A row is raging in York over plans to redevelop a 1960s office block.
The proposal has split archaeologists and heritage groups, with some backing the development and others, including Historic England, describing it as “confused and contradictory”.
York Archaeology Trust has teamed up with local developer North Star to propose the creation of an enormous underground museum filled with the Roman artefacts they are confident will be found below Northern House.
The “Roman Quarter” development – to be called Eboracum, the name of the Roman precursor to York – would be funded by Northern House’s replacement: a 10-storey building with an 88-bedroom hotel, 153 flats and office space.
The Council for British Archaeology said: “We have been quite shocked by the brutal approach taken with this particular development.”
Eboracum would be twice the size of the Jorvik Viking Centre, the result of a similar archaeological dig from 1976 to 1981, also conducted by YAT – before York’s Coppergate shopping centre was built.
