Building Name

The West Riding Proprietary (Later Grammar) School, Northgate, Wakefield

Date
1832 - 1834
Street
Northgate
District/Town
Wakefield
County/Country
Yorkshire, England
Architect
Work
New Build

A Schoolhouse is erecting at Wakefield, from the designs and under the superintendence of Richard Lane, Esq., of Manchester. The building is already covered in, and the whole is expected to be completed about next midsummer. It was projected by a number of gentlemen in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and is called the West Riding Proprietary School. The building is in the Tudor Gothic style of architecture, and is a neat structure. The principal front extends 153 ft. in length. In the centre are two turrets, which rise to a height of 56 ft., between which is the principal entrance doorway, and a large window divided by vertical mullions. On each side of the turrets are four windows of lofty proportions, and at each end there are wings with gables, and large windows ; the wings project in conformity with the centre, and about 5 ft. from the line of the building. The structure extends in width 58 ft. 6 in., rising, exclusive of the basement story, to the height of 35 ft. The chief feature in the interior consists of an entrance hall, 60 ft. by 30 ft., which is lighted by a window at each end, of large proportions. On each side are two class-rooms, severally 40 ft. by 18ft.CThere are also in the basement story several small apartments for the accommodation of the domestics connected with the institution ; and a large play-room, which is entered on the back part of the building by several arched doorways. The foundation stone was laid with much ceremony by the Earl of Mexborough, on the 6th of February last. The building is wholly constructed of gritstone from the quarries at Heath, near Wakefield; except the plinth and mouldings, the stone for which is procured from Warwick Delph, near Huddersfield.

Reference    Manchester Guardian 8 December 1832 page 1 – contracts
Reference    Leeds Intelligencer 9 August 1834 page 3 - opening
Reference    Loudon's Architectural Magazine: And Journal of Improvement in Architecture
edited by John Claudius Loudon Published 1834 Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman  Page 142 [Architectural Mag. i, 1834, 142].
Reference    Pevsner, Yorkshire: West Riding