High Point is a high rise former commercial building in Bradford, in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is a prominent example of

Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...

. Designed by John Brunton Partnership of Bradford, it was completed in 1972 to serve as the headquarters of the

Yorkshire Building Society Yorkshire Building Society is the third largest building society in the UK, with its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the Building Societies Association. The society also owns the Chelsea Building Society a ...

but went unused for decades.

History

High Point was built as the headquarters of the

and completed in 1972. High Point was one of a trifecta of headquarters of

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdo ...

built in the brutalist style at the time of its construction in

Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. The other two were the headquarters of the

Halifax Building Society Halifax commonly refers to: *Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada *Halifax, West Yorkshire, England * Halifax (bank), a British bank Halifax may also refer to: Places Australia *Halifax, Queensland, a coastal town in the Shire of Hinchinbrook *Halifax ...

Bradford & Bingley Building Society Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley. The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society's mem ...

Bingley Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census. Bingley railwa ...

Twentieth Century Society The Twentieth Century Society (C20) is a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. The society's interests embrace buildings and artefacts that characterise 20th-century Britain. It is for ...

described the three buildings as representing in retrospect "the last-gasp of a sort of Heath-Wilsonian regional resurgence, at a time when "financial services" were not synonymous with the corporate casino-ism of the City of London, but a flourishing of century-old Victorian independent mutuals, and northern self-sufficiency". High Point was included in ''Brutal North: Post-War Modernist Architecture in the North of England'', Simon Phipps's photographic study of Brutalist architecture.

Design

High Point is a prominent example of

. It was designed by the John Brunton Partnership of Bradford. It is 8 storeys in height and is noted for its use of ribbed concrete. George Sheeran, writing in ''Bradford in 50 Buildings'', describes the "long narrow windows, like arrow slits, giving the appearance of a castle keep" unconsciously implying the surety of the Yorkshire Building Society's loans and investments. The extreme height of the building in comparison to its neighbours can cause excessive wind turbulence. In his '' A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain'',

Owen Hatherley Owen Hatherley (born 24 July 1981 in Southampton, England) is a British writer and journalist based in London who writes primarily on architecture, politics and culture. Early life Hatherley was born in Southampton in 1981, growing up in a 1930s ...

describes High Point as "utterly freakish, the severed head of some Japanese giant robot clad in a West Yorkshire stone aggregate". The building had become unused for several decades prior to the 2010s. An informal panel discussion on High Point in March 2018 included participants from the Bradford Civic Society, the Director of the

, Catherine Croft, and the architectural critic and historian Simon Jenkins. The non-binding discussion ended with a resolution to seek a new use for the building. Croft said that buildings such as High Point demonstrate "how cities have evolved" and that by "trying to erase the legacy of brutalism you are simplifying the history of a city". Jenkins felt that the Brutalist style of Highpoint was "F-you architecture" intended as a political statement by its architects as opposed to an aesthetic that they themselves would personally utilise. 78% of respondents to a 2018 poll run by a local newspaper, the ''

Telegraph & Argus The ''Telegraph & Argus'' is the daily newspaper for Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is published six times each week, from Monday to Saturday inclusive. The newspaper has offices in Newhall Way, Bradford, from where its journalists work ...

'' said that High Point should be demolished. An illegal rave attracted 500 revellers to the High Point in March 2010 before it was broken up by police.

Gallery

File:Westgate Point (2037540793).jpg, High Point in November 2007 File:High Point, Westgate, Bradford - geograph.org.uk - 1449431.jpg, High Point from street level in August 2009 File:View from the Big Wheel (16938895535).jpg, A distant view of High Point in March 2015 File:Westgate Point again (2037546357).jpg, Detail of the tower of High Point

References

External links

{{Commons category, High Point, Bradford
Medium – Richard Ramsden essay on High PointHigh Point at SOSBrutalismPhotographs of High Point by John Cade
Bank buildings in the United Kingdom Brutalist architecture in England Buildings and structures in Bradford Concrete buildings and structures Office buildings completed in 1972