Britannia Buildings, Huddersfield, Kirklees

Summary

Former warehouse, showroom and offices about 1858 to designs by local architect William Cocking, altered in the 1920s by Clifford Hickson for the Huddersfield Building Society, now in residential and commercial use.

Description

Former warehouse, showroom and offices, completed about 1858 to designs by local architect William Cocking, altered in the 1920s by Clifford Hickson for the Huddersfield Building Society, now in residential and commercial use. Grand palazzo style.

MATERIALS: ashlar sandstone, slate roof coverings.

PLAN: located in a prominent position overlooking St George’s Square on a rectangular island site bounded to the north east by John William Street, to the south east by St Peter’s Street and to the south west by Station Street.

EXTERIOR: Britannia Buildings is of three-storeys plus basement with quoined corners (those to the ground and first floor are vermiculated) and a hipped slate roof.

St George’s Square elevation: this elevation is of 13 bays with a central neoclassical entrance flanked by three large plate-glass windows to each side, all installed in the 1920s. The entrance has six steps up to a pair of timber eight-panelled doors set within a richly carved and moulded doorcase adorned with a variety of classical and Egyptian motifs, including fasces combined with rosettes, and Greek key decoration. The doorcase entablature incorporates an Egyptian winged sun-disk in relief, with a modillioned cornice incorporating four lion heads and topped by anthemion set upon a low pediment. The ground-floor windows have bronze mullions and transoms and are separated by enriched pilasters with raised panels and stylised Ionic capitals that support an entablature with modillioned cornice that runs across the elevation.

The first floor has two-over-two sash windows with sills supported on four scrolled brackets, between which are sunken panels and carved rosettes. The windows have moulded surrounds and Tuscan half-pilasters, full entablatures, and triangular modillioned pediments. In the central bay is a Venetian window in a surround of Tuscan pilasters and entablature, breaking forward around the central light which also has quarter columns, a moulded frame and a segmental head. Above are sunken panels arranged radially beneath a segmental pediment, which in turn supports the apron of the window above.

Separating the first and second floor is an acanthus decorated cornice acting as a continuous sill for the second-floor windows. The windows contain two-over-two sashes and have moulded surrounds, segmental heads and keystones with sunken panels between them. The panels flanking the central window have elaborately carved flowers and scroll-shaped brackets. There is a deeply moulded eaves cornice above with scrolled brackets, between which are paterae and festoons. Above is a balustrade with moulded rail, vase-shaped balusters, and panelled piers with elaborate gadrooned urns. In the centre, the parapet is segment-shaped and bears the Royal Arms sculpted in high relief topped by a large sculpture of Britannia.

John William Street elevation: This seven-bay elevation, which provides the best idea of the architect’s original design for the St George’s Square ground floor elevation, is the most elaborate and faces onto what was the principal highway through the New Town. It has a rusticated plinth with recesses below the windows, vermiculated quoins on the ground and first floor, and chamfered quoins on the second. The ground-floor windows are round headed with vermiculated quoined jambs and voussoirs. The keystones feature boldly sculpted masks of classical deities (and a further one on the St Peter’s Street and Station Street returns). There are panels containing a sculpted floral ornament below each window sill. The central bay breaks forward and has Tuscan pilasters with alternately vermiculated courses, an entablature and modillioned cornices framing two parts. The lower part is a doorway filled in by a display case in the 1920s, with a segmental head, bolection moulding, keystone and modillioned cornice. The upper part is a round-headed sash window set within a concave recess with rusticated voussoirs and quoins, and a sculpted mask on the keystone. The floors above are similarly styled to those of St George’s elevation but without the central venetian window, replaced by a single window with segmental pediment.

The other elevations are simplified versions of the St George’s Square and John William Street elevations. However, the end bays break forward to create a pavilion composition on the corner of both. The St Peter’s Street elevation has a central entrance that breaks forward in the style of a shallow enclosed porch with three steps up to recessed partly-glazed double doors incorporating integral margin lights. The doorcase has a raised, moulded surround set within a concave recess, above which is an enriched pulvinated frieze and a further Greek-key frieze. Above is a Diocletian fanlight with leaded glazing also within a segmental-headed concave recess with moulded surround and scrolled keystone. Topping the porch is a cornice with four lion heads similar to the north elevation entrance. Bay three contains a further entrance door with paired panelled doors and a glazed overlight, whilst bay 13 contains an inserted modern door. The Station Street elevation features an inserted modern door within bay seven and all the ground-floor windows contain casements.

The street names ‘John William Street,’ ‘St Peter's Street’ and ‘Station Street’ are carved on their respective elevations.

INTERIOR: the interior is understood to retain elements of the 1920s decorative banking hall.

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’.

Britannia Buildings was built as a warehouse, showroom and offices for the woollen manufacturer George Crosland on the first site reserved by Sir John William Ramsden for the Town Hall. When in 1853 this scheme (designed by J P Pritchett) was blocked by the Municipal Authority, Sir John proposed a Post Office for the site. This in turn was opposed by the Government Architect, so the site became vacant.

Crosland’s building was designed by local architect, William Cocking, and overseen by Sir William Tite, to whom the building has sometimes been attributed. It was built with a fireproof structure of cast iron columns and beams supporting brick jack arches. Historic photographs indicate that the original St George’s Square ground-floor frontage was similar to the John William Street elevation.

The building was bought from Crosland’s executors in 1924 by Huddersfield Building Society. A major refurbishment took place between 1925 and 1926 by local architect Clifford Hickson (1892-1962). Hickson was associated with the Huddersfield Building Society for over 40 years and his work included Building Society premises in Halifax and Manchester. Externally, the alterations were focussed on the ground floor of St George’s Square elevation where the original fenestration was replaced with a large-windowed frontage. Additionally, the entrance to St Peter’s Street was enhanced and the central doorway to the John William Street façade was infilled. Several of the large chimney stacks were removed at this time. Internally, a banking hall with marble-clad walls, Corinthian columns and ornate architraves was created. The building is now (2022) in residential and commercial use.

Reasons for Listing

The former warehouse, showroom and offices, about 1858, to designs by local architect William Cocking, altered in the 1920s by Clifford Hickson for the Huddersfield Building Society, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a striking example of neoclassical architecture in the grand palazzo style, incorporating high quality sculptural work and decorative detailing;
* the addition of 1920s shopfronts with an eclectic mix of classical and Egyptian motifs adds further interest.

Historic interest

* located on a landmark site originally reserved for the town hall Britannia Buildings illustrates the wealth and power of Huddersfield in the later C19;
* it is one of Huddersfield’s mid-C19 purpose-built commercial premises constructed as part of the Ramsden Estate’s planned New Town development;
* it was designed by the notable local architect William Cocking who has a number of listed buildings to his name.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with nearby listed buildings, including the Grade I railway station, which face onto St George’s Square.

External Links

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.