Summary
Formerly Wakefield’s largest coaching inn, built in 1772, the frontage being remodelled and aggrandised in 1921 by the Prudential Assurance Company for offices and mixed commercial use.
Reasons for Designation
51-55 Westgate (Prudential Buildings, formerly the Black Bull/Great Bull coaching inn) is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the grand and impressive frontage onto Westgate of the 1772 building, as well as the well-considered architectural embellishments of 1921;
* the coaching inn’s rear yard-facing elevations share a high level of architectural distinction, incorporating Flemish bond brickwork and well-detailed rear ranges;
* it forms a coherent group with the other impressive commercial buildings of Upper Westgate.
Historic interest:
* the huge scale of the coaching inn demonstrates the economic importance of Wakefield in the C18 and C19 and its status as a leading county town in England.
History
Westgate was one of Wakefield’s four principal streets that developed in the medieval period, its eastern end leading to a large triangular marketplace in front of the parish church, now Wakefield Cathedral. The former Black Bull Inn was established close to the western apex of this marketplace by 1635, probably much earlier. Early C18 records suggest that it was already a very sizable establishment with multiple public rooms as well as lodgings for guests. In 1770 the landlord, James Hargrave, sold the premises to his cousin Joseph Hargrave, a wealthy woolstapler (wool merchant) who completely rebuilt the inn. This rebuild resulted in the current building fronting onto Westgate and was Wakefield’s largest and most prestigious inn with multiple, generously sized public rooms, over 50 guest bedrooms and stabling for nearly 100 horses.
The original access to the rear of the property was via a carriage arch through the centre of the Westgate elevation, the rear of the property being further developed with a complex of buildings used for warehousing, shops, small-scale industry and cottages. The large south-ward projecting range on the west side of the central yard, with its basement stables, is thought to date to the late C18, and the rear projecting range on the east side, on Market Street, is considered to be early C19. A separate meeting room on the south side of the inn’s rear yard, which no longer survives, was used by the Freemasons as a lodge for many years until they built their own building on Zetland Street. The yard itself was used in 1774-1775 for theatrical performances before the theatre company moved to the newly built Theatre Royal further down Westgate. Adverts in 1772 and 1773 for a weekly waggon-train service for merchants between West Yorkshire towns and London recorded the Black Bull as the calling point for Wakefield with another service going via Cambridge and Newark to Norwich. A 1786 advert claimed the Black Bull to be larger than any two other Wakefield inns put together.
By the 1830s the inn was known as The Great Bull, Great Bull Yard, was still being used by a range of businesses: in 1829 this included a woolstapler, an organ builder, an attorney and a bricklayer. Sometime between the Ordnance Survey Town Plans of 1848 and 1888 the carriage arch through the Westgate frontage was infilled, and converted into the building’s main entrance on Westgate. By the early C20, the inn’s fortunes had declined and the building was bought by the Prudential Assurance Company in 1921 who engaged the architect JH Pritt to undertake alterations. This included internal subdivision forming a restaurant on Market Street which retained the name Great Bull, with the Westgate frontage extended forwards to form a shop on the east side of the central entrance and the Prudential’s offices on the west side. The upper part of the building was converted to further offices with other businesses accommodated in the rear ranges. As part of this redevelopment, Pritt also remodelled the Westgate frontage with render and terracotta dressings making it significantly grander in appearance than the original brick-faced frontage, the building becoming known as Prudential Buildings. Later in the C20, the Prudential moved their offices upstairs, their ground floor accommodation becoming a branch of Martin’s Bank which was taken over by Barclays in 1969. By the early C21, the upper floors found reuse as artist’s studios with the ground floor used as bars and nightclubs.
Details
Large former coaching inn, 1772 remodelled 1921 by JH Pritt for the Prudential Assurance Company.
MATERIALS: Red brick, mainly laid in Flemish bond with some sandstone dressings, the Westgate frontage now mainly concealed by stucco render and terracotta. Stone slate roof with Welsh slate to the rear ranges.
PLAN: The main building fronts onto Westgate, the central entrance formerly being the carriageway through the building to the rear yard, this now forming the entrance stair hall. Extending to the rear are two large projecting ranges which face each other across the central yard which is partly infilled by later additions. Interiors have been partly reconfigured, especially at the Westgate ground floor level.
EXTERIOR:
Main Range Westgate (north) elevation: this is of nine bays and four storeys. The central five bays break forward slightly and are pedimented, the windows of the central bay being set back in a giant, round-arched recess. The pedimented bays are flanked by large canted bays to the first floor which feature low ogee-shaped leaded roofs. The ground floor was extended in 1921 to infill between these pre-existing canted bays, creating a broad balcony accessed from a centrally placed first-floor Venetian window. This window, which is stone-framed in Roman Ionic style, predates the 1921 remodelling, however the rest of the architectural embellishment to the frontage, with the exception of the stone cornicing, all dates to the 1921 remodelling by JH Pritt.
The ground floor is terracotta, mainly pale coloured, but with a black plinth. It features deeply rusticated banding, engaged Roman Doric columns supporting a pulvinated frieze and a dentil cornice. To the east of the central entrance, instead of the columns and frieze, there are more recent highly glazed shop fronts set between columns of terracotta blockwork. The central entrance is inset behind a pair of flanking columns. It is round arched with a keystone forming a console. The doors are panelled and double, the fanlight above having the gilded text ‘Prudential Buildings’. The door at the west end of the elevation is set between narrow windows and is flanked by engaged columns. It is also inset, round arched and fitted with double, panelled doors.
The first floor has banded rustication and apart from the central Venetian window has plate glass sashes set beneath voussoired flat arches with raised keystones. The canted bays at either end of the elevation have stone dentil cornices.
The second-floor windows are similar but have divided upper sashes. The central window is enhanced with a keystoned architrave with a swag moulding below the sill. The second floor has rusticated quoins defining the recess to the central bay, the central five bays and the elevation as a whole.
The third floor is marked by a broad, plain storey band which is overlain by a rectangular panel to the central bay. The windows are shorter, almost square, and fitted with modern casements. Excepting that to the central bay, the windows have keystoned architraves. The central window is flanked by heavy mouldings of bound sheaves, the window framed by the heavily architraved and keystoned round arch of the giant recess.
The pediment above retains exposed red brickwork and has a central, blind roundel set in a stucco architrave supported by a stepped plinth ornamented with foliage.
The roof is low pitched and has crossing ridges, being gabled to the north and south forming pediments and hipped to east and west. There are large, tall, stacks to either end of the elevation.
Market Street (east) elevation: The main front range is of three bays, the elevation continuing down the hill for a further six bays of the slightly lower rear projecting range which is of three storeys over a basement – this is described separately below. The ground floor terracotta frontage of the Westgate elevation continues for two bays along Market Street, with an entrance set to the street corner and a more elaborate recessed entrance to the second bay with a pillared overlight above double doors. To its left (south) is a large leaded window incorporating stained glass. Windows above are multipaned hornless sashes and smaller casements, all with gauged brick segmental arches, the northern bay on upper floors being blind. Two chimney stacks rise from the eaves.
Rear (south) elevation of main building: This is of red brick laid in Flemish bond with window openings generally with stone sills and gauged brick flat arches except for the central bay that has a Venetian window to the first floor and a Diocletian window within the open pediment of the attic. Many of the window openings have been altered. The central bay has a large round-arched recess spanning the third and fourth floors. This has a stone sill and may have been a large stair window but is now infilled with brickwork matching the rest of the elevation except for a window to each floor. The eaves line and the central five bay pediment have brick modillioned cornicing. The pediment has four chimney stacks set just off the ridge.
Western Rear Range: This is of two storeys over a basement, extending for nine bays southwards from the western two bays of the Westgate frontage building. It is considered to be largely contemporary with this main building, its eastern elevation facing into the inn’s yard detailed in a similar manner to the Westgate frontage before the 1921 alterations. The east elevation, facing the inn’s central yard, is built in Flemish bond brickwork with the central three bays having an open-based pediment, these bays breaking forwards slightly. Most of the windows have stone sills and gauged brick flat arches, many retaining multipaned hornless sashes, although some window openings and joinery have been altered, some now blocked. The upper floor window to the centre is set in a surround imitating a Venetian window, but with blind side lights. Below, off-set slightly to the north, there is a flat-roofed canted bay with Tuscan columns. The elevation facing the inn’s yard also has external fire escapes and air conditioning units. The west elevation (onto Albion Court) is more utilitarian, and more altered. A butt joint and change in the roofing indicates that the southern three bays are a later addition. The roof is gabled and has lost its chimney stacks.
Eastern Rear Range (including southern part of the Market Street elevation): This is thought to be an early C19 addition and is marked by a cogged brick eaves course. It is a five by three bay block with a hipped roof and eaves stacks that is connected to the main building by a narrower single bay link. It is of three storeys over a basement. It generally has two-over-two pane sashes with stone sills and gauged brick segmental arches. Bays with chimney stacks, (centre bays to east and west, outer bays to north and south) are generally blind. On the Market Street elevation (east) the ground floor windows are leaded and include some stained glass. The far southern bay has a doorway accessing the basement (here at ground level because of the hill). This doorway is inset within a terracotta surround including an entablature. The west elevation (facing the courtyard) has a flat roofed extension and a fire escape staircase.
INTERIOR: retains some period features such as joinery and plasterwork that appears to be mainly C19. The principal staircase is an early C20 replacement. The basement is reported to be extensive and to retain some evidence of former horse stabling.
