Landmark hotel where rugby league was born to be taken over by council

A TOWN’S landmark hotel, famous for being the birthplace of rugby league, will today be taken over by Kirklees Council.

The process has been speeded up to tie-in with a key meeting over the future National Museum for Rugby League, a version of which had a base in the building of the George Hotel, Huddersfield.

Papers to be put before Kirklees Council’s decisionmaking Cabinet today reveal that the authority will pay “an enhanced premium” for the Grade II*-listed building, which was built in the 1850s. Members of the Cabinet are not expected to stand in the way of the deal.

The purchase is expected to be completed by the end of July. A decision on the future of the hotel was expected at the end of June. It was brought forward to strengthen the council’s bid to host the rugby league museum at the birthplace of the sport.

A four-year long project to launch the museum at Bradford City Hall was scrapped in April when the charity behind the project – Rugby League

Cares – said it was re-opening the process for organisations to establish a museum. The council has applied for Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) status seeking £1m towards restoration of heritage buildings in St George’s Square including the George Hotel and the Estates Building on Station Road.

It was in the George Hotel in August 1895 that 21 Lancashire and Yorkshire clubs voted to secede from the Rugby Football Union to set up their own union.