72-74 Westgate
72-74, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1XQ
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1273222
- Date first listed:
- 01-Feb-1979
- List Entry Name:
- 72-74 Westgate
- Statutory Address:
- 72-74, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1XQ
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1273222
- Date first listed:
- 01-Feb-1979
- List Entry Name:
- 72-74 Westgate
- Statutory Address 1:
- 72-74, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1XQ
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:
- 72-74, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1XQ
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 33032 20769
Details
This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on 14 November 2023 to amend details in the description add Historical note and Source
SE 3320 NW
2/265
WESTGATE (North Side)
Nos 72 and 74
(Formerly listed as Nos 72 and 74 (Yorks County Savings Bank))
GV
II
Two early C19 townhouses with alterations. Each townhouse is of three storeys and two bays; the western house (number 74) projecting slightly. Both have low-pitched stone flagged roofs and moulded stone cornices, that to 72 Westgate having modillions and a thin triglyph frieze. Built of red brick with gauged bricks forming flat arches to the window openings, these having stone cills and replaced sash windows. The ground floor frontage to Westgate has a mirrored pair of early C20 stone-built neoclassical office/shop fronts with the doorways set apart.
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, Westgate 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 70 and 72 Westgate. After he died in 1795, this house was demolished to create a new street lined with buildings plots, this being Cheapside which was established by 1802. What is now 72 Westgate was built as a small townhouse by Henry Soulby, a wool stapler (merchant), his brother John building a matching property at 70 Westgate. Number 74 Westgate was built separately, probably around the same time but was presumably in the same ownership when their ground floors were remodelled with stone frontages to form commercial premises. Early photographs show that 72 Westgate had a first-floor canted bay window similar to that belonging to 70 Westgate. In the C20, the joint property 72 & 74 Westgate was a branch of the Yorkshire County Savings Bank, before becoming a solicitor’s office in 1979. It was converted into a bar in 1991.
Included partly for group value.
Listing NGR: SE3303220769
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 445822
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Trickett, K, Westgate Wakefield (Wakefield Civic Society), (2022)
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 21-Jun-2026 at 14:15:53.
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.