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Description: Nos. 112, 114 and 116 Allangate

Address: 112 - 116 Allangate (even) Rochdale Road Halifax Calderdale HX2 7HB

Grade: IISTAR

Group detail: Rochdale Road, Halifax

Full description:
Part of former mansion, now subdivided. Centre block built by Bernard Hartley c1810; West Wing (No. 120 q.v.) added c1845; matching East Wing added c1870 for Thomas Shaw MP who commissioned Dr. Christopher Dresser to remodel and decorate the interior between 1870 and 1873. Thin coursed stone with ashlar dressings, blue-slate roof. 2 storeys with basement and attics, six tall stone chimney-stacks. Original house Neo-Classical in style with Italianate additions. Central house - C D C (including No. 118 q.v.) has hipped roof; flanked by B: lower narrower bays which form links with A: taller wings with hipped ends and oversailing roofs. East Wing (No. 112), set forward, raised quoins, ground-floor band and sill band. Single bay of windows with architraves. Rusticated basement with channelled and battered ashlar; original doorway set below French window with stained glass overlight, consoles and cornice, which opens onto balcony with cornice and stone balustrade. Window above has lintel band which forms deep ashlar bracketed eaves. 2 lateral stacks to left-hand return. Right-hand return: 3-bay symmetrical facade, with quoined angles, fronts raised garden. Recessed arched doorway with impost and key-stone, flanked by tall French windows with over- lights and eared architraves. On either side of windows and door small round windows. Above are scars of lean-to verandah or conservatory. First-floor windows as front with architrave and altered glazing. B: link to original house - has 2 tall arched stair windows at mezzanine level. Ground floor covered by glazed lean-to forming entrance to No. 114. D C: (original house) breaks forward - has segmental 2-storey bow with 3-light window to each floor, ground floor has central door (for No. 116) approached by short flight of stairs. Outer bay has tripartite window with single light above, sill band. Quoin pilasters. Bracketed eaves with oversailing roof; glazed pyramid over central bay projection. Interior: No.112 Basement door enters square Entrance Hall floored with encaustic tiles. Stair, to left (partly blocked off) has panelled sides and painted dado. Above the stairs (formerly at the first half- landing) finely sculpted bas-relief roundel of a winged female and a cherub symbolic of Night. The elevated ground floor contained the Drawing Room, now divided into two rooms, retains important decorative scheme by Dresser: southern part has original black marble fireplace with incised gold decoration, blue tiles and mirrored overmantel with abonised frame with incised gold work inset with Wedgwood plaque; northern part has modern fireplace constructed of parts of left-hand recess, that to right survives. They were intended for plants decorated around the top with a frieze in ebonised wood and gold lettering with biblical text. The two halves of the room were linked by wide segmental archway framed by fluted pilasters now painted cream. The east wall has three French windows with painted and etched glass overlights of botanical subjects. All retain original black and gold lacquered curtain poles. Set either side the windows, four stained-glass medallions with ebonised surrounds, of female heads personifying Morning, Noon, Evening and Night. The medallions are lit by gas-lighting set behind at night. The magnificent double coffered-ceiling is painted blue, black and gold with panels decorated with floral patterns in the Japanese style. The doors retain enamelled finger-plates and lignumvitae-turned door knobs. Stair with half-landings, slender pilasters from which spring arched vault. First floor has doorways set within recessed arches, landing top-lit by stained-glass panels of abstract design. Curving back-stair lit by arched window of stained glass. Two bedrooms retain original black marble fireplaces. No.114. Entrance Hall has to left, doorway set within a recessed arch which leads to original Library. North wall has shallow segmental-arched bookcase set between painted Tuscan columns, originally of black marble with gold ornamentation on the pediment and capital. Set either side, niches for statues. The ceiling is divided into 3 panels: the central panel was painted by Dresser in a style similar to an oriental rug, it was considered by Dresser 'to be the most remarkable feature in the whole building, and to be his own veritable masterpiece'. The original wall decoration is wallpapered over. No. 116-contains the right-hand part of the original Dining Room lit by large semi-circular bay window with colonettes attached to mullions and original rail carried by corbels. Set in front, another curtain rail in black ebonised wood with incised gold decoration. Richly moulded ceiling cornice and deep moulded skirting board. The original fireplace has been replaced, but the tiled base decorated with quatrefoils survives. The recess on each side of the fireplace has a full-height mirror. The wall opposite (west) has wide double doorway (blocked) with pilastered surround which formerly lead to the other part of the Dining Room. Cellar under Dining Room has stone sink and water-pump. The back-door has a stained-glass overlight. The Dining Room Chamber, the canted ceiling to the curved bay-window was painted with silver stars on a blue ground - sufficient survives to indicate the pattern; the walls are painted a purple-brown coluor with a black stencilled dado; retains a Dresser fireplace in black marble with incised decoration, inset with tiles of a bold design. A large arched doorway formerly lead to a Dressing Room. The main bedrooms opened off a long corridor here converted to a bathroom. The stained glass leaded into star designs. Dr Christoper Dresser was responsible for promoting the idea of an aestetic interior through his various publications such as Principles of Decorative Design. Few such interiors have survived intact. Widar Halen in his important study of Dresser (1990) describes Allangate as 'one of the first aesthetic interiors in Britain'. Castles & County Houses in Yorkshire, 1885, illustrates and gives a detailed description of the house and its contents, the writer emphasizing that there were no houses in Yorkshire, and few in England, which were decorated in such excellent taste. The surviving decorative scheme by Dresser at Allangate is the reason for the high grading. Photographic survey by RCHM (E). West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, Sites and Monuments Record (Wakefield). See also Linstrum, D. West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, 1978, p116.