The George Hotel in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England, is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, designed by William Wallen, with an Italianate façade. It was built in 1848–50. The hotel is famous as the birthplace of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

football in 1895. Memorabilia recalling the meeting can be found throughout the hotel as well as in the Heritage Centre.

Description

The hotel is in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

with a rusticated ground floor, moulded

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

, moulded

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

s, a moulded

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

with

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

-shaped

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s, and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

Mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

. There are four storeys and attics, seven bays on the front and three on the sides. The windows are sashes; on the ground floor they have vermiculated quoins and keystones, in the first floor they have moulded surrounds and full

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

s, the central window has a segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

, and two outer windows have triangular pediments. The attic contains seven

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

s with casements and segmental pediments. On the right return, the middle window in the first floor has a balcony with a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

of intersecting circles, and a badge with

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

History

Huddersfield railway station opened in 1847 to the north of the town's established town centre. At that time much of the town was owned by the Ramsden Estate. The then head of the family owning this estate, Sir John William Ramsden, 5th Baronet, was keen to develop Huddersfield town centre, and especially the area near the station. The rather grand St George's Square in front of the station was part of this, as was the construction of the George Hotel on that square. The Ramsden Estate had already built a hotel for the town, known as the George Inn and located on the north side of the established Market Place, in 1726 and rebuilt it in 1787. However the new St George’s Square was linked to Market Place by a newly created John William Street (named after its creator), and this required the demolition of the George Inn. As a replacement, the George Hotel was built in 1848–50 next to the station, the two buildings forming two sides of St George’s Square. An east wing was added to the hotel on an unknown date prior to 1874, with an elevation facing John William Street and contained a large dining room on the ground floor, billiards room on the first floor, and bedrooms above. In 1874, a north-west wing was added, containing a kitchen and laundry. The glass and iron south entrance porch was added in 1926. Further extensions and interior re-modellings followed in the 1930s and 1960s. In the meantime, the whole Ramsden Estate had been bought by Huddersfield Corporation, bringing the freehold of the hotel into council ownership. The building is still owned in this way, albeit by

Kirklees Council Kirklees Council, also known as Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority for the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. As a metropolitan borough council it provides the majority of local government ser ...

as successor body to Huddersfield Corporation. The building was listed at Grade II* in September 1977. The hotel closed in January 2013. In 2022, it was reported that the vacant hotel would be redeveloped at a cost of £20 million as a Radisson RED hotel, opening in 2024. In 2023, approval was given for the demolition of certain portions of the hotel as part of the redevelopment.

The hotel and Rugby League

It was in the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 that 21 Lancashire and Yorkshire clubs held a meeting and by a majority of 20 to 1 voted to

secede Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the c ...

from the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

to set up their own Northern Rugby Football Union. In 1922 this became the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

. Stockport was also accepted into the league via telephone to the hotel. The

British Amateur Rugby League Association The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created on 3 March 1973 at t ...

(BARLA) was also founded at the George Hotel in 1973. The Rugby League Heritage Centre was located in the basement of the George from 2005 until the closure of the hotel in 2013. It was the UK's only rugby league heritage museum. It was the brainchild of sports presenter

Mike Stephenson Michael Stephenson (born 27 January 1947) is an English former rugby league commentator and player. Stephenson was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is commonly known as "Stevo", the nickname that he is known by in rugby league ...

. Within the centre were displays of memorabilia, including rare jerseys, medals, caps, programmes and photographs. There was also footage played on several plasma screens. The British Rugby League Hall of Fame was also located in the Heritage Centre. On 24 June 2020, Rugby League Cares announced a partnership with

to establish a National Rugby League Museum in the George Hotel.

The hotel and popular culture

In the 1960s and 1970s the artist L. S. Lowry would dine in the restaurant and was known to have drawn on the napkins and given them to the dining room waiting staff. In 2019, the George Hotel was 'set alight' by film crew for ''

COBRA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

'', a six part television series which aired on

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

in 2020.

References

External links