61 and 63 Westgate (formerly the White Horse Hotel)

Summary

Public house constructed in 1901 as the White Horse Hotel with a striking Northern Renaissance Revival street elevation by local architect Henry Crutchley, built of stone ashlar featuring extensive, finely carved decoration and Art Nouveau leaded glazing.

Reasons for Designation

The Former White Horse Hotel, 61 and 63 Westgate, Wakefield is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its striking Northern Renaissance Revival front elevation with finely carved decoration and Art Nouveau leaded glazing;
* as part of the cohesive townscape of Upper Westgate that mixes converted high-status C18 town houses with architecturally elaborate, purpose-built Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings.

Historic interest:

* for the way that the building, stretching back from the street frontage, forms part of the pattern of burgage plots established in the medieval period, a plot that has been used for a hostelry from at least the mid-C18.

History

Wakefield developed as the capital of Yorkshire's cloth trade by the C14 with Westgate as one of four principal streets lined with long and narrow burgage plots that still 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 built large townhouses on the street frontage. The high-status residential use of the area declined in the C19, the coming of the railway to Westgate in the mid-C19 seeing the construction of a number of grand Victorian commercial buildings. The development of Upper Westgate continued through the C20 with the growth of retail premises, both in purpose-built structures and in the conversion of existing townhouses.

The former White Horse Hotel, 61 and 63 Westgate, was built in 1901 for Leeds and Wakefield Breweries (incorporating the former Carter and Sons Victoria Brewery, Wakefield) to the design of the local architect Henry Crutchley. The White Horse was a long-established hostelry, dating to before 1787. It is shown on the 1790s Enclosure plan as occupying the yard to the rear of the street frontage townhouse of the wool factor Michael Bentley. It is shown in more detail as the White Horse Inn on the 1888 1:500 Ordnance Survey Town Plan, still occupying the rear yard. The former street frontage townhouse was in separate commercial use in the late C19 as a tobacconist’s and then a confectioner’s shop, the 1901 redevelopment of the White Horse brought the frontage of the hotel onto Westgate. Amongst the hotel’s C20 guests were The Beatles who stayed at the hotel to perform at the Wakefield Odeon in 1963. By the 1990s, perhaps earlier, use as a hotel had ceased, being refurbished as a public house trading under a series of different names. As of 2022, the building remains in use as a public house.

Details

Public house, built 1901 as the White Horse Hotel to the design of H Crutchley.

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar front elevation and to the exposed west gable and chimney; red brick to the side and rear elevations. Welsh slate roof.

PLAN: central entrance to the principal elevation (north) onto Westgate, secondary entrances to the rear open onto White Horse Yard which runs down the west side of the property.

EXTERIOR: the street frontage is in Northern Renaissance revival style, the windows on all three floors having Art Nouveau leaded glazing to the top lights. The rear range, which extends to the south along White Horse Yard, is architecturally utilitarian.

North elevation: the principal elevation to Westgate is gabled to the road and is of five bays and three storeys plus attic. The façade is divided horizontally by entablatures between floors, whilst triple pilasters flank each bay on the first and second floors. On the ground floor, bays one, three and five contain round-arched openings; the end bays containing windows, whilst the central bay contains an entrance door with overlight with leaded art nouveau glazing. They have keystones, imposts and shallow relief carvings in the spandrels. Above are triangular pediments breaking into the entablature, supported by tall, fluted corbels which run through the impost band. Within the tympanum are shallow relief carvings; that in the central bay contains a ‘greenman’ mask. Bays two and four contain flat-arched moulded window openings with curved upper corners and a foliated frieze in a recessed panel above. Below the windows is a continuous sill band and moulded panels above a moulded plinth.

The first- and second-floor window openings have a similar form to those in bays two and four on the ground floor. The triple pilasters that flank each bay are in an eclectic style, with early English bases, and capitals with fluting and egg-and-dart motifs.

The attic storey has a triangular coped gable with arcaded three-light window opening framed by pilasters that extend above the roofline as pinnacles with ball finials. These pilasters rise through an ornamental frieze above the windows which has a central swag and highly ornamented scrolls to the ends. Above is a decorative shield inscribed with the date ‘1901’. Behind is a high-pitched Welsh slate roof with pierced ridge tiles, and an elaborate right end ashlar chimney which is mirrored to the left by a taller version attached to the adjacent building. To the rear of the street frontage range, there are two further chimneys, these being brick.

Rear range: is of an irregular nine bays and three storeys (which are lower than the three storeys of the street frontage), built of brick in utilitarian style for 1901 with most openings having segmental-arch heads, some retaining sashes and geometric leaded glazing. The range has three tall ridge stacks. There are various later alterations and small extensions.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

445853

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, Linda, The White Horse Hotel and Yard, 61 & 63 Westgate, (2022)

Websites
Wakefield Historical Society research, accessed 8 Jan 2023 from https://www.wakefieldhistoricalsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/61-and-63-Westgate-The-White-Horse.pdf

End of official list entry

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