67 and 69 Westgate (formerly Bank House)

Large townhouse built about 1790 for Captain Francis Ingram founding partner of Wakefield’s first purpose-built bank Ingram and Kennet.

MATERIALS: red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings to the front elevation, plainer red brickwork to the side and rear. Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: the ground floor has been extensively altered, the current main entrance being the original carriage entrance to Rishworth’s Yard depicted in 1823. The main stair (which is to the centre of the building, rising around a square open well) and the service stair (to the centre of the Bank Street elevation) remain identifiable, but partly altered. Some rooms on the first floor have also been amalgamated.

EXTERIOR: Westgate elevation (north): this is of five bay and three storeys over a basement. The elevation has a stone basement, windowsill bands to the ground and first floors and a moulded modillion cornice with a blocking course above concealing the low-pitched hipped roof. The ground floor has a bold arcade of round arches in rusticated stonework, that to the far left (east) being a former carriage entrance, now forming the main entrance to the building. All of the arches, including the former carriage entrance, are infilled with Flemish-bonded brickwork of a lighter colour than the rest of the elevation, this being deeply set back within the arches, each with an opening formed with rubbed brick flat arches, the left-most being a six-panel door with a rectangular overlight, the others fitted with large, six-over-six pane hornless sash windows. There are similar sash windows to the first and second floors, the upper windows being a pane shorter. The central window to the first floor has an apron formed with a recess containing urn-shaped balusters, a moulded architrave and a console-bracketed pediment. The window above has an architrave.

Bank Street elevation (west): this is of five bays, the flanking bays being blind, both having four-flued chimney stacks rising from the eaves. Windows have segmentally arched brick lintels and stone sills. The central bay has two tall stair windows, the upper one being round arched, the lower one being enlarged downwards to form a doorway with a tall overlight. To the left (north) there is a former doorway which has been reduced to a window, with evidence of a further blocked doorway to the northern-most bay. Roof: not visible from the ground are further chimney stacks and the large glazed lantern which lights the main staircase to the centre of the building.