Barclays Bank and attached railings

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SE 4521 NE 8/33

PONTEFRACT MARKET PLACE (south-east side) Nos 5 and 7 (Barclays Bank) and attached railings

(Formerly listed as Barclays Bank)

29.7.50

GV II*

House and attached railings, now bank. c.1760 with early C19 alterations. Probably by James Paine, for Rev Thomas Heron. Painted ashlar or stucco incised to simulate ashlar, stone dressings and Welsh slate roof. Three storeys on basement, four-bay asymmetrical elevation composed of slightly advanced, pedimented three-bay symmetrical facade with central hallway entry and central full-height semi-circular-headed recess, flanked to left by short section of blank walling and to right by narrow bay with another entrance. Plinth. Basement windows to either side of main entrance are bowed and have C20 casements. Dwarf wall to front has alternating plain and wavy bars to railings which are ramped up to the main door. Two stone steps to pilastered doorcase with simple entablature and recessed six-panel door below radial glazed over-light.

To either side are bowed tripartite windows with twelve- and eight-pane sashes, stone sills and moulded cornices. Wide first-floor band immediately above. Right-hand bay has steps to narrower pilastered doorcase with dosserets, central panel with notched corners to deep frieze, moulded cornice with blocking course and six-panel door below radial glazed overlight. Continuous first-floor sill band and four tall sash windows with glazing bars, that over main door in eared architrave with chambranles below plain frieze and moulded pediment, others below floating cornices. Second floor has four six-pane sashes, that above main entrance in architrave with stepped head and with bracketed sill. Other windows have stone sills. Moulded open pediment over main three-bay facade, similarly moulded cornices to either side. Brick end stack to left, stone coped gables.

Interior: manager's office on ground floor to left has high quality cast-iron fireplace in pine surround with urns on frieze; flanked by round-arched niches; doors of six fielded panels; cornice; three later plaster ceiling roundels. Leatham, Tew and Company's Bank was founded in 1801, and taken over by Barclays in 1907. The attribution to James Paine is made by Derek Linstrum in West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture (1978), p. 382.

Listing NGR: SE4565421917