Ancliff Square Chapel At Nos 1-4 The Old Court

Ancliff Square Chapel at Nos 1–4 The Old Court

A complex of weavers' houses built in the 1790s, converted to a Bradford Union Workhouse in 1836 with an attached chapel, and restored and converted back to 12 houses in the late 1980s. The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar, painted, with Welsh slate roofs to the former chapel and stone slate roofs elsewhere, featuring coped verges and stone stacks (the left-hand stack has replacement 20th-century tiles).

The former weavers' houses are arranged in a U-shaped court facing north, with the chapel (now forming parts of nos 7 and 8 and sections of nos 4–6) added centrally to the rear. The north elevation comprises three storeys and presents a complex but coherent composition.

The main range extends for 11 bays, with the 3 central bays breaking forward. The centrepiece features a central 4-panel door in a pilastered ashlar architrave with a bracketed stone slab hood. Above and to either side are sash windows: a single sash to each floor above the door, and paired sashes elsewhere. The windows on the ground and first floors have 12 panes each, while those on the second floor are unequally hung with 9 panes. All windows have projecting stone sills. A first-floor platt band and sill band run across, and the range terminates with an ashlar parapet and coping that rises to corniced end stacks. The remainder of the main range is fenestrated with half-glazed doors and small-paned 20th-century 2-light casement windows with projecting sills.

The flanking wings are similarly fenestrated with 2-light casements, though some older small sashes survive on the front end of the right-hand wing, alongside 4- and 6-pane doors. The wings have half-hipped roofs to their gables. Across all ranges, the rear elevations retain blocked mullioned windows and 2-light casements.

The former chapel is a single-storey building with a basement, occupying 2 bays. The basement floor has doorways at the ends fitted with late-20th-century glazed doors, between which sits a 30-pane sash, two late-20th-century casements, and a 4-pane sash. The ground floor contains a 6-panel door at each end, flanked by two tall round-headed sashes with interlaced glazing bars. The return walls feature 2-light casements and late-20th-century doors and windows at basement level, and on the first floor two round-headed sashes with interlaced glazing bars and a late-20th-century window. The chapel interior retains 4-panel doors in reeded architraves.

The original range of weavers' houses is believed to have been built by Moggeridge and Joy, local textile mill owners. The complex represents an important example of industrial housing subsequently adapted for institutional use before returning to residential occupation.