St Joseph's orphanage

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The site of the former St Joseph’s Orphanage in Preston city centre looks set to be partially demolished for housing.
Plans have been recommended for approval which would see several of the Grade II-listed buildings pulled down. However, the chapel would be retained and converted into new properties.
The Mount Street site has lain empty and become increasingly derelict over the course of more than a decade – parts of it were last used as a care home. But heritage campaigners have strongly opposed the proposed demolitions.
Under the plans, the orphanage itself and Sick Poor Institute block – built in 1872 and 1877 respectively – would be levelled, along with a hospital building added in 1933 and two others built in the 1950s. However, the gable end of the orphanage and an associated tower would escape the bulldozers
The chapel, built in 1911, would be turned into seven town houses, with the cleared part of the site housing three newly-built apartment blocks – totalling 48 flats – and a further ten town houses.
A heritage statement accompanying the application accepts that the loss of the nineteenth century buildings would “lead to substantial harm to the significance of [a] heritage asset
The site is considered to have historical value in its demonstration of the need for orphanage facilities during the late Victorian era.   The hospital building was also where Lancashire-born musician and comedian George Formby died in 1961.
However, a feasibility report notes the extremely poor condition of the buildings, which have deteriorated even since previous plans for the site were drawn up in 2009 –