Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

York Central

Rob Auld, CEng FICE,  Construction Director McLaren Property, Living and Regeneration 

Joint Lecture with York Society of Engineers.

York Central is one of the largest, and most exciting, city centre regeneration schemes in the UK.

Comprising 45 hectares of land directly linked to the city’s railway station and National Railway Museum, it is a project of world-class ambition which is on track to deliver a brand-new city quarter for York featuring more than 2,500 brand new homes and over 1 million sq ft of commercial and retail space.

And it’s here that a vibrant and distinctive mix of residential neighbourhoods, a high-quality commercial core, cultural spaces, and extensive parkland and public realm will come together to create a brand-new place like no other in the heart of one of the UK’s most historic and desirable cities.

York Central is being developed by a joint venture partnership between McLaren Property and Arlington Real Estate on behalf of majority landowners Homes England and Network Rail.

Rob Auld is the Construction Director for McLaren Property and is responsible for the delivery of this fantastic development. His remit covers, the coordination of design, procurement of the projects, delivery of the construction phases and the establishment of the operational elements of this market leading regeneration of such an important area of a great historic city.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 14 April 2026.

This event is FREE and there is no need to prebook.

Member’s report:

This was a joint lecture with the York Society of Engineers. The lecture started with a brief review of the history of development in York from Roman times through to the modern day. The place of the York Central site – the Teardrop or the Whale site – both names derived from the site’s shape within this historical context was established. In particular, the emergence of York as a major railway centre in the mid nineteenth century and the associated railway infrastructure, latterly abandoned, shaped the site and left it open for regeneration. The site covers an area of forty-five hectares and is two thirds the size of the walled city of York. It is one of the largest regeneration sites in Europe, bigger than the recently regenerated area to the North of London Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. In common with that site, the railway station is integral to its design.

The site is designed to have multiple uses in a modern traffic light context with apartments and houses, retail spaces, and business incubator facilities. Currently 20% of the housing is intended to be affordable. A three hectare parkland runs through the site. The buildings are to be made to modern energy efficient standards. Whilst it mimics other comparable sites in London, Leeds, and Manchester it is intended to retail its “Yorkness”. Buildings are low-rise with sightlines to the Minster and local countryside being retained.

The site is intended to have a major positive economic impact on the city with the provision of two thousand five hundred homes and creating six thousand five hundred jobs. Completion is due by 2035.

New website about the development: https://yorkcentral.uk/

Andy Marvin