105 Westgate and flats 6-8 to rear of 97 Westgate, Wakefield North, Wakefield

Summary

An early C19, fashionably-styled Regency townhouse that was in use as a shop on the ground floor by the 1840s. In 2022 remains in retail use with domestic accommodation above.

Description

Townhouse, early C19, converted into a shop on the ground floor by the 1840s, in 2022 a shop with accommodation above.

MATERIALS: stucco with incised lines imitating ashlar, stone slate roof and brick stacks.

PLAN: the front range has a central entrance with a carriage archway to the left (east) providing access to the rear, the shop occupying the ground floor on the west side, the principal reception room of the townhouse being at first floor. A wing extends to the rear.

EXTERIOR:
Westgate elevation: this is of three bays and three storeys. The carriage entrance has a timber lintel. The shopfront is broadly late C19 or early C20 in style but with renewed joinery. Above the shopfront, to the first floor, there is a shallow canted oriel window that spans the centre and right-hand bays, its three sash windows framed by Doric columns supporting a muted frieze and dentil cornice. Above, there is a blocking course surmounted by modern metal balcony railings at second-floor level. To the left of the canted oriel, there is a matching six-over-six pane hornless sash window with a projecting stone sill. The three second-floor windows are similar but shorter with three-over-six pane windows. All these sash windows appear to be renewed, but early C19 in style. The eaves to the roof have a projecting cornice supported by simply-shaped modillions. The ridge line has a single brick chimney rising between the two left-hand bays.

Rear: the projecting rear wing is also stuccoed with incised lines, and generally has replacement hornless sash windows with glazing bars similar to the front elevation. It is also of three storeys, but of two relatively broad bays. It has a tall, round-headed stair window with glazing bars, set at first-floor level hard-up against the rear wall of the front range and overlooking the carriage through-passage. The roof has a single end stack with three chimney pots.

History

Wakefield, established in the medieval period on the River Calder, had developed as the capital of Yorkshire's cloth trade by the C14. Westgate was one of its four principal streets, lined by narrow burgage plots owned by craftsmen and traders with commercial properties facing the street with workshops extending out to the rear. During the C17 and C18, Westgate became a popular residential district for the mercantile classes, with townhouses erected for several prosperous wool chapmen (merchants). This gentrification continued throughout the C18 when notable wool manufacturers built large townhouses on the street frontage. Continued urbanisation in the C19 saw wealthier residents moving out and properties converted to more commercial use; this process accelerated with the arrival of the railway in 1857.

The early 1790s enclosure map identifies what is now 101-105 Westgate as the property of Thomas Lumb: this included several houses, the property boundaries extending to the rear following the pattern of the medieval burgage plots. In 1792, Lumb insured his property with the Sun Insurance Company, including reference to a house, kitchen and stable in the tenure of maltsters Spicer and Co, insured for £150. A malthouse to the rear was insured for £240. The house referred to, noted as brick and slated, may have been what is now 105 Westgate (prior to the 1880s it was numbered as 120). However, it is more likely to be early C19, built as a townhouse for either William Spicer or for Thomas Hartley, a grocer, to whom Spicer conveyed the property in 1805.

The house is somewhat smaller than a number of the grand townhouses constructed in the C18 along Westgate. Its scale suggests that it was built for a successful small business owner rather than for one of Wakefield’s wealthier residents. However, it was fashionably designed in Regency style, featuring a large, three-window canted oriel window, originally lighting the principal reception room. The carriage arch through the left side of the building provided access to the rear of the plot; this being named Hartley’s Yard on the 1823 plan of Wakefield by J Walker, even though Hartley had moved out by 1821. The plan shows that the rear of the plot had been partially built up since the 1790s enclosure plan, with other records indicating that they included cottages and other premises separately tenanted. Property deeds show several changes of ownership but are not clear on the use of the property, or when the street-frontage townhouse took on commercial use. It was certainly in mixed commercial/residential use by the 1840s, in the hands of another grocer Joshua Haigh, the 1851 Ordnance Survey 1:1056 town plan naming the rear yard Haigh’s Yard. Changing ownership through the C19 and C20 saw other commercial uses for the property, including use by a cabinet maker and furniture dealer. As of 2022, it remains in commercial use on the ground floor with accommodation above.

Reasons for Listing

105 Westgate and flats 6-8 to rear of 97 Westgate, Wakefield is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of a Regency townhouse displaying high-quality architectural treatment, including a first-floor canted oriel window and eaves cornice;
* forming part of a varied, largely C19 streetscape of commercial buildings including both purpose-built and, as this example, C19 conversions from solely domestic use.

Historic interest:

* as a good illustration of the mid-C19 conversion of a residential townhouse to commercial use as a shop with domestic accommodation above;
* the inclusion of a carriage arch providing access to the rear highlights the continued influence of medieval burgage plot boundaries.

External Links

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