"It was a lump in your throat moment": Gabby Logan's mum Christine Yorath on demolishing her home of over 40 years to make way for luxury apartments
It was an emotional moment for Christine Yorath as she watched the excavator make the first cut into her cherished Art Deco home – the place where she raised her family and lived happily for over 40 years.
Although Val D’Or had been slowly stripped out since she moved out last summer, the initial stage of the demolition still proved to be a bit of a wrench.
The 10,000 sq ft mansion in Shadwell, Leeds, thought to be worth £2m, is where she settled down with her family and raised her children, television presenter Gabby Logan and her siblings Louise, Daniel and Leeds property agent, Jordan.
"It was quite emotional when the demolition started but I felt like I really had to be brave,” Christine says. “When the machine lumbered in, it almost felt like a big robotic human. It literally took a first bite out of what was my office to the west side of the property with its big metal teeth. That was quite a lump in your throat moment, there was no going back.”
Of course, Christine, 74, doesn’t actually want to go back. Always the optimist, she’s excited about Val D’Or’s next chaper.
After realising that her house was too large for one person and required extensive work to modernise, she decided to downsize.
Unable to find a property that met her specific needs, she had a brainwave to create a new Val D’Or. She plans to rebuild it in a similar Art Deco style to the original and create extra-large luxury apartments, with one reserved for herself.
Her extensive experience in renovating, designing, developing, and styling homes began in the 1980s with back-to-back terraced houses she purchased with her then-husband, former Leeds United and Welsh footballer Terry Yorath. Over the years, she progressed to award-winning apartment schemes in York, Leeds city centre, and beyond.
She has teamed up with Torsion Homes to create The Residences at Val D’Or, which will house nine extra large and luxurious, two to three bedroom apartments ranging from 1,600sq ft to 2,300 sq ft, designed by Den Architects with Christine’s input.
The project has a gross development value of £12m and one of the properties will be hers and the others will be sold. The apartments are available to buy off plan and three have already been snapped up even though the scheme won’t be completed until mid-2026.
Although the building will be completely new, Christine has saved a few architectural pieces from her previous home, inset, to incorporate into the scheme, including the sculpted panel that sat above the front door to the house, given to her by Mica Sidi, the artist who built the house in the 1930s.
She’s also kept the art deco metal grill from the front door and a metre-high silver gate decorated with tulips that once stood between her lounge and the bar.
"I don’t know what I’ll do with them but I just didn’t want them to get smashed up with everything else,” she says.
Outside, Christine instructed the builders to keep as many of the trees as possible, but one in particular was non-negotiable. After her 15-year-old son, Daniel, who had just signed a professional contract with Leeds United, collapsed and died from an undetected heart condition while playing football in the garden in 1992, she planted a weeping willow tree.
“His friends used to come round and take buckets of oatmeal and water to feed it and it’s now huge,” she says. "It’s a lovely spot to sit in. Daniel will always be with us, so it’s like I’m saying ‘don’t worry, I’m taking you back, kid’.”
Meanwhile, Christine has downsized into a 2,000 sq ft cottage nearby, which she is renting from former Leeds United striker Brian Deane.
Her new apartment will be bigger at 4,4000 sq ft but she’s still had to give away or sell a lot of her possessions. "I’ve got storage all over the place but I’ve got rid of loads of stuff,” she says. “One woman bought seven sofas from me.”
She adds: "I also have some big paintings in storage but I’ve put a lot up in this cottage and I’ve also got three lots of garden tables and chairs. When Gabby came up I said to her: “Don’t be surprised, but I’m living in an art gallery in a pub garden because that’s what it feels like at the moment.”
The new apartments will be spacious and include air conditioning, underfloor heating, smart technology, large balconies and terraces with rural views.
Each apartment will have two or three bedrooms, with each bedroom including an ensuite, plus a guest bathroom.
They will also feature handbuilt kitchen diners with a dining area that will seat six to eight people and each apartment will include a separate snug/lounge.
There is also a communal gym and communal grounds along with lifts to all floors and locker rooms.
Now the house has been demolished, the next step will be to dig out the huge underground car park. The builders are expected to remove 500 truck loads of clay from the four-metre deep hole needed to accommodate the basement. “I joked this morning that we can do helicopter flights over it, like they do with the Grand Canyon,” Christine says. “The hole is going to be massive.”
Apartment prices are £995,000 to £1.395m. For details of the available apartments, contact monroeestateagents.com