Summary
Shopping arcade, 1899, by Albert Holmes Kirk of John Kirk & Sons.
Reasons for Designation
The Arcade, Dewsbury, constructed in 1899 to designs by Albert Holmes Kirk, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the building's restrained Renaissance styling and refined detailing creates distinguished and dignified principal elevations onto Market Place and Corporation Street;
* it was designed by the notable local architect Albert Holmes Kirk who has a number of listed buildings to his name;
* the interiors retain numerous original and early features, including an elegant cast-iron glazed roof over the arcade walkway, timber shopfronts with integral display cases and tripartite and canted oriel windows above, tiled shop entrance floors, moulded door and window architraves, panelled doors, most original stairs, some cast-iron fireplaces and built-in cupboards, and a first-floor trapdoor with a hoist winch beam in one of the shops.
Historic interest:
* it is a good example of a late-C19 shopping arcade that continues a retail tradition first imported from the Continent in the early C19.
History
The Arcade in Dewsbury town centre was constructed in 1899 to designs by Albert Holmes Kirk (1840-1920) of John Kirk & Sons, under instruction by Mr Knowles, Chairman of the Dewsbury Board of Guardians. Buildings were demolished from Corporation Street through to Market Place to make way for the arcade, which was constructed in stages as the demolition progressed. The southern block fronting onto Market Place was due to be demolished last to create a southern entrance into the arcade, but the building fabric suggests that it is likely that the plans were changed and an earlier building was retained, altered and refronted instead.
Details
Shopping arcade, 1899, by Albert Holmes Kirk of John Kirk & Sons, restrained Renaissance style.
MATERIALS: ashlar, coursed sandstone and red brick with sandstone-slate and Welsh slate roof coverings, glazed cast-iron arcade roof.
PLAN: The Arcade is approximately 62m long and is aligned north-south, with a north entrance block on Corporation Street and a south entrance block on Market Place; the arcade narrows slightly at its southern end. It has a linear plan with shop units to each east and west side and larger shops at the north and south ends. Attached to each flanking side are earlier C19 buildings at the southern end and late-C19 buildings at the northern end.
EXTERIOR:
CORPORATION STREET (NORTH) ENTRANCE: at the north end of The Arcade is an entrance block with an ashlar front elevation facing onto Corporation Street; this forms the north entrance to The Arcade. The entrance block is of three-storeys plus attic, and of three bays, with gabled outer bays and moulded stringcourses between the floor levels, including one that incorporates the sills of the second-floor windows. To the centre of the ground floor and rising through the first-floor level is a large, one-and-a-half storey, keyed round-arched opening that leads into the main body of the arcade. The arch is corbelled and above the opening is carved relief lettering set between stringcourses incorporating a carved scrolled and floriated shell motif; the lettering reads: 'THE ARCADE'. Flanking the opening are two shopfronts with pedimented and corbelled pilasters, deep signage fascias (partly hidden by modern shop signage), and modern glazing and entrance doorways. At second-floor level above the arcade opening are paired cross windows set within a shared surround with a raised head incorporating relief numerals with the date '1899'. The two outer bays are symmetrical and project forward slightly. Both have an eight-light mullioned and transomed canted oriel window to the first floor and a six-light mullioned and transomed window to the second floor with a carved frieze above. At the top of the elevation is an eaves cornice and topping each outer bay is a Dutch gable with carved scrolled decoration, segmental pediment, ball finials, and a tall two-light mullioned window containing plate-glass sashes. The northern entrance block's roof has Welsh slate coverings and is hipped roof behind the gabled bays, with tall chimneystacks to the east and west hips. The entrance block's rear elevation rises above the roof of the arcade and is in red brick. Paired blocked-up windows exist to each bay on the first and second floors.
MARKET PLACE (SOUTH) ENTRANCE: the three-storey southern entrance block facing onto Market Place is also of three-storeys plus attic and is similarly styled to that to the north, although slightly narrower in width and with a few stylistic differences. The south elevation is constructed of ashlar and is also of three bays with gabled outer bays, but here the Dutch gables are treated differently to those at the northern end with triangular pediments and carved volutes. The ground floor has later shopfronts flanking the central round-arched entrance opening, which like the north entrance block has relief lettering above that reads: 'THE ARCADE', but here the carved decoration above is more ornate, and to the second floor is a single cross window. The outer bays' upper windows are in the same style as those to the north end (those to the right bay have multipaned leaded glazing with stained-glass Art Nouveau motifs), but on this south side each gable at the top of the elevation has a cross window. The southern entrance block has a pitched roof with sandstone-slate roof coverings and a truncated ridge stack at the western end. The rear elevation is constructed of coursed sandstone with windows of varying size (mostly containing sashes) to the first and second floors, including one that has been shortened, one that contains earlier multipaned sashes, and at least one with an exposed sash box.
ARCADE: the main body of the arcade, which runs between the entrance blocks, has a glazed roof flanked on each east and west side by two-storey shop ranges, which have pitched roofs with hips at the northern end where they meet the Corporation Street block. Some of the roofs incorporate later inserted glazed skylights.
INTERIOR: internally the arcade consists of a double-height central walkway with a sandstone-flag floor and shops to each side. Due to a changing ground level the arcade has a slightly inclining floor as you travel from south to north. The arcade's roof is glazed and supported by cast-iron, round-arched frames with floriated and foliated pierced decoration carried on carved corbels and with pendant lantern lights. Coffered ceilings exist to the sections of arcade passing through the entrance blocks, along with large first-floor shop windows to each east and west side.
The arcade's timber shopfronts are separated by pilasters in the same style as those to the external north entrance block and all have sandstone stallrisers. Each has a recessed doorway on the northern side (some retaining their original geometric-patterned, coloured tiled floors) with a glazed door, pediment over the door, and a panelled ceiling above. The shopfront windows incorporate slender mullions, and also transoms to the upper part to form a row of upper lights, and on the north side of each doorway is a glazed display case. To the top of the shopfronts is a signage fascia and above each pilaster is a later cast-iron bracket with a further modern oval-shaped hanging sign. To the first floor above the shopfronts are alternate tripartite windows and canted oriel windows; all containing sashes, including two-over-two sashes to the centre lights, and carved aprons to the tripartite windows. The oriel windows each have a later panelled planter attached below.
The shop units are interspersed with a number of open doorways (one of the doorways has a split door) accessing narrow part-stone, part-timber stair flights leading up to some of the first-floor rooms; one of the doorways on the eastern side has been glazed in and the stair replaced in timber with a doorway knocked through into the neighbouring shop unit on the south side. Some of the shop units have additional timber stairs up to the first floor (some appear original, and some are later insertions), and some have openings and walls knocked through into neighbouring units. The units have concrete floors on the ground floor and timber floorboard floors above. Walls are back to bare brick in places, but some lath and plaster wall partitions and ceilings remain. Moulded door and window architraves and skirtings survive, along with some three and four-panel doors of mainly late-C19 date. One of the units on the eastern side has a first-floor trapdoor with a hoist winch beam above, and another unit has a modern steel RSJ lintel above one of the oriel windows.
The shop units contained within the entrance blocks at the north and south ends of the arcade are larger and have generally been modernised. The shop unit in the north-east corner has later inserted openings in its eastern wall on the upper floors, which have since been blocked up, and the second-floor space, which spans over the north arcade entrance, has been opened up. Early-mid C20 veneer panelling and an in-built cast-iron radiator line an internal stair. An enclosed attic stair accesses the roof space, which has queen post roof trusses and a blocked-up passageway that originally connected into the north-west unit's attic. The north-west shop unit has parquet flooring to the ground floor and a later stair.
The ground-floor interior of the south-east unit fronting onto Market Place was not inspected, but it is understood to have been modernised and now forms part of a larger unit shared with the neighbouring property at 27 Market Place. The upper floors of the south entrance block retain four-panel and plank and batten doors, substantial chimneybreasts, some sections of moulded cornicing, and some cast-iron fireplaces and built-in cupboards. There are multiple stair flights of varying date, including a stair on the eastern side with a sinuous balustrade interrupted by a later partition wall (the lower flight has been replaced), and a stair on the western side with mostly missing balusters. There are some wide floorboards at the rear of the block, a large internal multipaned window to the second floor, and what appears to have been a rear loading door that has been converted into a shorter window when the arcade was built. The attic contains two visible earlier timbers behind a partition, further suggesting that an earlier building has been altered. The rest of the roof timbers appear to be late C19 in date.
