THE fate of North Lodge, the old Victorian clerks’ building attached to Clifton Hospital, reveals just how difficult it can be for even historic cities like York to hold on to their heritage.

Late last year, developers Gem Holdings applied for permission to demolish the lodge, so they could build 14 flats.

City archaeologist John Oxley objected, saying that while North Lodge wasn’t listed, it was a ‘significant and prominent’ building.

Planning officials backed him, and recommended that councillors should reject the application.

Gem Holdings withdrew the application before a decision could be made.

But because the building isn’t actually listed, there was nothing to stop the developer demolishing the building. And that is exactly what it has done.

The Victorian Society says the decision to go ahead with the demolition will ‘irreparably damage’ the area.

It believes the building could have been saved and converted into housing, rather than pulled down.

The organisation’s conservation adviser James Hughes admitted that there was nothing illegal about what Gem Holdings had done. But it was ‘regrettable’, he said.

We entirely agree. No, the company didn’t break the law. But at the very least, it could surely have waited so that a proper photographic record of the building could be made first. Now North Lodge is lost and gone forever, and one more small slice of York’s precious heritage is no more.