20 Bond Street, Dewsbury, Dewsbury, Kirklees

Summary

Former warehouse, now (2022) offices, 1862 with later alterations, by Charles Henry Marriott for the woolstapler Matthew Grandidge. C19 Italian Renaissance style.

Description

Former warehouse, now offices, 1862 with later alterations, by Charles Henry Marriott for the woolstapler Matthew Grandidge. C19 Italian Renaissance style.

MATERIALS: rock-faced millstone-grit 'bricks' with ashlar dressings to the front elevation, mellow red brick with ashlar dressings to the rear, and coursed millstone grit to the west return. Slate roof coverings.

PLAN: 20 Bond Street is roughly square in plan with a stair to the centre, and is flanked to each east and west side by adjoining buildings. The principal elevation faces south on to Bond Street and to the north the building is bounded by a yard area and an open plot fronting on to Croft Street.

EXTERIOR: externally the building is of a wide four bays and three storeys plus basement with a half-hipped roof that is hidden from view when viewed from the ground. Due to the sloping ground level of Bond Street the basement is partially visible to the eastern half of the front elevation and the eastern half of the building has a raised ground floor.

Front (south) elevation: the front elevation is set upon a plinth of large millstone-grit blocks and has raised quoining to each outer edge. All the windows contain plate-glass sashes and have segmental-arched heads and carved surrounds; the window surrounds to the ground and first floors are eared and shouldered and incorporate carved apron panels. The main entrance is set off-centre to the third bay and consists of a tall doorway with a segmental-arched head set within a quoined surround with a keystone incorporating vermiculated rustication. A four-panel door, which is recessed and accessed by stone steps, has a plain overlight above. The bay to the right has tall paired windows to the raised ground floor separated by a carved mullion. Below are two short, segmental-arched basement windows in the style of overlights, with metal grilles attached in front. To the ground floor of the left two bays is a late-C19 timber shopfront (now - 2022 - accessing the office reception) with fluted pilasters topped by pedimented caps carried on paired brackets and a plain signage fascia. The shopfront windows incorporate slender mullions, large expanses of plate glazing, and clerestory-style upper lights containing simple Art Nouveau stained and leaded glazing. The shop entrance is recessed and contains a partly glazed panelled door with an overlight (painted over), and a threshold with a patterned tessarae floor. The elevation's two upper floors have alternated single and paired windows with carved sill bands below; those to the second floor have surrounds without ears and shoulders and half-H aprons instead. To the top of the elevation is a deep dentilled eaves cornice, which hides the roof from view. The roof has a truncated chimneystack to the east side.

Rear (north) elevation: the rear elevation is gabled and plainer, and is constructed of mellow red brick with ashlar dressings in the form of lintels and sill bands. It is also of four-bays, but has an additional attic storey at this end. There are windows to each bay on each of the three lower floors, which contain replaced four-light casements, with a further single window to the gable apex. Additionally, to the ground floor left is a doorway with a plain ashlar surround incorporating impost blocks, plain timber double doors and a boarded-up overlight. The building projects out further than its neighbour, 22 Bond Street, at the rear and consequently also has a short west return elevation, which is constructed of coursed millstone grit with ashlar dressings. The return elevation is of two-bays and three-storeys with a full-height loading bay to the left bay. The taking-in doors have all been removed and the openings bricked up (probably carried out when the building was converted for office use), but the ashlar surrounds with impost blocks and ashlar floor ends survive, and the bricking up has retained the original recessed position of the doors. The ground-floor taking-in door has been replaced by a doorway and window, whilst the former opening to the first floor has a small inserted window. To the right bay on each floor are tall, paired slender multipaned windows with ashlar sills, lintels and mullions.

INTERIOR: internally spaces have generally been modernised and the interior has been partitioned to form office space, with early-C21 suspended ceilings inserted throughout. The partitions are a mixture of late-C19 and late-C20/early-C21 insertions. Simple moulded door and window architraves survive throughout, along with some late-C19 four-panel doors, but most doors are modern replacements, including fire doors. A painted fire surround with a cast-iron insert and tiled cheeks survives to one of the first-floor rooms, but others have been removed. Chimneybreasts survive throughout.

The main entrance leads into a hallway with a glazed screen composed of arched upper lights and replaced double doors that leads through into a central stair hall with a stair on the west side and rooms off to the east side, front and rear; a layout roughly replicated on each floor level. A later opening with a glazed screen has been inserted in the south-west corner to connect the former shop with the rest of the ground floor; the former shop itself is plain and has a modern raised platform/mezzanine inserted to access the connecting doorway due to a differing floor level.

The building's main dog-leg stair has a carved newel post, turned balusters and a sweeping handrail, and a cut string from the first half-landing level upwards. The first-floor landing is enclosed by a late-C19 partly-glazed panelled screen, and the second-floor landing incorporates internal cross windows to the south and east sides for additional light.

A later metal basement stair has been inserted to the rear of the ground floor alongside the rear wall. The basement comprises a series of interconnected spaces with a concrete floor, painted stone walls, and encased ceiling beams.

History

20 Bond Street was constructed in 1862 as a warehouse for Matthew Grandidge, a woolstapler (a dealer who buys wool, sorts and grades it, and sells it on to a manufacturer), to designs by Charles Henry Marriott, a local architect and surveyor. Grandidge also commissioned a neighbouring building at 22 Bond Street five years later, which was designed by another local architect, William Thornton.

From 1866 until the completion of the new town hall in 1889 the building was used as the Borough Offices, which housed the officials, such as the Borough Surveyor, and their departments, and it was also used for hosting Town Council meetings. In the late C19 part of the ground floor was converted into a shop and a shopfront was added. In more recent times the building was occupied by the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce in the latter part of the C20, and it has been a solicitor's office since 2003/2004.

Reasons for Listing

20 Bond Street, Dewsbury, constructed in 1862, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a small-scale town-centre warehouse in Italian Renaissance/palazzo style, with a principal elevation originally designed to impress and convey the status and quality of the goods and business contained within;

* it retains numerous original and early interior features, including moulded architraves, some panelled doors, a late-C19 stair, a first-floor fireplace, and encased warehouse ceiling beams in the basement.

Historic interest:

* it is an important survival of a mid-C19 warehouse associated with Dewsbury's textile industry at the peak of its prosperity and success, and later adapted for commercial use, including as the town's Borough Offices.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the other neighbouring listed former textile warehouses on Bond Street and neighbouring streets.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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