Summary

Commercial premises, 1880-1881, incorporating the earlier Byram Buildings of 1871-1873 by WH Crossland, which remains a shopping arcade.

Description

MATERIALS: hammer-dressed sandstone with pitched slate roof. Cast-iron roof over arcade with glazed lights.

PLAN: the building occupies an irregular plot set into sloping ground with buildings arranged around a central full-height galleried shopping arcade with glazed roof. The principal elevation faces south onto Westgate whilst the return elevation to Station Street faces west. There is also access into the arcade from Byram Court at the rear (northern side) where the sloping ground also provides external access into the basement.

EXTERIOR: south elevation: this elevation facing Westgate is a wide six bays with five gables to the roofline, including outer pairs separated by chimneys with pilaster strips running up their outer edges. The central gable is crow-stepped with traceried panelling. The ground floor incorporates a mezzanine level above and forms shop units, with two retaining their contemporary shopfronts and the others with modern reproductions. The mezzanine level has timber casements with lintels decorated with contemporary glazed tiles with alternating Tudor roses and fleur-de-lis. Between 12 and 14 Westgate is a three-centred arched entrance into the Byram Arcade, with carved voussoirs and spandrels, and a wrought iron fanlight. This is partially obscured by a cast-iron canopy with a modern glazed roof that projects forward across the pavement. Above the entrance is an elaborate cartouche depicting the arms of the Ramsden family, supported by gryphons holding a banner bearing the words ‘Byram Arcade’. The elevation’s second and third-floor windows are linked by vertical panels in pairs, separated by octagonal colonnettes. There are 13 ranges of plate-glass sashes with chamfered surrounds; those to the third floor have segmental-arched heads. To the outer gables on the fourth floor are paired two-light mullioned windows containing sashes and with hollow chamfered reveals, whilst the larger central gable has two sash windows.

West elevation: this elevation faces Station Street. The ground floor has three restored shop fronts flanked by two doors with pointed arches, chamfered surrounds, crenellated transoms, and fanlights with cinquefoiled wooden tracery. There is a single sash in the first bay. At first floor level at the northern end is a corner turret on an elaborately moulded corbel with a conical roof. On the first floor are four paired sashes and three single sashes. The first and second floor have windows set in tall, recessed panels, whilst above the central three bays of the paired windows are paired round-arched windows with octagonal colonnettes, cusping and quatrefoil oculi above, surmounted by coped gables. Stone brackets support a modern gutter.

North elevation: The rear elevation was constructed in several phases: the earliest phase (1871-1873) to the right is the original Byram Buildings and is four bays and four storeys with four plate-glass sash windows to each floor, and stone brackets supporting a modern gutter. To the left is the rear of the arcade (1880-1881), which features a projecting cast-iron canopied walkway with modern glazed roof along all three-bays. The central bay on the ground floor contains the arcade’s rear entrance with timber multipaned glazed doors and multipaned glazed lights above. There is a shopfront to the right. Stepped access to the left beneath the glazed canopy leads down to the basement. Access into the basement is below the walkway which is supported on cast-iron columns with decorative brackets. Above the ground floor, the bays are separated by stone plasters. Each bay contains four linked sashes of plate glass which are separated from the floor above and below by timber skirts and lintels; the overall impression is a glazed curtain wall. Further to the east of the elevation is a four-storey, one-bay projection with features similar to the right-hand four bays.

INTERIOR: Byram Arcade itself has a glazed roof and two galleried balcony levels wrapping around all four sides, supported on cast-iron brackets with simple tracery, and with elegant wrought iron balustrade with mahogany handrail. Shops are arranged around the central space over three floors with a further storey of commercial units to the fourth floor. The ground floor has a stone staircase within the south-east corner which leads to the upper floors; it features a wrought iron balustrade and ramped handrail. A modern lift has been inserted into the south-west corner. A number of the ground-floor shopfronts are set forward beneath the first-floor balconies, some with canted fronts. Despite later alterations shopfronts generally have a timber panelled stall riser, above which are large shop windows (some with glazing bars) and multiple glazed lights above. Paired entrance doors with glazed upper panels are also a common feature. Unit interiors have been modernised and a number have been merged to create larger shops. A number of units retain cast-iron fireplaces.

History

Huddersfield New Town was a planned development laid out on a grid pattern that took advantage of the arrival of the Leeds-Manchester Railway (1849) and the construction of JP Pritchett’s grand station building. Over the subsequent thirty years previously open land was developed into a bold, cohesive town planning scheme. The development was spearheaded by George Loch, agent of the Ramsden Estate. The Ramsden family owned the manor of Huddersfield from 1599 to 1920 and were responsible for much of the town’s historic development.

The buildings of the New Town included warehouses, offices, retail and hospitality all of which were designed with similar ashlar-faced neoclassical or Italianate street frontages. The Ramsden Estate inspected all proposals for new buildings on their land to ensure quality development. Buildings were designed mainly by local architects but overseen by London architect, William Tite, who was retained from 1851 to inspect designs, and maintain the Ramsden Estate’s high architectural standards.

The single land ownership allowed an example of town planning to be created that was almost without precedent in terms of scale and ambition. The development of New Town is illustrative of the Victorian era tensions between a landed estate and a town corporation. The corporation resisted Ramsden’s attempts to incorporate a town hall into the New Town scheme and eventually, following secret negotiations, purchased the estate for £1.3m, earning Huddersfield the moniker ‘the town that bought itself’.

Plans for Byram Arcade were drafted in 1878 and it was constructed 1880-1881 to designs by the architect WH Crossland. It incorporated the architect’s earlier Byram Buildings of 1871-1873 which comprised the first two bays facing Westgate and the Station Street elevation, with accommodation for ground floor shops, and offices and warehousing above. In the design for Byram Arcade, Crossland added a further five bays to the Westgate elevation and incorporated commercial units arranged around a covered courtyard accessible from a galleried walkway. A refreshments room was planned within the basement with warehousing to the rear.

Crossland was a notable local architect and pupil of George Gilbert Scott, who designed almost exclusively in the Gothic style. He also designed the adjacent Ramsden Estate Offices (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entries 1224850 and 12314740, Grade II) which opened in 1870. Crossland is best known for his nationally significant designs for the Holloway Sanatorium (1873-1885, NHLE entry 1189632, Grade I) and Royal Holloway College (1879-1887, NHLE entry 1028946, Grade I).

The arcade has been refurbished in recent years including the installation of a lift and improvements to the Westgate shopfronts.

Reasons for Listing

Byram Arcade is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building encapsulates the spirit of the Gothic Revival, with the gabled façade derived from north European medieval town houses;
* the use of Gothic styling demonstrates a significant break with Huddersfield’s more established tradition of building in a neoclassical style, previously favoured by the Ramsden Estate;
* the building’s exterior is enhanced by carved sculptural work and carefully crafted features, such as wrought ironwork and decorative tiled lintels above the shopfronts;
* internally the original plan form remains legible and contemporary features such as the staircase, galleries, shopfronts, and fireplaces remain.

Historic interest:

* it is a good example of a late-C19 covered shopping arcade;
* it is designed by the notable Huddersfield architect WH Crossland, who has many listed buildings to his name;
* the building is illustrative of the fashion for indoor shopping which became popular during the later C19;
* it was constructed as part of the Ramsden Estate’s New Town development.
* the arcade and adjacent Estate Buildings were both designed by Crossland and together give the west end of Westgate its distinctive character.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26519053

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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