50 and 52 Westgate

Summary

Pair of townhouses incorporating commercial premises, late C18, possibly 1780 for the woolstapler Thomas Crowther. Reconfigured into a single property early C20 and used as a branch of Lloyds Bank 1926-1980.

Reasons for Designation

50 and 52 Westgate are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of late-C18 development close to the commercial centre of Wakefield, built as a mirrored pair of townhouses employing good-quality architectural detailing with partial commercial use from an early date;
* the stone ashlar bank frontage added around 1927 is also of a good architectural quality.

Historic interest:

* an illustration of the wealth of Wakefield’s merchants in the late C18 and representative properties in English towns and cities being in mixed business and domestic use through most of the C19.

Group value:

* with a number of other late-C18 and early-C19 townhouses on Westgate and adjacent yards.

History

Westgate was one of Wakefield’s four principal medieval streets, the west end of Silver Street marking where Westgate met the large triangular medieval marketplace that originally extended from in front of the parish church (now Wakefield Cathedral) to form the centre of the town. Westgate was laid out with long thin burgage plots extending back from the road frontage and became a popular residential area for the mercantile classes in the C17 and C18, often incorporating commercial premises with domestic accommodation above and behind.

What is now 50 and 52 Westgate may have been built by Thomas Crowther, a woolstapler, who purchased the property on 22 April 1769. Soon after, the Woolpacks Inn was opened in the yard to the rear and the property on the Westgate frontage was let out as a shop. By 1847 the property was owned by the Egremont estate and formed two separate houses with ground-floor shops. Architect plans dated 1898 for proposed alterations to combine the ground floor into a single shop with offices on upper floors suggest that the building was originally built as a pair of townhouses rather than being a single late-C18 house that was then subdivided. These plans show the removal of the original pair of principal staircases and their replacement with a single staircase to the rear of the building. It is uncertain if these alterations were carried out at this time because 50 and 52 Westgate continued to be occupied by separate businesses in the early C20 until the whole building was acquired by Lloyds Bank in 1926.

The building was combined into a single property with a reconfigured interior by the time it opened as a branch bank in 1928. As part of the conversion into a bank, a new stone ashlar frontage was added to the ground floor. This was re-exposed as part of renovations in 2022-2023 following the removal of mid-C20 polished granite cladding. The building was closed as a bank in 1980 and has been in bar and restaurant use since the mid-1990s.

Details

Pair of townhouses incorporating commercial premises, late C18, possibly 1780 for the woolstapler Thomas Crowther. Reconfigured into a single property early C20 and used as a branch of Lloyds Bank 1926-1980.

MATERIALS: red brick, laid in Flemish bond to the Westgate elevation which also incorporates some stone dressings. Stone slate roof. Late 1920s stone ashlar bank frontage to the ground floor.

PLAN: a mirrored pair of townhouses with carriage entrances through the building at either end of the Westgate frontage providing access to Woolpacks Yard and Barstow Square. The original accesses to the upper floor domestic accommodation is thought to have been off these yards, however, the interior planform of the building has been extensively altered.

EXTERIOR: Westgate elevation (south): The building is of three stories and four bays, the middle two bays each having three windows to both upper floors. Windows have projecting stone cills, those to either end of the elevation on the first floor being round arched with keystones, the arches having stone impost blocks that extend as lintels over blind lancets to imitate Venetian windows. All of the other upper-floor windows have gauged-brick flat arches with stone tripartite keystones, the openings fitted with replaced sash windows. The second-floor windows are shorter than those to the first-floor, being almost square. The elevation is topped by a stone dentil cornice, the roof being low-pitched and hipped with no surviving chimney stacks.

The ground floor has a stone ashlar frontage of a simple stripped classical design installed around 1927 for Lloyds Bank. This has three sash windows to the centre with an ornamented cill band flanked by doorways set in wide openings with plain raised surrounds. Flanking this frontage are the two carriage entrances to the rear yards, these having keystoned basket arches.

Rear elevation: This has a central, three-storey wing that projects by two bays to the rear between the two yards, this range continued by the attached former Woolpack Inn.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

445815

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
Smith, D (2022) ’50-52 Westgate’ Wakefield Historical Society research, accessed 04 April 2024 from https://www.wakefieldhistoricalsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/50-52-Westgate.pdf

Other
Heritage Statement for 50-52 Westgate by Seven Architecture in support of a Listed Building Consent application 23 Aug 2022

End of official list entry

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