01/03/2026
Sorry we weren’t open Friday, Saturday and Sunday….
On Friday afternoon we were told to close our doors to the public and to leave the building immediately and not return until advised it is safe again to do so..
In 2024 we reported a hole had appeared in a chimney stack on the roof of the grade listed Hall & Tugwell 1886 designed Westpier Fishsalesmens Offices - what are now Westpier Offices & Studios, and Scarborough’s busiest public toilets…nothing happened, more bricks fell, the hole got bigger, pigeons moved in… we reported again in January 2026.
On Tuesday this week there was a visual inspection via a cherry picker of each of the buildings on Westpier.
We were prevented from accessing the building on the Friday.
it’s now march 2026….
We are Waiting on an Update on Monday after a more detailed inspection and a plan for the works that need doing to make the stack safe has been estimated.
Will keep you posted…
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Back in December 2021 there was a severe storm that damaged the roof and flooded some of the offices and studios.. Repairs took place the following year in 2022 during January, February and March. Well kind of.. it was half a job… They restacked the chimneys and roof tiles and secured the gable ends on exactly half of the building upto the middle ridge tiles of office 12. You can see from the photos below… yes we thought it was odd at the time…
So guess which half of the roof the chimney stack bricks are falling from and which gable end they are concerned with…?
Yes leaving a job half done is always a false economy…
Also whilst you are looking at the building you may also remind yourselves that further back in 2017 they put scaffolding underneath the balcony as a temporary measure… “don’t worry” they said “we will get it repaired within the year” Happy 9th Birthday!
In 1996 they promised to care and look after this grade listed building in return for converting the ground floor offices into public toilets by knocking through walls and removing original fireplaces and architectural plan features…
We can see how well those promises were kept…
At the start of the regeneration project we were promised a full restoration of the building… but business plans drawn up by the regeneration team to be submitted the following year were magically changed at the last minute in Dec 2021 to turn the building into a restaurant which again removes more walls and original architectural plan fireplaces and features of a grade listed building with more promises of “protecting” this heritage building and community asset…
this beautiful Building is in an abusive relationship…
yet its still standing despite its bruises from neglectful beatings…
show it some love… let it be its true self again..
