Summary
Former townhouse, early C19, used commercially from at least the mid-C19.
Reasons for Designation
70 Westgate, including 2 and 4a Cheapside, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a good example of a townhouse built in the early C19 close to the commercial centre of Wakefield, the finely detailed canted bay window being its most noticeable feature.
Historic interest:
* built by a wool stapler at the entrance to a newly created street (Cheapside) that from at least 1802 was developed for wool warehouses, this former townhouse reflects the importance of the wool trade in Wakefield in the early C19.
Group value:
* particularly with the contemporary townhouse on the other side of Cheapside (72 Westgate), built by the original occupant's brother, but also with other C18 and early-C19 buildings on Westgate, such as numbers 65 and 105, which have similar canted bay windows to their first floors.
History
Westgate was one of Wakefield’s four principal streets that developed in the medieval period with long narrow burgage plots extending back from the street frontage. During the C17 and C18, it became a popular residential district for the mercantile classes, with large townhouses fronting onto Westgate, with further, often commercial and industrial, buildings extending to the rear. This included a large townhouse, owned by an attorney Alan Johnson, occupying what is now the start of Cheapside and the flanking buildings of 70 and 72 Westgate. After he died in 1795 the house was demolished to create a new street lined with building plots; known as Cheapside and established by 1802.
Most of Cheapside was developed for wool warehouses, but what is now 70 Westgate was built as a small townhouse by John Soulby, a wool stapler (merchant); his brother Henry built a matching property on the other side of Cheapside at 72 Westgate. At some stage in the C19 the ground floor, like many former townhouses on Westgate, passed into commercial use and acquired a shopfront. The 1851 census records Benjamin Lynas, a tea dealer and master grocer, working and living at the property. The grocery business was later continued by George Webster and the property continued as a grocer’s shop until becoming a branch of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society in 1962. At the time of writing (January 2024) the building has been subdivided for commercial use.
Details
Former townhouse, early C19, used commercially from at least the mid-C19.
MATERIALS: Red brick, laid in Flemish bond facing Westgate, randomly bonded facing Cheapside, some stone dressings and a stone slate roof.
PLAN: the original plan form is uncertain, the current ground-floor configuration is due to subdivision of the property for commercial use. The near central doorway to the Cheapside elevation is original, and may possibly have been the principal entrance.
EXTERIOR: The building is of three storeys and has a principal elevation of two bays to Westgate, and a side elevation of three bays to Cheapside, the other two sides abutting adjoining properties. The roof is low-pitched and set back, concealed by a projecting stone modillion eaves cornice with a thin triglyph frieze, the roof being hipped to the south (facing Westgate). There are two large chimney stacks: an end stack to the north and an eaves stack to the east.
Westgate (south) elevation: set centrally to the first floor is a three-light, canted bay window with Roman Doric pillars supporting a guilloche frieze and a dentilled cornice, the bay having a flat roof. The detailing of this canted bay is delicate and of good quality. To the second floor are two windows with gauged brick flat arches with triple keystones, the central ones being moulded. Window joinery to both upper floors of this elevation are one-over-one sashes. The ground floor has a full-width modern shop front, which continues beyond the corner-set entrance for one bay on Cheapside.
Cheapside (west) elevation: the central bay retains a substantial stone plinth and a window sill band to a pair of window openings (boarded over with shop signage in 2023), and immediately to the left (north) is a domestic doorway retaining an early C19 rectangular overlight with bats wing glazing bars, the door being a later replacement. The flanking bays have modern shop fronts. The original first- and second-floor window openings have flat arches of gauged bricks, stone sills and small-paned sash windows, generally six-over-six-pane, with the upper windows being shorter (three-over-six), and the northern first-floor window being wider (eight-over-eight). The southern second-floor window is blind and there is a pair of small inserted windows to its left.
