GMI starts Huddersfield George Hotel revival: heritage design notes for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
GMI Construction Group has started main works on the £30m renovation of Huddersfield’s Grade II* listed George Hotel, converting the long-vacant building into a 108-room Radisson Red with bar, restaurant, gym and conference facilities. The scheme, part of the Huddersfield Blueprint and led by Kirklees Council, retains the existing stone façade onto St Georges Square while adding two new accommodation storeys to the rear in a sympathetic architectural style. Heritage constraints and commercial viability have driven a two-year preconstruction design phase before the 2025 planning approval.
Technical Brief
- £30m construction value frames the level of structural, heritage and MEP intervention feasible.
- Two-year preconstruction involvement by GMI suggests extensive intrusive surveys, structural appraisals and services mapping in a constrained shell.
- Grade II* listing implies tight controls on interventions to primary structure, internal layouts and original fabric.
- Long vacancy since 2013 raises risks of fabric decay, water ingress, timber rot and hidden structural defects.
- Kirklees Council’s 2020 acquisition means client-side control over phasing, funding and town-centre interface management.
- Location opposite Huddersfield railway station introduces vibration, noise and access constraints for façade works and cranage.
- Rear extension in a non-contrasting style indicates likely use of compatible masonry, window proportions and roof geometry.
- Integration of bar, restaurant, gym and conferencing requires significant new vertical circulation, plant space and fire compartmentation within the historic envelope.
Our Take
Within our 733 Infrastructure stories, relatively few UK items combine Grade II* heritage constraints with a £30m-scale build, so GMI Construction Group’s role at the George Hotel positions it among the contractors comfortable with complex listed-building refurbishments rather than pure new-build work.
The Huddersfield Blueprint regeneration programme gives Kirklees Council a platform to leverage this 108-room Radisson-branded asset as an anchor for wider town-centre footfall, a pattern seen in other northern English councils using single high-profile heritage hotels to de-risk adjacent commercial plots.
A building left vacant since 2013 typically presents latent structural and services risks; the addition of two new rear storeys suggests the design team has opted to concentrate heavier intervention away from the most sensitive Grade II* fabric, which can materially reduce planning friction and conservation disputes during delivery.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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