9 Cheapside

Summary

A wool-stapler’s warehouse of the first quarter of the C19, converted as offices, of three storeys in brick with some sandstone walling.

Reasons for Designation

9 Cheapside, a wool-stapler’s warehouse of the first quarter of the C19, since converted as offices, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* its external architectural features denote its former function, including central loading doors to each floor, and it is enhanced by more decorative features, such as gutter brackets;
* it retains much of its historic structural fabric, most notably in its roof with hewn purlins and six trusses, and its earlier sandstone walling to the rear.

Historic interest:

* it represents Wakefield’s continued importance as a centre of the wool trade in the C18 and C19.

Group value:

* it has a strong visual, functional and contextual relationship with the adjacent Grade II-listed early-C19 warehouses at 11, 13, 15-17 and 19 Cheapside.

History

Wakefield was established during the medieval period at a strategic trade position on the river Calder, which led to the development of Wakefield as the capital of Yorkshire's cloth trade by the C14. Westgate was one of four principal streets with long and narrow burgage plots that remain visible through modern land divisions. These historic plots were owned by craftsmen and traders and had commercial properties facing the street and workshops to the rear. Sandstone walling at the base of the rear façade of 9 Cheapside probably originally defined the burgage plot boundaries in this area.

The warehouse at 9 Cheapside was built by the time John Walker’s map of 1823 was surveyed, and appears to incorporate earlier fabric in its rear wall. Cheapside was laid out off Westgate in 1802 and is characterised by ranges of wool-staplers’ warehouses, constructed to serve Wakefield’s prospering wool trade. The surrounding group of warehouses is one of the best surviving of its kind in England.

The fenestration suggests that the eastern part of number 9 was altered in the mid-C19, but there is no indication of domestic use. By 1881, Cheapside hosted only one wool-stapler’s business and one draper’s, and the warehouses might have been occupied by other businesses listed in trade directories, such as wine merchants, carriage makers, painters and plumbers. In the later C20 number 9 was renovated and it remains (2024) in office use.

Details

A wool-stapler’s warehouse of the first quarter of the C19, converted as offices.

MATERIALS: hand-made brick with some sandstone walling, stone-flag roof.

PLAN: a three-storey block facing onto Cheapside with a rear façade to Carter Street.

EXTERIOR: the entrance faces Cheapside. The building is of five bays, in red brick laid to English Garden Wall bond of three stretcher courses to each header course. The central full-height loading bay has replacement doors and (upper floor) a modern Juliet balcony. To either side are stacked windows. To the left, these are early-C19 two-over-two sash windows without horns, in enlarged openings with flat brick arch heads and sandstone sills. To the right they are smaller, eight-over-eight sashes, also without horns, with segmental-arched brick heads and sandstone sills. There are vertical brick joints with the buildings to either side. The eaves gutter is supported by late-C19 decorative cast-iron corbels.

The rear façade is of squared sandstone rubble to the ground floor, and above brown brick in stretcher bond up to the first floor, below English Garden Wall bond of four stretcher courses to each header course. Windows are modern casements and small, with sandstone sills and lintels. One window in the sandstone wall is blocked with C19 brick. There is a vertical mortar joint with number 11 at the left (which is taller), and at the right, the adjacent number 7 (not included) projects. There is some modern signage, and an external air-conditioning unit*.

INTERIOR: this is largely modernised but retains the structural fabric, including hewn purlins and six king-post roof trusses. Doorways have been cut in the former party wall with number 7, to allow a stair there to access the floors of number 9.

*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the external air conditioning unit to the rear façade is not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require listed building consent and this is a matter for the local planning authority to determine.

Sources

Books and journals
Harman, R, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England. Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South, (2017), 709
Kelly, ER, Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire Pt 2 (Places L-Y), (1881), 1413

Other
Walker, John, Map of the Town of Wakefield (1823)

End of official list entry

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