The Georgian building that’s been left to rot in historic Richmond town centre

It is a substantial, three storey house, built about 1785, Grade II listed, and covered in signs which say “danger, keep out”. Plus there’s graffiti.

But this must be a much sought after location.

Friary Lodge seen from the Victoria Road car parkFriary Lodge stands in the shadow of the late 15th Century Greyfriars Tower, and is just over the road from the Georgian Theatre. It is approached through a grand, castellated archway, put up in the early 19th Century – perhaps with older battlements on top of it – and moved about 25ft to its current location in the early 1930s when Victoria Road was widened.

The arch that leads to Friary LodgeAs the archway was relocated, skeletons were found around it – one of a woman with a young child’s skull resting on her shoulder – suggesting that this was the burial ground for the Franciscan friary that was founded on the corner in 1258.

The friary’s founder was Ralph Fitz Randall, lord of Middleham, whose heart was buried in the friary church in 1270. He is still commemorated in the name of the Wetherspoons pub opposite.

The friary was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538, and Richmondians gleefully made off with its stonework, leaving only the tower and a few bits of medieval walls standing.

Greyfriars Tower is listed with Friary Lodge as they form an important groupIn 1888, Richmond Grammar School took over the friary site. Amid the medieval walls, it built a headmaster’s house and a boarding school for about 30 boys, and it converted Friary Lodge into a boarding house for girls.

In 1971, all three schools in Richmond merged onto the modern site on the approach to the town, and the friary site was owned by North Yorkshire County Council until it was taken on by the NHS which had ambitions to build a hospital.

Indeed, Friary Lodge’s last use was in the late 1990s when the doctors from the Queens Road Surgery used it as a temporary practice until their accommodation in the new, neighbouring community hospital was ready.

The hospital opened in 1999, and the final piece of the project was a £364,000 grant from the Lottery to restore the friary walls and Friary Lodge “to their original condition”.

Then there was much debate about Friary Lodge’s future. There was talk of it becoming a psychiatric unit attached to the hospital, but when it was deemed surplus to NHS requirements, in 2006 planning permission was granted to convert it into a residential use with up to five apartments.

It was then sold to a private buyer, and has since fallen derelict.

The derelict Friary Lodge in RichmondThe 2019 Conservation Area Appraisal compiled by Richmondshire District Council says: “As a large Georgian property in an historic town and Conservation Area this is very unfortunate and the house, which could be a significant contribution to the character of the area, is at present a negative component in the street.”

Its negativity grows with each passing season. In 2023, the SAVE Britain’s Heritage group placed it on its list of threatened historic properties, although it is not among the three Richmond buildings on Historic England’s At Risk Register.

Perhaps it should be.

But surely in this historic location in this historic town, someone can make a profit out of making it a desirable place to live or stay – before the vandals and the arsonists get to it.

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