Former Solicitor'S Office

The Former Solicitor's Office in Pontefract is a building that originally served as a house, then a shop and office, and was disused at the time of the last survey. It dates back to the 17th century, with a late 19th-century refronting. The structure is made of red brick in English garden wall bond and features a Welsh slate roof. It stands two storeys tall and has two first-floor windows, with a lower bay to the left.

On the ground floor, from left to right, there is a 19th-century shop front, a flush door, and a two-pane sash window. The first floor has four-pane sash windows, all of which have projecting sills and shallow segmental brick arches above them. There is an end stack to the right, and the left bay contains a matching window on the ground floor, along with an ashlar blind oculus above.

Visible through the shop window is a remarkable 17th-century ceiling featuring a central lozenge adorned with acorns and oak leaf foliage, surrounded by a border of grapes and vine leaves. Each corner of the ceiling has pomegranates and vine trail fronds, along with a simple moulded deep cornice. At the rear of the building, there is a late 18th-century or early 19th-century turned baluster staircase. An earlier description of the building dates the ceiling to around 1630 and notes its similarity to designs found at the Nunnery in Arthington and Headlands Hall in Liversedge.