22 Bond Street, Dewsbury

Former warehouse, now offices, built in 1867-1868 by architect William Thornton for woolstapler Matthew Grandidge. The building is designed in the 19th-century Italian Renaissance style.

The building is constructed of rock-faced millstone-grit blocks with ashlar dressings to the front elevation facing Bond Street, coursed millstone grit with ashlar dressings to the rear elevation, and slate roof coverings. It has a rectangular footprint aligned east-west and is flanked by adjoining buildings on both sides. The building is three bays wide and three storeys tall, plus a basement. Due to the sloping ground level of Bond Street, the basement is partially visible at the front elevation, and the building has a raised ground floor. A hipped roof is hidden from view by a deep dentilled eaves cornice.

The front elevation facing south on Bond Street has raised quoining to each outer edge and is set upon an ashlar plinth. All windows contain plate-glass sashes with segmental-arched heads and carved surrounds. The windows on the ground and first floors have eared and shouldered surrounds incorporating carved apron panels. The main entrance is positioned centrally and consists of a tall doorway with a segmental-arched head set within a quoined surround. The keystone incorporates vermiculated rustication and bears the date '1868' and the initials 'MG'. A recessed four-panel folding door is accessed by stone steps and has an overlight above (now painted over, though a decorative metal grille is visible internally behind it). The entrance is flanked on each side by tall paired windows separated by a carved mullion. Below each set of windows are two short segmental-arched basement windows styled as overlights, with recessed glazing and metal bars. The two upper floors have similar but slightly shorter windows with carved sill bands below. Windows on the second floor have surrounds without ears and shoulders and half-H aprons instead. The centre bay contains single windows. The roof has two chimneystacks on each of the east and west hips.

The rear elevation facing north is constructed of coursed millstone grit with ashlar lintels and sills. It is also three bays wide, though the right bay is concealed on the ground and first floors by a later adjoining building fronting onto Croft Street. The centre of the ground floor contains a doorway with a four-panel door and six-light overlight. The left bay on each floor has a series of slightly recessed windows that appear to have originally been a loading bay. The ground floor has a six-light window, whilst those on the upper floors are mullioned sash windows. Single sash windows exist on the upper floors of the centre bay and the second floor of the right bay.

Internally, partition walls have been inserted and the warehouse ceiling beams have been encased. Deep skirtings are present throughout, along with moulded door and window architraves, and some built-in cupboards.

The ground floor has a central corridor with rooms off to each side and a stair located to the north-west corner. Simple moulded cornicing exists in the ground-floor spaces, though some of the partitioning on the ground floor dates to the late 20th century. Just inside the main entrance is a glazed timber screen forming a vestibule. A room on the ground floor left contains a large marble fireplace surround with a cast-iron insert and tiled cheeks and hearth, plus a Lincrusta or Anaglypta dado. The main stair has a narrow open well, carved newel posts, turned balusters, and a cut string. The stair incorporates internal windows, although that on the first floor has been covered over. An enclosed timber basement stair is located to the centre left of the ground floor.

The late-19th-century office layout of the ground floor can be observed on the first floor, which does not have late-20th-century partitioning. The rooms are slightly plainer in detail without dados and cornicing, but with picture rails instead. The two front first-floor rooms have fireplaces similar to that on the ground floor, but with painted marble.

The second floor has late-19th- and late-20th-century partitioning and a spine corridor running east-west with rooms off to the front and rear. A room to the rear left contains a small enclosed mezzanine office or store accessed via a short flight of timber steps with an early linoleum covering incorporating a Greek-key patterned border. The office or store is accessed through a four-panel door and has a large internal window (partly covered up) to its east wall; both the door and window have moulded architraves. Chimneybreasts survive and one of the front rooms retains a marble fireplace (unpainted) in the same style as those on the lower floors.

The basement is partitioned into separate spaces by late-19th and early-20th-century brick walls and partly-glazed panelled partitions, forming store, toilet and office areas. Partly-glazed and solid panelled doors survive, and walls are a mixture of bare stone, brick and timber panelling. Slender structural supports have been installed to the rear right space where original timber ceiling joists and beams are visible.