11 Cheapside

Summary

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

Reasons for Designation

11 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 the beam for a top-floor hoist;
* it retains much of its historic structural fabric, most notably in its roof with hewn purlins and trusses and a large hoist wheel, 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 9, 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 11 Cheapside probably originally defined the burgage plot boundaries in this area.

The warehouse at 11 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.

By 1881, these warehouses on the south side of Cheapside were not inhabited, but 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 11 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, slate 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 three bays, in brown brick laid to English Garden Wall bond of four stretcher courses to each header course. The openings on upper floors all have segmental-arched brick heads, and the top floor retains a projecting hoist beam. The central full-height loading bay has replacement doors, but original overlight to the ground floor (partially concealed by modern signage*). To either side are stacked windows, in openings with sandstone sills, and ground-floor lintels. Windows are mostly replacement casements, but to the right of the entrance is an early-C19 sash without horns and with a six-pane upper light. To the left on the first floor is an early-C19 sash with eight panes per sash and no horns. At the extreme right is a narrow four-panelled door.

The rear façade has a sandstone rubble plinth, and brown brick in English Garden Wall bond of five stretcher courses to each header course. It is largely blind, with an inserted window to the ground and top floors (modern casements), and an external air-conditioning unit*. There is a vertical mortar joint with number 9 at the right (which is lower) and number 13 at the left (taller).

INTERIOR: this is reported to retain hewn purlins and roof trusses, and a large hoist wheel.

*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the modern signage to the front façade, and external air-conditioning unit to the rear façade, are 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)

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