9-15 Bridge Street, 30-36 Market Street, 25-29 Tyrrell Street, 1-9 Ivegate

Summary

An imposing commercial block housing shops, a restaurant and offices. Designed in Italianate and Venetian Gothic styles between 1870 and 1871 in a number of phases attributed to local architects' practices Knowles and Wilcock and to Hope and Jardine.

Reasons for Designation

The block of 9-15 Bridge Street, 30-36 Market Street, 25-29 Tyrrell Street, and 1-9 Ivegate, of 1870-1871 attributed to Knowles and Wilcock and Hope and Jardine, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an imposing, purpose-built commercial block, built as a number of units for different owners, aesthetically unified by a uniform attention to high-quality design and materials;
* the Italianate and Venetian Gothic styles of the four principal elevations, enlivened with well-crafted decorative ornamentation, are clearly intended to impress and convey status and the quality of the businesses originally housed within;
* interior features, such as staircases, moulded door and window architraves remain, as does a fine late-C19 or early-C20 timber pharmacy counter in 9 Bridge Street;
* Knowles and Wilcock and Hope and Jardine were well-regarded local architects’ practices who contributed to the coherent and dignified appearance of the Victorian city centre, also designing a number of nearby commercial buildings.

Historic interest:

* built as part of the reconstruction of the formerly haphazard town centre undertaken under supervision of the Street Improvement Committee to ensure a more harmonious urban centre after Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847;
* it was built in 1870 to 1871, at the same time as the Town Hall was being constructed, clearly demonstrating the prosperity of Bradford, then the worldwide centre of the worsted textile industry;
* analytical chemist Felix Rimmington (1818-1897), owner of the pharmacy at 9 Bridge Street, was renowned for his forensic work in the ‘Humbug Billy’ sweet poisoning case, helping to usher in the Adulteration of Food and Drinks Act of 1860. Rimmington was subsequently appointed Borough Analyst to enforce the Act in Bradford.

Group value:

* this block makes an important contribution to the townscape of the city centre, standing in close vicinity to other listed commercial and civic Victorian buildings, including the Wool Exchange and Bradford Town Hall, both listed at Grade I.

History

In 1847 Bradford became a municipal borough and a Street Improvement Committee was appointed to reconstruct the haphazard centre in a more harmonious manner by widening existing streets, the laying out of new ones, and controlling the standard of development. This included improvements to Ivegate to form a through road, the extension initially known as New Ivegate. On its north side was the new Brown and Muff’s department store, completed in 1871 to designs by Knowles and Wilcock. On its south side an island block of land was formed, also bounded by Market Street, Bridge Street and Tyrrel Street, which was part of an auction of cleared freehold land held in September 1870. To the SE the town hall of 1870-1873 was being constructed.

The land was then developed as a block built as a series of phased units separated by straight joints, rather than as a single building. Whilst the overall style was Italianate, one narrow unit was Venetian Gothic in appearance. The building is attributed to Bradford architects Knowles and Wilcock (Pevsner), although they may not have been responsible for all phases as building control plans for 7-9 Ivegate (now 5-9 Ivegate) were signed by Hope and Jardine. The first unit constructed may have been 29 Tyrrel Street as its building control plan was approved in August 1870 (before the auction). It was built for W Butterfield and was occupied by Benjamin and Alfred Butler, cutlers, in 1881, with Atkinson and Wilson solicitors above. It was still occupied by the Butterfield family in 1956, when it was an opticians.

In July 1871 9-13 Bridge Street was labelled as Mr Leuchter’s restaurant when an infill extension was proposed to the rear (7-9 Ivegate) to enlarge the restaurant on the upper floors and create a shop - it may have been the last building constructed in the block as the premises on either side were already labelled with owners' names. In 1881 the restaurant was taken over by Edgar Sealy Jones and renamed the County Restaurant, described in The Industries of Yorkshire (1890) as including “an extra large dining-room, private sitting-room, green-room, smoke, billiard and grill rooms, in addition to a number of excellent bedrooms”. From 1875 the ground-floor number 9 was run as separate pharmacists’ and chemists’ shops by F M Rimmington and Sons. Felix Marsh Rimmington (1818-1897) is the block’s most acclaimed occupant. A pharmaceutical chemist, he was known for his forensic work, having investigated the ‘Humbug Billy’ poisoning case of 1858 where 20 victims died and 200 were taken seriously ill by sweets accidently adulterated with arsenic. The Bradford poisonings helped usher in the Adulteration of Food and Drinks Act in 1860 leading to the Sale of Food and Drinks Act of 1875. Rimmington was appointed as Bradford Borough Analyst in 1874 to enforce the Act. The poisoning was also a contributing factor to the Pharmacy Act of 1868, establishing a regulatory framework for the sale of poisons. The premises was later connected through to the abutting Ivegate shop (shown on the 1926 Goad fire insurance plan) and it has continued to be run as a chemists’ shop up to the present day, most recently as an independent chemists’ under the original Rimmington’s name.

The 1881 trade directory indicates that the adjacent 15 Bridge Street was connected through to 5 Ivegate when both were occupied by New York Life Insurance. A mix of occupants were listed in the block, including a brushmaker at 30-32 Market Street, a clothier at 34-36 Market Street, a tailor at 3 Ivegate, and a butchers and a tobacconist in 25 and 27 Tyrrel Street. Upper-floor offices were often occupied by solicitors and accountants.

In the mid C20 William Carter bought 15 Bridge Street/5 Ivegate and established Carters’ toy and sports shop. The family subsequently expanded into 34-36 Market Street and in 1980 into the former County Restaurant upper-floor premises. The business closed in the early 2,000s. The former restaurant premises has since been converted to flats. In 2019 the upper floors of 15 Bridge Street/5 Ivegate were damaged by a fire, traces of the smoke blackening still visible on the external stonework.

The majority of ground-floor shop fronts have been altered or replaced in the C20 or C21.

Details

Shop, restaurant and office block. 1870-1871 in a number of building phases attributed to Knowles and Wilcock; 5-9 Ivegate attributed to Hope and Jardine. C20 and C21 alterations. Mainly Italianate with a narrow Venetian Gothic unit on Bridge Street.

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar with slate roofs, also some later flat roof coverings.

PLAN: island block of four storeys and multiple properties. Shops on the ground floor (some with basements) and offices and a former restaurant (now flats) on the upper floors that do not interconnect and are reached by separate staircases.

EXTERIOR the four-storey block has four principal elevations; Bridge Street to the S (now overlooking Centenary Square with the Grade I Bradford Town Hall, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1133675, to the E side); Ivegate to the N; Tyrrel Street to the W; Market Street to the E. All elevations have a number of units separated by straight joints and the outer corners are canted. In addition to the shop entrances there are separate entrances for the upper floors. Windows are closely-spaced or arcaded and vary in detail between the upper floors. Most have one-over-one pane timber sashes or timber frames and casements. There are a number of large, ashlar stone stacks with entablatures.

BRIDGE STREET: the elevation is divided into four units. The upper floors of the first, second and fourth units are separated by moulded cornice bands, that between the first and second floors with modillions, with eaves entablatures with modillion cornices. The windows are round-headed with consoles or segmental-arched with foliate or moulded capitals to piers. The narrow third unit (15 Bridge St) is designed in a Venetian Gothic style with the upper floors flanked by slender colonettes (the right-hand colonette now replaced by downpipe) and a false machicollated eaves cornice with ornate ironwork cresting and finials. The arcaded windows have pointed arches on the second floor and square heads on the first and third floors, with polished granite colonettes to the first and second floors and foliate capitals.

The right-hand canted corner has a round-headed dormer window with decorative ashlar surround and the left-hand canted corner has a later, flat-roofed attic extension wrapping round onto Tyrrel Street. Between are two later flat-roofed dormers and a set-back, flat-roofed extension.

The ground floor of the second unit (9-13 Bridge Street) has a shop front and a separate recessed doorway to the right (leading to staircase to upper floors – formerly an entrance to the County Restaurant) with outer pilasters, central pilaster (with a blue plaque to Felix M Rimmington), cornice and fascia. The shop front has fielded-panel stallrisers, large plate-glass windows with smaller upper panes, recessed door with canted side windows, and two-pull-out canopies. The other units have altered or replacement shop fronts.

IVEGATE: the elevation is divided into four units. The upper floors are separated by moulded cornice bands, some with modillions, with modillion eaves cornices. The first unit has square-headed windows, those on the first floor with cartouche consoles and aprons with floral motifs or engaged balustrading and those on the second floor with segmental pediments. The canted corner has an ornately decorated gablet with central bull’s eye opening. The arcaded windows of the narrow second unit and the third unit are round-headed, some with consoles, or segmental-arched with foliate, Corinthian or moulded capitals. The third-floor windows of the second unit have square heads with rounded corners. The third unit is enriched with foliate-carved spandrels on the first floor, relief-carved frieze with heads on the second floor, and flanking urns to the eaves cornice, with two segmental-capped dormer windows with colonetted, two-light windows and a central, stone panelled chimney stack. The fourth unit has square-headed windows on the first floor with fluting and incised decorative caps to the piers, with segmental-arched and round-headed windows with consoles on the floors above.

On the ground floor the first unit has a doorway to the right (leading to staircase to upper floors) with an enriched surround, timber and glazed double doors and rectangular overlight. To the left is a modern shop front with small, vertical white tiles to the piers and fascia. The third unit (5-9 Ivegate) has a shop front with similar detailing to that at 9-13 Bridge Street and a separate, round-headed doorway to the left (leading to staircase to upper floors – formerly the main entrance to the County Restaurant). The door surround has grouped pilasters with relief-carved panels and Corinthian capitals, console and carved spandrels, with three-panelled double doors and semi-circular overlight. The shop front has a similar outer pilaster. The central shop doorway (with replacement door) is flanked by piers (with a blue plaque to Rimmington’s Pharmacy). The second and fourth units have altered or replacement shop fronts, the latter faced in dark grey granite shop.

TYRREL STREET: the elevation is divided into two units. The left-hand unit continues round from Ivegate with similar window and façade detailing to the upper floors. The right-hand unit continues round from Bridge Street with similar window and façade detailing on the upper floors. At the left-hand end of the shop front is a doorway (leading to staircase to upper floors).

MARKET STREET: the elevation is divided into two units. The left-hand unit continues round from Bridge Street with similar window and façade detailing on the upper floors. To the right is a recessed doorway with applied lettering over reading MARKET ST / CHAMBERS, shallow stone and terrazzo step, double doors with rectangular overlight and partially timber panelled reveals (encasing stone). To the left are replacement shop fronts. The right-hand unit continues round from Ivegate with similar window and façade detailing on the upper floors. The tiled shop front continues round and across the entire ground floor.

INTERIOR: many floors have been refurbished/updated as commercial premises. Features which are known to remain include moulded door and window architraves. The open-well staircase to 29 Tyrrel Street rises from the ground floor to the third floor and has a swept handrail, turned timber balusters and decorative open string. On the ground floor of 9-13 Bridge Street (Rimmington’s) is a late-C19 or early-C20 timber pharmacy counter with six rows of ingredient drawers and shelving above with colonettes with stylised Corinthain capitals. The basement has stone flags, plastered brick barrel vaults and cast-iron columns (some encased).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

336171

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Leach, P, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England. Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North, (2009), 162
Kelly's Directory of Bradford and Neighbourhood, (1881)

Other
Building control plans, miscellaneous documents and plans, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford.

End of official list entry

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