Reasons for Designation
The warehouse at Eureka, Halifax, is recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its date of 1849 puts it in the second phase of railway development, when railway building was at its height and associated structures are of historic interest
* It is a good example, little altered, of a type of building that is relatively rare nationally
* The original function of the building, as a transhipment warehouse, is still apparent from its surviving internal features and form
* It has group value with other listed railway structures in the vicinity, including a goods shed, viaduct and passenger station
Details
679/0/10334 SOUTH PARADE
24-MAR-10 THE WAREHOUSE AT EUREKA
GV II
Railway warehouse, c.1849, by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company.
MATERIALS: Narrow sandstone 'bricks' laid in courses, and slate roofs. There are some ashlar dressings to windows and cast iron lintels to the cart doors.
EXTERIOR: The building is relatively long and narrow, with curved long sides. The main part is single storey with eight bays. There are multi-paned round arched windows with ashlar dressings in each bay on the east side, and five on the west side, some blocked, along with two cart entrances with double wooden boarded doors and decorative cast iron lintels. A similar door is on the north gable end offset to the left where a rail track (surviving) leads into the building. To the right is a three light square headed window with stone mullions, and above a round window grille with ashlar dressings. Attached to the south gable end is a two storey section of five bays, with similar round arched windows to the east side ground floor and a blank first storey. On the west side is a single window and a cart entrance, both similar to the others. To the right of this side (south-west corner of the building) is a two storey office extension with two 9-paned windows on each floor and a blocked door to the right. The roof has a pediment and a central chimney stack with three pots. The gable end has a cart entrance to the right, blocked with a stone infill, and a round window above. The office extension has another window to each floor on this side.
INTERIOR: The ground floor of the shed is a single open space. The single storey element has timber queen post trusses. The railway track enters from the north along the east side of the building and is flanked by an area for transferring freight between railway wagons and road vehicles accessing the building from the cart doors on the west side. The two storey element has iron beams supported by cast iron columns on the ground floor with further columns on the first floor. There is a small cellar. A raised unloading platform at the southern end is served by a series of traps or chutes from the first floor.
HISTORY: The first railway line to reach Halifax was a branch from the Calder Valley Line (Manchester & Leeds Railway), built by the West Riding Union Railway in 1844, terminating at Shaw Syke Station. The line was extended northwards by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the OS 1:1056 map of Halifax, published in 1849, shows the extended line and the warehouse, with a number of other buildings now demolished. The warehouse appears shorter than at present and is consistent with the single storey element of the building. The two storey section to the south was added shortly afterwards. The office extension was in place by 1907. The building is currently unused.
SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: The railway track running into the building from the north survives for several metres beyond the building as far as the current boundary fence.
SOURCES:
Biddle, G., Britain's Historic Railway Buildings, 2003
Dyson, C., Structural Appraisal of "The Working Horse Museum", Eureka Museum for Children, Halifax, 2005
West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service Sites and Monuments Record, Primary Record No 9103, 2009
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The warehouse at Eureka, Halifax, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its date of 1849 puts it in the second phase of railway development, when railway building was at its height and associated structures are of historic interest
* It is a good example, little altered, of a type of building that is relatively rare nationally
* The original function of the building, as a transhipment warehouse, is still apparent from its surviving internal features and form
* It has group value with other listed railway structures in the vicinity, including a goods shed, viaduct and passenger station
