1, Woolshops

Café, formerly 2 dwellings, late 16th/early 17th century.

This three-storey building is constructed of random coursed dressed stone with timber framing to the upper floors, featuring herring bone bracing on the south and west sides, and stone slate roofs. The central stone chimney stack, now truncated, runs the full height of the building. Historically, the structure comprised two separate adjoining properties, each with a single room on each floor, and remained divided in this manner through the 19th and into the 20th century.

The south elevation has two bays, with jettied first and second floors. The ground floor entrance is positioned to the right, with a 2-light leaded window immediately to its left and a further 2-light window in the left bay—both windows are altered. The left bay on the first floor has been plastered, whilst the right bay displays close herring bone studding that extends across the entire front at second floor level and into the two gables above. The first and second floor windows are 4-light wood mullioned casements with leaded glazing, except for the first floor right-hand window which is a canted bay with mullions and transoms. Small leaded windows sit in each gable, with shaped barge boards to the gables. On the right side, stonework continues to the roof with a pilaster bearing an inscribed date of 1670 on the second floor section; the stonework of this pilaster differs from the surrounding material. The west elevation is also jettied, with timber framing visible only on the second floor and in the twin gables above. Windows comprise two 3-light timber mullioned and leaded casements on the first and second floors (modern replacements) and an altered 3-light window on the ground floor. A projecting stone pillar on the left side appears structurally integral to a building that formerly abutted this one. The east elevation contains a small first floor leaded round-arched window and a 2-light mullioned window at second floor, both probably later inserts and possibly re-used from elsewhere.

The ground floor interior is largely altered, though the central chimney stone stack remains with ceiling beams in the eastern half. An inserted opening between the two sections reveals a massively constructed stone wall separating the former properties. Stairs descend to cellars, whilst an enclosed staircase to the rear leads to the first floor, which comprises two rooms. The right room retains the central stone chimney stack with a fireplace opening and a beamed ceiling with large chamfered joists, those entering the stone wall fitted with chamfer stops. Some joists and rafters are replacements. The window frame is modern, but an original timber post stands adjacent to the dividing wall. The left room has a beamed ceiling with heavy joists and a dragon beam to the jettied outer corner. Most joists and rafters are chamfered, some with stops, and show evidence of timber re-use. The chamfer stops are roughly made in a variety of shapes. A modern staircase leads to the second floor, which is open to the roof structure. The stone chimney stack continues with blocked openings, and walls are plastered between vertical timbers rising to a wall plate at eaves level; some timbers are later replacements. The double main roof structure comprises a king post truss on each side of the chimney stack (partly obscured by a partition on the right), with heavy tie-beams and purlins, with additional timbers forming gables at right angles to the main roof. Some timbers are replacements, and others show re-use. Windows are leaded with modern timber replacement frames, except for the two small east-wall windows which retain leaded glass with stone surrounds.

The building bears a date stone of 1670, though its origins more probably lie earlier in the late 16th or early 17th century. Little is known of its early history, but it was clearly constructed as two adjoining properties and remained so through the 19th and most of the 20th century. In the last quarter of the 20th century, buildings abutting the rear (north side) and east side were demolished, leaving this building detached. It was listed in 1954 as Nos 2/3 Woolshops and renumbered as No 1 in the 1980s. It now operates as a café.

The building is designated Grade II* as a very rare survival of half-timbering in an area where stone buildings predominate, and as the last surviving timber-framed house in central Halifax, representing an important relic of the pre-industrial town. It retains extensive original timber work spanning three floors, including a complete roof structure, a dragon beam to the first floor jettied corner, wall framing, and the central stone chimney stack.