The pressure to remove one of York's most unpleasant eyesores is gathering pace.

The dilapidated and decaying White Swan Hotel in Piccadilly, nominated by many Evening Press readers as the worst eyesore in York in our Proud To Be York Corner of Shame feature, is coming under increasing scrutiny.

The empty hotel, and the deserted shops below it, has been a blot on the city centre landscape for more than 10 years. Once a proud and thriving city centre hotel, it is now a pale and unpleasant shadow of its former self.

In its heyday the hotel was owned by the late-Major Philip Morris, a colourful character who also ran the Chase Hotel in Tadcaster Road. When he sold up in 1969, the hotel underwent a number of transformations - none of which were particularly successful.

In 1970 it was taken over by the London-based Centre Hotels chain. After a fire in 1975, a German Munster Bar was opened in the basement in 1976.

In 1982 the hotel closed for several months before being re-opened by Catchlord Ltd. It invested £250,000 on updating the hotel.

It was put on the market yet again in April 1987 - in a joint sale with the nearby Barnacles Restaurant for £375,000. After that its progress - or lack of it - has been shrouded in mystery.

Extensive investigations with the York District Land Registry revealed that the hotel was owned by the Graham Family Settled Estates Ltd in 1991, trading from the fifth floor of Lincoln House, 296-302 High Holborn in London.

Unfortunately there is no record of this company at that address today, but further inquiries indicated that the Graham family trust still owned the site.

The agents for the hotel and the surrounding shops are the Liverpool-based Richard Ellis company. Richard Morris, a spokesman for Richard Ellis, said: "The hotel is in a bit of a state, but the shops are available to rent. We would welcome all inquiries and it would be nice to let the shops out. We are aware that people think it is a bit of an eyesore."

"I don't want to say who owns it, in case it ends up on the front page of your paper, but it is a private family trust. In the short term we are looking at renting. In the long term, the hotel and shops are a prime development site," explained Mr Morris.

Meanwhile, Roy Templeman, the director of development and environmental services for the City of York Council, commented:

"Obviously, we are extremely keen to get this site developed as quickly as possible.

"It is in a key area of the city and I agree with your readers that it is something of an eyesore.

"We are looking at the site's potential and hope very much that a suitable development project will be suggested in the near future."

See PROUD TO BE YORK Corner of Shame report

See PROUD TO BE YORK

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