The times, they are a-changing...

The modern Ortho-Care building that I've recently featured, built in 2012, sits beside the canal at the end of the Salts Mill site. Between that and the river is a large office building, opened in 1978, that until very recently belonged to the Civil Service and housed HMRC's (Revenue and Customs) banking centre, where tax and VAT cheques used to be processed. With the move to online banking, much of this became redundant. Civil Service reorganisation has led to the departments being moved to a brand new digital centre in Leeds, though the pandemic has rather confused those plans, meaning that most staff ended up working largely from home and the planned move was to some extent disrupted.

Shipley now waits to find out what will become of this site. There have been rumours it was earmarked for residential rather than business use. I can't imagine anyone would find a good use, long-term, for a large office block and a rather outdated data centre and light industrial unit. I may be wrong but I'd predict it standing empty and deteriorating for years and then being demolished in favour of, perhaps, a retirement apartment complex or an estate of town houses. (See HERE for an interesting aerial view of the site and its surroundings). Being so close to the river may be an issue, as the site flooded badly in 2015. 

The Victoria Mills complex (now apartments) stands next door and it's interesting to compare the longevity of the architectural styles from the 19th and 20th century. One built to last, the other not so much...