Summary
A terrace of townhouses of the late C18, with later additions including a solicitors’ chambers of around 1880; now in office and residential use, and built of brick in neoclassical style with some rendered rear façades.
Reasons for Designation
8 to 14 (even) Barstow Square and 11 to 17 (odd) King Street, Wakefield, a terrace of townhouses of the late C18, with later additions including a solicitors’ chambers of around 1880, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of Georgian terraced housing, with neoclassical detailing to Barstow Square (in particular the cornice, pediment, doorcases and window surrounds), early rear outshuts (most notably at 11 and 13 King Street), and early-C19 sash windows;
* it retains many interior features of note, including hewn roof timbers, partial staircase, two-panelled doors, timber decoration including window shutters, stone steps and floors, several cellar chambers, and a strongroom relating to its legal use;
* the extension at 17 King Street and 14 Barstow Square with sympathetic exterior features illustrates the late-C19 development of the building as legal chambers, and retains interior decorative and cellar features.
History
The terrace of houses at 8, 10 and 12 Barstow Square was built in the late C18 and can be seen on John Walker’s plan of 1823, with rear development reaching to King Street. Its style suggests it might have been designed by local architect William Lindley. Barstow Square (originally Barstow’s Square) was named after the Barstow family who had owned the Green Dragon Inn since the early C18. There is no direct evidence that this most prestigious of the residences in the square was where William Barstow lived when he was listed as a magistrate in the 1830s, but as his address was given as both Barstow Square and King Street, it seems likely. Sophia Barstow (probably William’s daughter) also lived on the square from at least 1841 to 1881, and was a proprietor of houses, and is likely to have lived in this terrace.
The fenestration suggests that the two outer houses (numbers 12 and 8) were originally three bays wide, while number 10 comprised five bays. The 1851 Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:1,056 Town Plan suggests that by that date they had become four houses, with number 8 reaching back to King Street, a narrow number 10 probably comprising the adjacent three bays (also reaching to King Street), and a wider number 12 comprising the five left-hand bays (single depth); and (attached to the rear of that), what is now number 15 King Street, plus various smaller outshuts.
By the survey for the 1888 1:500 OS Town Plan, the property divisions indicate that 12 Barstow Square had reverted to a three-bay house, while 10 and 8 had become one house. The double-depth property now numbered as 14 Barstow Square and 17 King Street had been built to the west, and was probably purpose-built as chambers for solicitors. Its architecture appears to directly reference its earlier neighbour, and they might well have formed an office complex; the 1891 census confirms that number 12 was still at least partially lived in, but there were also solicitors’ offices on the north side of the square. The building was listed in 1953. Since then the external skin of the brickwork in the pediment has been rebuilt.
Wakefield was established during the medieval period at a strategic trade position on the river Calder, which led to development of Wakefield as the capital of Yorkshire's cloth trade by the C14. Westgate was one of four principal streets with long and narrow burgage plots that remain visible through modern land divisions. These historic plots were owned by craftsmen and traders and had commercial properties facing the street and workshops 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. This gentrification continued throughout the C18, when notable wool manufacturers also built large townhouses on the street frontage. Due to the proximity to the county court and the local police station, Barstow Square and King Street have been home to legal practices since at least the 1830s, and by the 1880s this was the primary use.
Details
A terrace of townhouses of the late C18, with later additions including a solicitors’ chambers of around 1880, now in office and residential use.
MATERIALS: red brick with roof of stone slates, sandstone dressings (painted), some render.
PLAN: a three-storey block to Barstow Square, with some three-storey and some lower additions to King Street, plus a two-storey block to the north-west, fronting both streets.
EXTERIOR: the principal façade (numbers 8, 10 and 12) faces Barstow Square and is in neoclassical style, eleven windows wide, in Flemish bond brickwork with stone ground-floor plinth and sill band, modillioned cornice and an open pediment over the five central windows. The centre bay has a three-storey arched recess. Gauged-brick flat arches and stone sills to replacement (horned) sash windows (most retaining cylinder glass), with modern casements to the top floor (except for bay 4 which retains a three-over-three unhorned sash window). Bays 3 and 9 have entrances with narrow pilasters and scroll-bracketed triangular pediments with dentil cornices. Number 8 (comprising the three right-hand bays) has some cement render repairs below the eaves, and associated damage to the brickwork. The central entrance has an eared architrave with frieze and cornice over (all three doors are six-panelled, with oblong fanlights). Above this the first-floor window is tripartite with outer pilasters and inner columns, a frieze, and dentil cornice with central pediment. The second-floor window has a shouldered, eared architrave. The central pediment has a blind bullseye window in an architrave, within rebuilt brickwork.
To the left, number 14 (the rear of King Street Chambers) is of three bays, also in Flemish bond with a plinth and ground-floor sill band, and a central recessed arch. At ground floor, this has a segmental arch with decoratively-carved imposts, stopped hoodmould and a carved-head keystone. Flanking this are stacked tripartite sash windows in segmental openings, and above it a single sash with a gauged-brick flat arch. The buildings are abutted at either end and so their end walls are not visible.
To King Street, number 11 (at the left) is of two storeys and two windows, number 13 is of three storeys and two windows, and number 15 is also of three storeys and two windows. These are all scored-rendered, with corbelled eaves gutters. Numbers 11 and 13 retain unhorned sash windows to the lower two floors, with upper sashes of six and eight panes. The ground floor window of number 13 is tripartite.
Number 15a is also rendered and single-storey, with an (earlier) gabled bay at the left, and flat roof at the right, and shop windows. Above it can be seen the rendered rear wall of 12 Barstow Square, which is blind save for two small windows. A small lean-to toilet extension stands above the roof of 15a, in the angle between 12 Barstow Square and 17 King Street.
Number 17 is of two storeys, set back behind a single-storey, flat-roofed entrance range with a stone cornice. The entrance is central and surmounted by the inscription KING STREET CHAMBERS, and flanked by arched lancets. To either side are tripartite sash windows with stone sills and lintels. The first floor, set back above, has a central arched stair window with lower sash and red margin lights. This is flanked by small casements, and then four-pane sash windows. The eaves gutters are supported by corbels and iron brackets. The roof ridge has gable stacks to either end.
INTERIOR: the interior plan form to Barstow Square is largely altered but retains some features, including the original first-to-second floor stair to number 12, with turned balusters and ramped handrail. A number of window shutters also survive, and some two-panel doors with L-hinges. The roof retains hewn purlins and rafters, supplemented with machine-sawn trusses. Some cornices, architraves and skirting also survive, together with some fire surrounds. 10 Barstow Square retains a vaulted basement, and a late-C19 fireproof strongroom adjacent to the Barstow Square entrance. 8 Barstow Square retains a partially-flagged ground floor, and some cornices and shutters. 15 King Street has an altered ground floor (library), and altered upper floor (storage), with late-C19 office interior to the first floor.
King Street Chambers retains its stone-flagged basement, and decorative cornices, architraves and panelled doors. Its staircase survives with decorative newel and ramped handrail, but replacement balusters.
