Dorman Long Tower - Listed Building Status

newyddion

Well-known member
With talk of planning permission going through to have Dorman Long Tower demolished.. is there any way of getting the building listed as one with significant historic importance?

We've seen some wonderful buildings demolished on Teesside only to be replaced by car parks.. or nothing at all. It kind of feels like our local identity is being torn away.. with nothing of value put in it's place.

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We've been down this route before. A lot of people who have to look out on it would like it demolished, but many others would like to follow your thinking. I believe the Gazette ran a poll on whether it should stay or go. Demolish came out on top.
 
Definitely Marmite - The place is filthy and was built to store coal in. Other than it being a monument to the steel industry, I'm not sure what else they could do with it.
I'm sure it could be cleaned up a bit. Maybe the people who don't want to look at it (after all the years it has stood there) could have a sight screen built.
 
We've been down this route before. A lot of people who have to look out on it would like it demolished, but many others would like to follow your thinking. I believe the Gazette ran a poll on whether it should stay or go. Demolish came out on top.
Just demolish everything of architectural or historical or cultural significance based on a Gazette internet ran poll.
 
I'd save it and look to see if it could be reused. Has to be better than knocking it down and replacing it with a tin shed covered in laminate panels being called the Art House, or some such guff.
 
It's not the Sage is it.
are they building the Sage in it's place? I mean as much as I like the car parks that stand where the Cleveland Scientific Institute stood and where the Odeon Cinema was.. they don't really compare. Much the same with the infirmary in comparison to a plastic Aldi store.

if this was anywhere else in the country something would be done with it

anyone remember the water tower from grand designs?
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or the flour mill in gateshead?
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Its location does not help. The MBC cannot decide what to do with the riverside never mind a coal shed. I am all for keeping what is left of our old buildings in the Town but the DL tower has no real use where it is.
 
I've no doubt that it could be used for some activities like climbing walls etc. Many German cities have turned structures like this into centrepieces for fabulous urban parks but I imagine they they will be situated in areas that get more visitors. In north Amsterdam a few years ago I passed a hotel that is half way up a crane.

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People are constantly posting photos and references to Tees built steel structures around the world. How many holiday snaps have been transmitted back to this country with the Dorman Long plaque on Sydney Harbour Bridge? Here is a tower proclaiming Dorman Long still looking down on the Tees. Exactly how iconic do you want to get. It is the past but surely it is also the future. That name continues to give us identity, a sense of belonging, a sense or purpose, down by the steel river.
 
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