The Elephant and Castle Public House
The Elephant and Castle Public House, Westgate
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1258989
- Date first listed:
- 01-Feb-1979
- List Entry Name:
- The Elephant and Castle Public House
- Statutory Address:
- The Elephant and Castle Public House, Westgate
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-03-22
- Reference:
- IOE01/03859/13
- Rights:
- © Mr John Turner. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1258989
- Date first listed:
- 01-Feb-1979
- List Entry Name:
- The Elephant and Castle Public House
- Statutory Address 1:
- The Elephant and Castle Public House, Westgate
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- The Elephant and Castle Public House, Westgate
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Wakefield (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 32880 20674
History
Westgate was one of Wakefield’s four principal medieval streets. In the C17 and C18 it became a popular residential district for the mercantile classes. Local tax records suggest that there was a public house on this site from at least the mid-C18. There is an early reference to the inn as the Elephant and Castle in a notice in the London Gazette on 12 August 1775, concerning a meeting of the creditors of Thomas Smith, a bankrupt wine merchant. There are records for the public house through the C19. In 1894 it was acquired by Warwick & Co, Boroughbridge. Plans were submitted the following year for alterations; however, the elaborate tiled and terracotta frontage (a good example of Edwardian use of the frontage of a public house to form an advertisement), dates to the early C20. It is shown in plans submitted on 20 July 1903 by the architect J Jackson of Barry Street Bradford. Ownership passed to John Smith’s of Tadcaster in 1925.
Details
This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on 2 April 2024 to amend details in the description, add Historical note and source and reformat the text to current standards
SE 3220 NE
1/276
WESTGATE (south side), No. 109 (The Elephant and Castle Public House)
GV
II
Public house with an early-C20 fanciful-styled frontage.
Built of red brick with terracotta and faience dressings and a slated roof, this is a two-storey building of three bays facing Westgate. The outer bays have large, shaped pediments, the central bay having a small segmental pediment; these three pediments feature raised gold lettering on terracotta scrolls reading ‘Elephant and Castle’. They are all above the blocking course of an entablature with frieze. The various first-floor windows are pedimented, mostly with open-based segmental pediments. The ground- floor frontage features glazed brown tiles with pilasters, spandrels and frieze ornamented in gold and green. The entrance is to the central bay and is round-arched, the flanking bays having wide, four-centred arches.
Listing NGR: SE3288020674
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 445997
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Harman, R, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England. Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South, (2017)
Websites
Leven, S, 2022, ‘The Elephant and Castle Public House and Yard, 109 Westgate’. Wakefield Historical Society available at, accessed 10 Jan 2024 from https://www.wakefieldhistoricalsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/109-Westgate-The-Elephant-and-Castle.pdf
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 14-Jun-2026 at 01:49:40.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.