Go-ahead given to demolish care home for new homes

A former care home will be demolished to make way for 36 new homes under plans to revamp part of York.

City of York Council's plans are set to see Willow House, in Long Lane Close near Walmgate, torn down along with four garages and a storage building.

Planning documents stated removing the buildings would have a "positive impact" on the setting of York's walls and other historic features.

The demolition and the new homes come as part of the wider masterplan for the area south of Walmgate, the council said.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the care home is vacant and in a poor state of repair.

Archeological digs and field work were done at the site between 2021 and 2025, with historic activity in the wider Walmgate area going back as far as the Romans.

Medieval and 19th-Century structures have been found below the Willow House site itself.

Human remains from burials at the Medieval St Peter-le-Willows church which no longer survives were found when the care home was first built.

A council report said the demolition would provide an opportunity to uncover more of the site's archaeological significance.

But it added deposits could be disturbed during the works and would need to be monitored and preserved, or if that was not feasible, excavated.

While demolition has been approved, plans for the 36 affordable homes on the site were still being considered by the council.

The proposals state that the homes would create a new neighbourhood which would provide much-needed affordable housing in York.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.