37-41, ROPERGATE

37-41 Ropergate is a late 18th-century building that has been altered in the mid-19th century. Originally three houses, it now serves as two shops with offices above. The structure is made of painted brick in Flemish bond and features a Welsh slate roof. It stands three storeys tall and has five bays.

On the ground floor, there is a central segmental archway with ashlar voussoirs and a fluted keystone. The mid-19th-century shop fronts include plate-glass windows, inverted pilasters with small volute capitals, deep friezes, and lead-topped cornices in the first and fourth bays. The second bay contains a 4-pane sash window, while the fifth bay has a blocked doorway with a wedge lintel.

The first floor features a central tripartite window, consisting of a 4-pane sash flanked by two 2-pane sashes, all under a lintel with a keyed round arch that creates a Venetian window effect. The second floor has half-size 4-pane sashes. All windows have projecting ashlar sills and voussoired wedge lintels. The roof has shaped kneelers, one of which is broken, and ashlar coping. There are brick stacks at both ends and flanking the central bay.

At the rear, there is 20th-century rendering and other alterations. On the left return of the carriageway, there is an ashlar plaque with early 19th-century lettering that reads 'Smyth Street'. This plaque commemorates Pontefract's MP, John Smyth, who served from 1783 to 1806 and was an advocate of reform.