Description

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on 2 April 2024 to amend details in the description, add Historical note and source and reformat the text to current standards

SE 3220 NE 1/24

DRURY LANE No 12 (York House)

(Formerly listed as Wakefield and County Club)

14.7.53.

II*

Large house built by about 1775 for James Banks (founder of Wakefield’s first purpose-built theatre), later used as the Wakefield and County Club (a gentleman’s club) until about 1950, now used as a hotel.

This is a substantial square house of two and a half storeys with principal facades to the north and west, both of five bays, with classical-style central entrances. Built of light-coloured red brick with finely gauged arches, triple keystones and stone cills to recessed sash windows with glazing bars, some being original, some early C19. The stone slate roof is hipped and has a moulded stone eaves cornice. The two-storey kitchen wing attached to the north-east has a ground-floor Venetian window with a lunette window to the upper floor.

The interior woodwork is complete and of good quality, particularly the doorcases. There are three handsome carved chimneypieces, one with a panel retaining an original painting of a Chinese scene. The hall and landings have arches, and the staircase is rather small. Most of the rooms have deep plaster cornices. The Adam-style decoration in one room is later reproduction.

Listing NGR: SE3292520789

History

Westgate, one of Wakefield’s four principal medieval streets, became a popular residential district for the mercantile classes in the C17 and C18. York House was one of the largest and finest examples built at that time, originally setback from Westgate and surrounded by gardens. It was possibly built in the late 1760s, and certainly by 1775 when it was owned by James Banks who was involved in Wakefield’s wool trade. Banks then built a theatre on the Westgate Road frontage for the actor/manager Tate Wilkinson; the theatre opened in 1776, this now being the Theatre Royal that was rebuilt in 1894. In the mid-C19 the house was owned by solicitor William Stewart, who is believed to have named it York House. After his death it became a private gentleman’s club modelled on London clubs until about 1950.

External Links

• Wikidata Q17550212

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Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)