1880.



Victory celebrations 1918, and the same part more recently.


The corner (more recently the italian restaurant) on a foggy day, 1920.



The butchers department in 1910, and more recently.

[Rebel]

Forgot the bells...thanks fuck they did'nt ring

[Rebel]

A few more...

We were on the restaurant porch and E99UK was reflecting on the buildings history...
“You know, this site used to be a meadow...it was beautiful but now look at it...”


“The council have flattened the building next door to make way for a glass box. What a waste, it could have been a meadow again....i’ll show the council the f-u-c-k-i-n-g scum!!!”