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CONSERVATION AREA ASSESSMENT

IlkleyMARCH 2002

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ContentsIntroduction ........................................................................................................... 4

History and Archaeology ..................................................................................... 6

The Setting of Ilkley in the Landscape ................................................................ 8

The Character ........................................................................................................ 9

Enhancement proposals ...................................................................................... 22

Boundary Rationale ............................................................................................. 29

Complementary Development Controls ............................................................ 30

Preservation & Enhancement Policies & Proposals.......................................... 32

Glossary of Terms ................................................................................................ 33

Contacts ................................................................................................................ 33

Appendix 1: Summary of Listed Buildings in Ilkley

Conservation Area ............................................................................................... 34

Appendix 2: Legislation and Council Policies

Relating to Conservation Areas ..........................................................................38

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IntroductionA conservation area is an ‘area of specialarchitectural or historic interest the character orappearance of which it is desirable to preserve orenhance’ (Section 69 of the Town and CountryPlanning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas)Act 1990). Ilkley was designated as a ConservationArea in 1971, the area then considerably extendedin March 1982, and is now one of 56 in the Bradforddistrict. Located some 16 miles north-west ofBradford, Ilkley is a town with historic origins andits own unique character. The conservation areaencompasses the development of Ilkley fromRoman origins, through surviving Medievalelements to the main period of growth in the secondhalf of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The relationship between buildings and spaceswithin conservation areas creates a uniqueenvironment, which provides a strong sense ofidentity and familiarity for residents, and anirreplaceable part of our local, regional and nationalheritage. It is the responsibility of the local planningauthority to designate conservation areas, whichbrings a general control over the demolition ofunlisted buildings, strengthens controls over minordevelopment and makes special provision for theprotection of trees. The objective of these measuresis to provide for the preservation of the essentialcharacter and appearance of the area, in order tomaintain or improve its environmental quality andsafeguard local distinctiveness and sense of place,within a framework of controlled and positivemanagement of change.

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council hasprepared this assessment (March 2002) in order tofulfil their statutory duties under the Town andCountry Planning (Listed Buildings andConservation Areas) Act 1990. Section 69 (2) of thisact places a duty on the local authority to review itsconservation areas from time to time, and Section71 to formulate and publish proposals for theirpreservation and enhancement. The principalobjectives of the document are to:

• Define and record the special interest of Ilkleyconservation area;

• To ensure that the boundary of the conservationarea reflects the area of special interest ; and

• Assess the action that may be necessary tosafeguard this special interest.

It is however, not intended to be whollycomprehensive in its content and failure to mentionany particular building, feature or space should notbe assumed to imply that they are of no interest.This assessment should be read in conjunction withthe Bradford Unitary Development Plan andnational policy guidance, particularly PlanningPolicy Guidance Note 15 (PPG15): Planning and theHistoric Environment. These documents providemore detailed information on local and nationalpolicy relating to conservation areas.

Opposite page : Wells Road

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Ilkley Conservation Area is very large (over 650hectares) and, in terms of the character and qualityof its component townscapes, very diverse. As aresult, identifying a single strategy for itspreservation and enhancement has been difficult,since there are different objectives within thevarious component parts. The existingConservation Area Statement is brief and of limitedvalue in understanding the town’s history and thehistorical inter-relationship of past phases in itsgrowth. The absence of clear objectives forenhancement has sometimes made it difficult todeal with planning applications.

However, if the Conservation Area is broken downinto the following component parts - each reflectingthe important phases in the evolution of the town -distinctive qualities can be highlighted, and astrategy for enhancement and preservation set outbased on the individual characteristics and historicalimportance of each of those component areasbegins to emerge.

The identified component areas are:

1. THE ROMAN COREIlkley’s origins at the Fort, Parish Church and ManorHouse.

2. THE SHOPPING CENTREFocused around the axes of The Grove and BrookStreet.

3. THE SPA TOWNEvolved around the former hydrotherapyestablishments and their grounds.

4. THE RAILWAY TOWNThe station and the community of workers housesbeyond.

5. THE VICTORIAN SUBURBSResidential streets and terraces south and west ofThe Grove.

6. THE RESIDENTIAL EXPANSIONVictorian and Edwardian expansion of the affluentresidential area.

Parish Ghyll Road

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History andArchaeologyThe medieval village and 19th-century town of Ilkleywas constructed on one of the most importantRoman sites in West Yorkshire. The settlement wasfounded by the Brigantes above the flood plain ofthe Wharfe. A fort was built here in the 1st centuryAD to guard a junction in the Roman road system,at the point where a north-south route, across theWharfe, met one of the main east-west trans-Pennine roads, from Ribchester to York. At thatjunction a civilian settlement, or vicus, alsodeveloped, principally along the east-west road,now approximately the line of The Grove, and wasknown as Olicana. Discoveries of Roman remainshave been recorded at Ilkley from the 16th centuryonwards, and some of these finds can be seen inthe Manor House Museum, which occupies part ofthe fort area. The only upstandingRoman masonry is a stretch of thewestern fort wall behind theMuseum, though the extent of thefort is partially visible as a modifiedearthwork. The site of the fort is aScheduled Ancient Monument.

In post-Roman times part of the fortarea became a Christian burialground: so much is evident fromthe exceptionally fine Anglo-Saxoncrosses which formerly stood invarious parts of the churchyard, butwere later brought together on thesouth side and have now beenhoused in the parish church tower.

They date to the 9th century. A stone church mayhave existed there by that date, as two Romanaltars, also preserved in the church, had been recutto form Anglo-Saxon doorway or window lintels.By the 10th century, Ilkley was part of theArchbishop of York’s Wharfedale estates, centredon Otley; it may have been part of that estate sincethe late 7th century. The archbishops appear to havelost most of Ilkley to other landowners in the late10th century, and the church and priest recordedthere in 1086 are likely to have belonged to theNorman lord William de Percy.

It is probable that the Anglo-Saxon and Normanmanorial halls were also located on the fort site.They were certainly there during the 13th and 14th

centuries, as remains of medievalstructures have been found built out ofthe Roman walls to the north of the ManorHouse Museum: these include a stonelatrine, indicative of manorial status. Theearliest part of the present ‘Manor House’,dating probably to the 14th century, alsobelonged to this group of buildings,though the rest of the structure wasevidently demolished during rebuildingworks of the 16th and 17th centuries,when the ‘Manor House’ reached itspresent form. The nearby parish churchis presumably also on the site of its Anglo-Saxon predecessor. It was largely rebuiltin the 15th century, though it incorporatesa south doorway of 13th-century date.

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The nave was lengthened and the eastern parts ofthe church were rebuilt in 1861.

Both medieval manor house and church madeextensive use of the Roman building materialsavailable, and the same is true of the medieval andlater farmhouses and outbuildings, often single-storey buildings with masonry walls and thatchedroofs. These survived until Ilkley’s development asa spa town in the later 19th century. The medievalsettlement lay near the manor house and church,on both sides of what is now Church Street, andthis is the only part of the present town where asignificant number of 18th and early 19th-centurybuildings survive. They include, on the north side,the Mallard Inn, dated 1709, and beyond the westernend of the old village, the Grammar School of 1635.On the south side of the street, the Box Tree is anearly 18th-century farmhouse.

Other farmhouses and cottages extended alongwhat is now Brook Street south of its junction withChurch Street, along both sides of the stream thatflowed down Mill Ghyll. This was one of therouteways to the common pastures of Ilkley Moor,and also the location of the manorial water cornmill, first recorded in the early 13th century. Anotherrouteway, further west, emerged into Green Lane,a lane parallel to Church Street which followed astretch of the Roman road and was latertransformed into The Grove.

Ilkley had developed little beyond this frameworkby the mid-19th century. It was still largely anagricultural community, with an involvement intextiles. It had had a fulling mill since at least 1378,when the Poll Tax recorded two ‘walkers’ or fullers.Their water-powered mill was presumably locatedin Mill Ghyll, near the corn mill, and may later havebeen transformed into one of the two corn mills.The stone quarries on the edge of Ilkley Moor

represented another industry, and the map showsthe haul roads to Hanging Stones quarries, runningthrough the common pastures called the CowPasture, occupying the line later taken byCowpasture Road. These routeways and lanes,together with Bridge Lane leading to the 17th-century bridge across the Wharfe, created the basicplanning frame for the phenomenal expansion ofIlkley in the 1860s.

The expansion was founded on a different industry;one based on the curative qualities of the water,which issued from the ground at White Wells, southof the conservation area. The Middletons, theprincipal landowners and lords of the manordeveloped the wells as a spa, during the 18thcentury, and this establishment seems to have beenwell visited, mainly from the surrounding urbanareas, by the 1820s. It led to the appearance of over30 lodging houses by 1829, the year when theCharitable Institution baths were erected next toWhite Wells. To accommodate visitors a large newinn called the Lister Arms was built on Church Streetin 1825; and to facilitate their journeys, a carriageand donkey hiring business was set up in BridgeLane: the steps formerly leading up to thisestablishment are still extant. In the 1831 censusnearly a quarter of the recorded populationcomprised visitors.

Development outside the old village areas was,however, slow. Dixon’s Hall was built off whatbecame Wells Road in the 1820s. The site of an earlycotton mill was used for the erection of the stablesand lodge to Wells House (later Bradford and IlkleyCommunity College) in 1856. The Grove Hospitalwas constructed in 1862. Some building land wasreleased in 1858 when the Cow Pasture wasenclosed: Craiglands, Troutbeck and RockwoodHouse were erected soon afterwards; but theMiddletons were unwilling to release land. Thetriggers for rapid development were twofold: thecoming of the railway to Ilkley in 1865, and the firstmajor land sales by the Middletons in 1867. Thetown centre was rapidly developed, and after aslump during the 1880s, further significantdevelopment shaped the present conservation areaduring the 1890s and early 1900s, mostdevelopment occurring on the flanks of the Moorand to the west of the centre.

Old Grammar School, 1637

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PPG 15 states that “it is the quality and interest ofareas, rather than that of individual buildings, whichshould be the prime consideration in identifyingconservation areas” (para 4.2). The established siteof Ilkley is to the south of the River Wharfe, elevatedabove the flood plain. The bulk of Ilkley Moordominates the town, almost casting it in shadow.The ever visible Moor reiterates Ilkley’s rural setting,and contributes much to the individuality of theplace. The spread of the town up the flanks of theMoor both lends it much character and affordssplendid views north. Ilkley only expanded northof the river in the 20th century with sales of landand the development of the Middleton residentialareas. Until this time, north of the river was meadowland, with woods to the steeper slopes, a moregentle landscape than that of Ilkley Moor. Thepredominantly green vista remains and climbs tothe higher heather moorland of Denton and LangbarMoors and Round Hill, providing sweeping viewsfor much of Ilkley’s suburbs.

At the heart of Ilkley, the open churchyard andadjacent gardens enable views northwards acrossthe river to Middleton and beyond, and provide theopportunity to stand back and appreciate both thechurch and buildings around the Brook Streetjunction. The view up Brook Street is typical of thecommercial centre of the town, being bustling, butalso dominated by imposing buildings, and withthe backdrop of the Moor with leafy suburbs on itsflanks. The tower of Wells Court is intrusive by scaleand materials on this vista, and care must be takenthat any future development is not so intrusive.

The Setting ofIlkley in theLandscape

The view along The Grove from Brook Street isequally typical, with broad pavements, parades ofshops, some retaining glazed canopies, trees anddistinctive buildings. The spire of the UnitedReformed Church is especially prominent.

Throughout the residential areas, open spaces areprevalent, either in the form of ‘romantic’ rockywooded ghylls such as Spence’s Garden on GroveRoad and that on Wells Walk (Mill Ghyll), or moreformal public parks, with lawns, planting and trees.These break up the built areas, and towards theMoor edge, blur the divide between urban and opencountryside. The tree cover enhances that in privategardens, and areas of woodland within the suburbs,such as that opposite St Margaret’s Terrace, andgives the resounding impression of greenery anddignity.

The overall impression of open spaces is that theyare well cared for and enhance the town. Whilstthe topography means that the surroundingcountryside can invariably be seen, the publicspaces reinforce the natural influence on the town.

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The Characteri) The Roman Core

The section of the Conservation Area centred onthe above also includes substantial areas of openspace to the north (Riverside Gardens) which arevital in marking the site of the fort and providing asetting for the Parish Church. Listed shops at Nos.10- 18 Church Street date from the 18th century andprovide a contrasting urban foreground to viewsof the Church from the south and west. ChurchStreet and nearby Bridge Street contain othercottages, pubs and workshops which mark thehistoric centre of the Roman settlement of Olicanaas it evolved through the medieval period. Theycontain fine traditional features, but have beenmarred by unsympathetic alterations at the rear.

Church Street Junction: the road lies close to thechurch, with the churchyard bounded by a lowstone wall constructed in 1849. At the junction withNew Brook Street, curving low-walled flowerbedsadd a vibrant dash of colour in the summer. Seatswithin a paved area now occupy the site of theWheatsheaf public house (demolished c.1965). Thechurch is set within neat clipped lawns and boundedon the north side by a row of mature trees (horsechestnuts and maple). The many historic andcharacterful gravestones were sadly removed in the1960s. From the vantage of this point the broadsweep of grassed parkland leading down to the tree-fringed edge of the River Wharfe provides animportant recreational facility and visual amenityto this part of the CA. At the east end of the Riverside

Gardens is a memorial stone recording that thegrounds were provided by public subscription ‘inmemory of the Ilkley residents who made thesupreme sacrifice in the Second World War 1939-1945’. The gate piers at the entrance to the RiversideGardens bear the dates 1939 and 1945, next to thesingle-span riveted iron-girder bridge that carriesNew Brook Street. A shield plaque on the decorativewrought- and cast-iron parapet records that thebridge was completed in 1904 designed by JamesB. Fraser, architect and engineer of Leeds. Itsbattlement abutments provide recessed seating. Onboth sides of the riverbank, a sandy bank providesaccess to the shallow river popular with children inthe summer. A footpath along the river leads toIlkley Bridge (just outside the Conservation Area)which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is a finethree-span stone-arched bridge built in the late 17thcentury replacing an earlier bridge swept away inthe floods that once plagued the river.

Church Street (north side): the Parish Church of AllSaints is an attractive building, of characteristicDales style, with its squat tower and low, broadroofs over the nave and aisle. The west tower isconstructed in two stages from large ashlargritstone blocks with angle buttresses. Its clock faceis below the Gothic pointed-arched belfry window,with a battlement parapet and crocketed finials(renewed) typical of the late 15th century in theCounty. The south aisle and porch is a Victorianrestoration but the 16th century clerestory of thenave appears to retain its original fabric. The fine

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13th-century south doorway, with two orders ofdogtooth ornament set in a cable-mouldedsurround, leads into the church. Butting up againstthe churchyard is an interesting row of 18th-centurycottages with a taller gable-fronted building dated1895. Flat-faced mullion windows survive over anarchway leading to the Manor House Museum. Onthe northern end of the passage large corner stones(quoins) and battered walling suggest older origins.

Castle Yard: small stone setts, in the passage, giveway to larger setts with a raised stone-flaggedseating area to the front of the Manor House. ListedGrade I, it is a particularly fine example ofElizabethan domestic architecture but with earliermedieval fabric. Its mullion windows with leadedlights add an authentic ‘old-world’ feel to this partof the CA. The careful use of natural materialsenhance the space and its ambience. It is a peacefulsetting that backs onto the grassed area of theRoman fort site. This is only marred by a numberof unsightly and incremental extensions to the rearof the Church Street properties, which requirecareful control and future improvement.

Church Street (north side): as the streetslopes down the hill there is another18th-century range of buildings with asquare-headed passageway betweenthe pair of shops. Below them is TheMallard, a low two-storey 17th-centurystone farmhouse with chamferedmullion windows either side of a centraldoor dated 1709, with an oval windowabove. It has a central chimneystack forback-to-back fireplaces. Early 20thcentury buildings are aligned to thecurve of the street at its junction withBridge Lane. The relationship betweenthe buildings to this side of ChurchStreet is very strong, resulting in astrong townscape illustrating simplevernacular details, and the piecemealdevelopment of this time.

Bridge Lane: opposite Glovers Garage, with itsEdwardian mock timber framing and whiterendered gables (red tiled roof), is an ancient stonewall and a flight of stone steps. These originallyled up to the front door of ‘Donkey Jackson’s’ oldthatched cottage, from where visitors were takento White Wells on donkeys. The allotments behindthe wall are on the site of Old Donkey House, aformer thatched single-storey hall-house with astone-slated two-storey 17th century cross-wing.Castle Hill interrupts the lane, its stone setted roadleading up to the ‘Manor House’. Numbers 14 and16 Bridge Lane (Castle House) were formerly asingle three-storey house of c. 1740. It is a listedbuilding and has an impressive Baroque doorcasewith pediment, triple keystone and Gibbs surroundand is the most important building on the street,though its symmetry has been marred by theinserted doorway to No.14 and insensitivereplacement windows.

Church Street (south side): opposite Bridge Lanestands another listed building, The Box TreeRestaurant (no. 37). Originally a Queen Annefarmhouse c. 1710 it has a fine doorcase with earedarchitrave and pediment. From here a good viewof Church Street, as it curves uphill, can be obtained.Contrasting with the modest domestic scale of itsneighbours, The Arcade rises higher, with a towercarried above its arched entrance infilled with awrought-iron fanlight. Built c.1895 it provided ashopping arcade, top-lit with a glazed roof carriedon filigree decorated arched iron trusses, with largetimber shop fronts to the street. The buildingattached to the east has three projecting mocktimber-framed gabled bays. Most of the buildingson this side of the street date from the late 19thcentury, built as shops with accommodation above.The Manor House

Church Street

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Number 19/21 (Balti Chef) however is mid-18thcentury, having stepped lights to the first floor. TheRose and Crown was a 17th-century building, re-fronted and rebuilt in the 1870s. The southern endof The Arcade has shops on either side, which retaintheir original timber pilaster fronts. Their stripedcanopies add a continental feel. Running round backinto Church Street is an interesting block of c. 1897,including the Ilkley Constitutional Club with itsstriking black-and-white mock timber upper storey,and the Masonic Hall on Cunliffe Road with its boldarched entrance with a carved flaming-sun motif.

Skipton Road: next to Cunliffe Road stands the firsthotel to be built in the town, The Lister’s Arms in1825. The simple treatment of its former five-baysymmetrical façade is typical of the few buildingsbuilt in the town in the first half of the 19th century.No longer an inn, it has been converted to flats withlate 20th-century extensions to the rear. More shopson the north side are interspersed with late 19th-century terraced housing. Further along, standingnext to a traditional K6 telephone box, is the only17th-century building to survive in the town: theformer Grammar School of 1635, now an antiqueshop. It is a small, single-storey gabled building withchamfered mullion windows, partly obscured bycreepers, retaining its original stone cornerfireplace. Fronted by raised flags and stone edgingsit is close to the western boundary of the CA. Almostopposite, partly disguised by the glazed front of acar showroom, is the gable front of the formerMethodist Chapel of 1834, which later housed thetown’s first museum. Set behind Skipton Road issome late 19th-century terraced housing providingmixed housing with larger dwellings on AlexandraCrescent and more modest houses on Lister Street.The smaller buildings have projecting timber baywindows and doorways under a simple openveranda. The larger houses have deeper verandaswith braced timber supports covering arched door-cases with hood-moulds and carved stops. Thewindows have margin-glazed top lights.

Roman Core Enhancement

The strategy for enhancement of this sector of theConservation Area centres on the preservation ofthe key Listed Buildings and the site of the Fort.The complementary open spaces to the north andthe other traditional buildings which add to thecharacter of the historical grouping of buildingsmarking the original settlement will also be carefullypreserved. Any development within this sectorshould be of high quality, retaining or restoringtraditional features, and only changes whichenhance and contribute to conservation of the

historical environment as a whole are likely to beaccepted. In accordance with PPG16, alldevelopment in this area may be required to includemeasures to investigate, evaluate and recordarchaeological remains. Any development affectingthe scheduled ancient monument and within thiszone will be referred to both West YorkshireArchaeology Service and English Heritage.

Enhancement of the setting of the Roman Fort,protection of the archaeological evidence of the Fortand other features of the Roman and later Saxonsettlement will be important themes.

Restoration of existing commercial properties in thesector will follow a clear set of restorationguidelines. Where evidence can be identified,original shopfront details should be reinstated, orrestored where surviving. Otherwise, traditionaldetails in timber, sympathetic to the property willbe insisted upon. (It may prove appropriate to haveguidance on the range of colours acceptable in thissensitive location).

ii) The Shopping Centre

Focused on Brook Street and The Grove, thecommercial centre of town is the product of asignificant rebuilding and expansion of the oldvillage of IIkley in the second half of the nineteenthcentury. The impetus for this change to the fabricof the town in this area came courtesy of forceswhich are best illustrated by two major buildingsjust beyond the central area - the Lister’s Arms, andllkley Hall. The former is an inn constructed in 1825on the Otley to Skipton turnpike which marked oneof the town’s first purpose-built ventures intotourism, and the latter is a grand house built forBenjamin Dixon - a solicitor from Wakefield - thatrepresents the first sign of major residentialinvestment in llkley by the middle class populationof the West Riding industrial towns.

Shops and inns had formerly been focused on theturnpike road where the few pre-1850 buildings inthis sector survive (eg 19-21 Church Street and TheBox Tree). Commercial development wasencouraged to spread southwards from the ChurchStreet axis by several developments between 1850and 1865. First, the brook of Brook Street wascovered over in 1850 creating today’s spaciousstreet, then the Crescent Hotel, built around 1860for “commercial gentlemen”, and Brook Terracewhich came to mirror its striking curved shape onthe opposite side of Brook Street, served to drawtravellers into the town centre. Finally, the opening

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of the station in 1865 established an entirely newcommercial focus to the town centre at the top ofBrook Street. Solidly built terraces graduallyreplaced tumbledown barns and thatch roofedfarmhouses and woolcombers’ cottages on BrookStreet. Earlier buildings of the redevelopment wererelatively plain, but as the century progressed,design became more elaborate. For example, thesurviving upper floor elevations of the 1870 “GothicHouse”, now housing Boots Chemists, contrast withthe plainer buildings on the east side of BrookStreet.

Throughout the 1870s, shops also spreadwestwards along the prime, south-facing side ofThe Grove and became the fashionable promenadestill popular today.

Fuelled by the rapid expansion of the suburbs andincreasing popularity with rail-borne day visitors(as well as those seeking hydrotherapy treatments),redevelopment of the central area with new shops,an arcade, refreshment rooms, inns, banks andother facilities continued throughout the nineteenthcentury. The basic form of the town centre and theprincipal buildings was established by 1914.There is therefore a wide range of Victorianarchitecture within the town centre, reflecting thepiecemeal way in which development proceeded,but uniformity due to a consistency of scale,proportions and materials. The Grove, for example,consists of a number of distinct blocks of buildingsof varying height and appearance which harmonisebecause of their consistent scale and whosedistinctiveness comes from the glass or cloth shopcanopies and street trees sheltering the walkway.Later 20th century developments have mostlyrespected the scale and proportions of the lateVictorian architecture - for example the infilling ofthe gap in Brook Street through which the railwayonce passed. However, at street level muchcharacter has been lost due to the introduction ofunsympathetic modern shopfronts and inconsistentdecoration and signs. The Moors Shopping Centreis an improvement on the former bus station, butthe large featureless void in the Conservation Areafabric formed by the central car park is of concern,as are the unsightly alterations at the back of severalpremises which are now in full view of largenumbers of car park users.

This sector of the Conservation Area also includesa complex of Listed Municipal Buildings facingStation Road - The Town Hall, Library and KingsHall complex built 1906-08 in a mix of styles, butwith a consistent Franco-Flemish feel to this Civicsector of the central area.

Brook Street: built at the junction of the old roadfrom Keighley across the moors, with the Skiptonto Otley turnpike-road of 1754/55, stands theimpressive three-storey Crescent Hotel built c.1860as a coaching inn, with a stable to its rear. A listedbuilding, it is arguably one of the finest buildingsin the town. Curved to front both roads it formsalmost the quadrant of a circle. Built in a simpledignified Classical style, its entrance is set within arecessed bay housing a porch carried by pairedTuscan columns with twin arch-headed windowsabove. Six bays to left and four to right have, to theground floor, arched windows with architrave andkeystone with segmental windows above and smallsquare-headed windows to the top floor. It has adeep eaves cornice/stone gutter carried on dentils.Several bold corniced chimney-stacks punctuate itscurving slate-roof.

The hotel is balanced by the curving, almostcontemporary, three-storey range on the west sideof the street which, as it curves round onto ChurchStreet, has a wrought-iron balcony to its first floorFrench windows. Next Brook Terrace dated 1855 isone of the few Italianate buildings in the town,having at its first floor piano-nobile four tri-partitewindows with cornice hoods. It is thought to be thefirst purpose-built shop premises with integralhousing above to be erected in the town.Progressing up the street, modern shop fronts beliethe elegance of the facades surviving in the upperstoreys. A mixture of Gothic Revival, c. 1860-70 withpointed arched windows with hood-moulds withcarved label stops, and later Victorian/Edwardian 31/2 storey picturesque mock-Tudor shops/maisonettes with projecting timber bays, usuallyat the first floor. Boots occupy Gothic House, builtin 1870; the windows of its upper floors survive,but its unusual shop windows have gone. No. 33has the best and most original shop front on thestreet. Originally a pharmacy and perfumery it hasa central recessed door flanked by curved windowswith elaborate carved surrounds and bevelled glassto the upper lights. The shop unit has now been

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incorporated into the adjacent bar. Johnson’s onthe corner of West Street, erected 1892, has acurious banded tile-hung turret/dormer on thecorner of the building that is a feature of the street.The buildings on the west side of the street aremostly tall, three-storey ranges built as shops andbanks when Ilkley was establishing itself as a ‘resorttown’. In contrast, the buildings on the east sideare lower, two-storey former dwellings from c. 1860.The houses now have later inserted shop fronts,mostly modern. The broad pavement and trees addto the essential character of the town. To the rearof no.30 is a rare survival of old Ilkley, an early 19th-century row of three handloom weavers’, orwoolcombers’, dwellings with a communalworkshop at the first floor that was also used forearly Methodist meetings. The building has beenan upholsterer’s workshop for the last 50 years. Itstill retains small paned glazing to its windows anda loading-door in its gable end. It stands next tothe yard/car park for the Crescent Hotel, where theformer 19th-century coach-house, with its spoked-wheeled window and stables, is now converted toshops.

Higher up Brook Street, Barclays Bank is a goodexample of the late Victorian masons’ art withelaborate carved doorcase, turreted oriel and gable.All the buildings on the opposite side are indifferent20th century designs except for Woolworth’s, witha stylish 1930s upper storey. Following the closureof the 1885 railway extension to Skipton the lineand bridge, which cut not only the street but alsothe town in two, were removed in 1966. Filling thegap on the west side of the street Terry’s is inkeeping with the local vernacular style of the area,both in design and materials, contrasting with theless harmonious new build opposite.

The road widens and forks either side of thepedestrian island with its flagpole and colourfulflowerbeds. Closing off the road at the T-junctionwith The Grove and Station Road is a fine, highVictorian Venetian Gothic building with carvedcolonnettes to its upper floor arched windows,occupied by Dacre Son and Hartley since 1945. Builtc.1870 as shops with large shop windows, it wasaltered after 1912, following its purchase by theLondon City & Midland Bank, when its stonefrontage with mullion windows was installed. Likeits neighbours to the west it has a rendered façadeover its cream brick walls. Those on the south sideof The Grove are also partly faced in creamy white-faced brick. Together they give a bright seaside feelto the town being prominently sited at thisimportant junction. Set between, at the foot of theWells Walk, is the remains of a fountain set withina circle, now reduced to a flowerbed. It was

constructed following a public subscription in 1872and was a three-tiered structure with four horsessupporting a wide bowl with mermaids andserpents on the upper tiers. It was a popularmeeting spot known locally as ‘The Monkey Rack’,it was partly dismantled in 1959.

Station Road: on the north side of the road standsthe original station building designed in 1864 byJ.H. Sanders for the Midland Railway. Single-storey,faced in ashlar with Welsh blue slate roofs, it is astylish Palladian design articulated by a tallerprojecting block with a Venetian window (now adoor). This is flanked to either side by glazedcanopies on a single cast-iron column withdecorative spandrel brackets, over the marginglazed sash windows. The extent of the formerplatforms indicates the past importance of thestation for excursion trains. The station buildingsare converted to shops and a restaurant, and theglazed roof now covers a supermarket. The stationis rather a shadow of its former extent: some of theplatforms being used for car parking, the canopiestruncated and the gas lighting, which added to thearchaic atmosphere until the 1980s, replaced.Pleasant landscaping, with trees and hedges definea seating area close to the bus station immediatelyadjacent in this station plaza. On the south side ofthe road are Ilkley’s Civic buildings developed afterthe local government act of 1888. Built 1906-08 tothe design of William Bakewell (architect, of Leeds)it is a carefully balanced U-shaped composition,with the recessed central Town Hall flanked bypavilions set forward, that to left the Library andthat to right the Kings Hall. The pavilion wings havelarge Queen Anne style hooded windows over theentrance doors which are flanked by carved femalefigures and carved heads in roundels. The TownHall rises higher with Ionic columned entranceflanked by large Diocletian windows; whilst abovea continuous window lights the Council Chamber.A lantern belfry tower crowns the steeply pitched-hipped roof, while lead domes crown shortertowers. They are a delightful, slightly eccentric,eclectic mix of Northern European styles. TheWinter Gardens has a large glazed lantern on theroof and a glazed canopy with decorative ironworkover its entrance. Closing off the street, and from adistance looking part of the same composition thebuilding at the bottom of Chantry Drive has a cantedcorner that rises to an octagonal tower with leadblue-bell capped dome. This is an interesting three-and-a-half storey block of maisonettes above shops,exhibiting Arts and Crafts influences in styling andbalconies, with shaped parapet gables to its twomain frontages on this the eastern boundary of theCA, and retaining fine mainly original shopfronts.

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The area behind the municipal offices was notdeveloped until the early 20th-century. Here theformer post office has triple keystones decoratingits corner doorway and all its windows, at one endof Whitton Croft Road, with the austere ChristianScience Church dated 1939 at the other end. Thechurch stands at the junction of two roads and hasa corner entrance. It is typical of the muscularbrutalism of 1930s architecture. Inside it has a largelightless acoustic tiled meeting room set behind itsairy vestibule. Next door number 13 Wells Roadretains its timber shop front and has suspendedsigns behind the glass. Close by on a cross street isthe superb Art Nouveau former MethodistAssembly Hall, with impressive traceried windowsand stylish carved hood-mould stops and RennieMackintosh-style leaded windows with twistedfronds. This is set above the former arched entrancewith carved keystone incorporating the date 1903.It was converted to ten flats c. 1985 to the designsof local architects Allison and Macrae, winning alocal award in recognition of its sympatheticconversion. Next above is Ilkley’s only 6-storey high-rise concrete-framed tower block built in the 1960son the site of the Royal Hotel.

The Grove: The United Reformed Church with itsfine stone tower and spire dominates the south sideof the street. Designed by J.P. Pritchett (architect,York) in 1868 it is a fine Gothic Revival church builtin the Early English style. The spire of the church isan important landmark, visible from many points,especially at the approach to the town from thewest. The flowerbeds to the front of the church, andon the wide pavement to the west, is an importantfeature of this part of the Conservation Area. Theshops on the north side provide a popular shoppingmall; the pavements interspersed with trees forman attractive leafy boulevard. Built at various timesfrom 1865 when the coming of the railway shiftedthe focus of the town away from the main Skiptonto Leeds road. The shops on the south side and the

church came first, with the shops on the north sidewith glazed canopies at the junction with BrookStreet following shortly after. A tall three-storeyblock, to the west of the church, is dated 1877 (W.H.Smith) and the block at the end of the continuousfrontage is dated 1898. Only Betty’s Tea Rooms,established here in 1919 in what was originallyBeanland’s grocery shop, has a glazed canopy.There is no uniform style on the street andindividually the shops, with upper floormaisonettes, are undistinguished. Collectively bytheir variety of scale and design, they achieve apleasing effect, with a uniform frontage line withmost with canvas canopies. Only the newest shopfronts with deep, inappropriate fascia boards of themultiple chain-shops (with their corporate logos)lack the canopies. The real charm and character ofthe street is characterised by the smaller,independent shops, many of which retain theiroriginal shop fronts. Most noteworthy are numbers10 and 12, a fine pair of shops with a good timberdoorcase set between for the maisonettes above;this probably is the best fanlight in Ilkley. Both shopswere built for Dinsdale & Co. with a fruit andvegetable shop to the left with its door carved withfruit, and a tobacconist to the right (the GroveBookshop) its doorcase carved with tobacco leaves.The latter shop also has its original etched andengraved glass panel set in the door, a feature thatmay once have been more common on the street.Both have recessed doorways with mosaicpavement, incorporating ‘D & Co’, and curved glasswindows with carved surrounds and bevelled glassastragal-glazed toplights. The internal suspendedplate-glass sign of the bookshop is an elegantdiscrete addition. This is also the birthplace of anaccomplished painter, Mr Dinsdale, now of Bath,who is known for his historical paintings of battlescenes of the Napoleonic wars.

The two gardens next to Parish Ghyll Road andCunliffe Road form a terminus to the shops on TheGrove. One contains the remains of Canker Welland a stone-carved bath dated 1844, brought herefrom ‘The Shrine’ in the grounds of the BenRhydding Hydro. The character changes here witha tall row of elegant late Victorian shops occupiedin part by two of Ilkley’s wine bars (Grecos and SamHouston’s Cantina). It was Ilkley’s first town hallwhen the Local Board moved here in 1885, beforeit became an Urban District council in 1894. As theroad curves down to Bolton Bridge Road are somelarger late Victorian semi-detached houses withGothic detailing. The Grove Hotel has a fine cast-iron rainwater hopper head and down-pipe withterracotta dragon finials to its roof. The MemorialGardens close off The Grove with a tree-lined pathleading to a First World War cenotaph. It is a small,

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well designed park with small pavilions set eitherside of an unusual Second World War memorial inan enclosed Portland stone arched pavilion, withnarrow windows filled with regimental badges instained glass. Its mature trees enhance the characterof the Conservation Area.

The area above The Grove was laid out as streetsfrom the late 1860s onwards by a single firm of landagents and surveyors, Smith & Gothardt (Bradford),who master minded the development of the townfor the Middleton family in conjunction with thelocal estate agents Dacres and Heppers. Sale plansof the 1868 and 1869 offered ‘freehold building sitesfor Residences, and Retail Shops’ on the former‘Green Lane intended to be called The Grove, 42 ftwide’. Building plots were offered on WellsPromenade, Riddings Road and Parish Ghyll Roadwhere Sedbergh School also owned land to thewest of the road. A number of Special Conditionsspecified that the buildings had to be at least twostoreys in height, and to be built to a minimum costof £250, to be faced in stone or white pressed brick;red brick was specifically excluded. It was perhapssignificant that the Middletons had shares in theTadcaster Brick Works where such bricks could beobtained!

Shopping Centre Enhancement

The quality of the shopping streets is dependenton the economic fortunes of llkIey and its ability toattract shoppers from both outside and withinWharfedale. Consequently, the Council iscommitted through the retail policies in its UDP tosafeguarding the vitality and viability of the TownCentres and preventing the drift to out-of -townshopping.

The Council has been flexible in permitting thechange of use of vacant shop units on the peripheryof the central area to non-retail use - for exampleoffices. However on the primary shopping frontagesalong the north side of the Grove, and on BrookStreet, the disruption of continuous shoppingfrontages by non-retail uses will be resisted tosafeguard the attractiveness of these streets forcomparison shopping.

The main streets still retain their predominantly lateVictorian and Edwardian stone buildings, and recentinfill building has been generally sympathetic interms of its general scale and materials. However,both The Grove and Brook Street have suffered dueto the installation of some poor quality,unsympathetic new shop fronts over a period ofmany years. The quality of some signs has not beengood either. A recent upturn in demand has resultedin some beneficial visual improvements such as theintroduction of a canopy-frontage at Bettys TeaRooms on The Grove. The Council will seek to

The Grove

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ensure that all future alterations to shop fronts,while not copying the recent additions, make areturn to a more traditional character on theshopping streets. The design of shop fronts willbetter reflect the appearance and proportions of thebuilding as a whole, with more co-ordination indetail and colour.

In particular shop fronts should;

1. Where possible be based on historical evidenceof original details.

2. Be constructed in timber.

3. Use timber or natural stone stallrisers; tiledstallrisers are inappropriate and should beremoved.

4. Retain all existing traditional detailing to windowframes and doors.

5. Existing recesses should be retained.

6. Encouragement will be given to incorporationof blinds and canopies.

7. Care should be taken with the incorporation ofshop front security features. Shutters willgenerally only be permitted inside the displaywindow or in traditional timber form.

Insofar as the Council is able to control signs onbusiness premises, the following will beencouraged;

1. Painted timber signs should be used rather thanperspex or plastic, and glossy reflective materialavoided.

2. Internally illuminated “box” signs are generallynot appropriate.

3. Where illumination is required, this should befrom an external light source, but light fittingsshould be discrete and unnoticeable and fixedwhere they will not harm or mask architecturaldetailing.

In the course of negotiations with property ownersand developers, the Council will seek to improvethe appearance of buildings abutting or visible fromthe central car park. In addition, opportunities willbe taken to improve the landscaping and generalappearance of the central car park, particularly byencouraging planting and other measures to breakup the space.

There does not appear to be much vacantfloorspace at 1st or 2nd floor levels in the TownCentre, much provides commercial office space.Nevertheless, the Council will encourage use ofupper storeys for residential or other use, wheneverappropriate.

A co-ordinated approach tomaterials for roads, kerbs andfootways, and for streetfurniture will be adopted inthe central commercial core.This will ensure a qualityappearance in sympathy withthe location, whilst giving itan identity. Where characterchanges, variation intreatment will be carefullyconsidered to prevent dilutionof character. Rationalisationof street furniture to preventclutter will also beencouraged.

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such as brewing, building trades, furniture makingand upholstery. Ilkley relied for its prosperity on themany shops and hotels for the growing numbersof visitors attracted by the hydropathicestablishments and the walking on the moors.

Leeds Road: when New Brook Street was createdin the early 1900s, The Star public house wasdemolished and rebuilt in 1905 and set further back.Typical of its period, it has a stone ground floor withpainted pebble-dashed upper walls with mocktimbered gables and red tile roofs. The terrace nextto it is dated 1878 and features paired doorwayswith cornice hoods on console brackets. The roadis lined with terraced houses of the 1880s mostlyconverted to shops. Numbers 22 to 34 have quitefine shop fronts built in front of the houses withdecorative cast-iron fluted Corinthian pillars andwooden windows. However, the added fasciaboards mask the top of the windows. Most of thebuildings on the rest of the road were built around1900. A number of larger buildings are groupedtogether at the eastern entry to the town. Theseinclude All Saints School opened in 1872 and builtin a Gothic Revival style, with a tower next to themaster’s house. On the south side of Leeds RoadOperatic House, the former hall for All SaintsChurch, dated 1899, is in a more flamboyant Gothicstyle. It has exaggerated ogee hood moulds overits cross-mullion windows, with cusped lightsinfilled with decorative coloured glass. It is the onlylisted building in this part of the town. TheMethodist Church opposite has been demolishedand the site now provides the only free car park onthe outskirts of the town and on the edge of theConservation Area. All the streets between LeedsRoad and the river post-date 1880; some are early/mid 20th century. These are modest terraces, theearliest, such as those on Weston Road, with rock-faced walling and keyed-arched doorways.

Enhancement

Existing original shopfronts to the Leeds Roadfrontages will be retained and repaired.Replacement shopfronts shall follow the guidelinesfor the commercial centre. It might be appropriatein this area to strengthen the character byencouraging a return to contemporary details onthe terraced properties. A return to a regular patternof door and windows would give the area somestyle and identity, but the fittings could incorporatethe latest energy saving technology. Resistance ofthe removal of chimney stacks and co-ordinationof features such as dormer windows would alsobenefit the appearance of the area.

iii) The Railway Town

The Railway arrived in 1865 and thus began atransition between llkley as a Spa, and as anincreasingly popular place to retire to, commutefrom or visit on a day-trip. The Station forms thecentrepiece of this sector which also consists of theareas of working class housing from the lateVictorian and inter-war periods between RailwayRoad and Leeds Road. Within the residential areaare other buildings associated with residentialexpansion in the late Victorian period such as AllSaints School, the Church of All Saints HaIl (1899)and rows of shops with relatively unspoilt frontagesonto Leeds Road.

The area between Leeds Road and Railway Road:this was developed after the coming of the railwayin 1865. It is characterised by long rows of terracedhousing. The larger terraced houses, Clifton Terrace,on Lower Wellington Road have stone canted baywindows and doorcases with arched fanlights underpointed relieving arches; and with small gardensto the front enclosed by dwarf walls. Also typicallythere is a corner shop at the junction with LittleLane. Further up Wellington Road the houses aremore densely packed, on both sides of the street,and open to the pavement without gardens to thefront. This area is typical of the speculative terracessurrounding West Yorkshire towns, the streets herenamed after historical figures and battles:Wellington, Nelson, Trafalgar, Nile and VictoryRoads. The later two are part of the early to mid-20th-century development of the town providingcheaper housing in demand between the wars.While these are workers’ houses they are for white-collar workers who either worked in Ilkley orcommuted to the larger towns of Leeds andBradford, made accessible by the railway. It issignificant that Ilkley never had any manufacturingindustries except for quarrying on the moor toprovide local building stone and service industries

Wellington Road

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iv) Spa Town.The fashion amongst upper class society for spawater treatments from the start of the 18th centurybegan a period of expansion of the town and thebuilding of a number of Institutions devoted tohydrotherapy. The long established pure spring onthe moor at White Wells was followed in 1844 bythe Ben Rhydding “Hydro”(now demolished) wheretreatments were pioneered. Hydrotherapy thenbecame very successful in llkIey, and soon a numberof other large, imposing buildings had beenconstructed as centres for the water cure offering“scientific baths of every description”.

They included Wells House, opened in 1856 andbuilt to a design by Cuthbert Brodrick. It stands in acommanding position overlooking the town and setin extensive grounds with mature trees. Latterly thebuilding has been used as a College and variousancillary modern buildings have grown up aroundthe original Hydropathic establishment.“Craiglands” was opened in 1859 offering the watercure for the less well-off. Both these landmarkbuildings illustrate the profitability of the varioushydrotherapeutic treatments offered to privilegedVictorians for an assortment of ailments. They areimposing buildings with turrets, gables andbattlements characteristic of the Victorian revivalof Gothic styles. Of particular importance is thesetting of these landmark buildings within extensivegrounds and mature landscaping which providesan interlinking network of open space running downto the shopping area.

Smaller, lesser known examples of survivinghydropathic architecture include “Troutbeck”(1863)- now a nursing home, and “Rockwood” (1871) atthe top of Cowpasture Road - now flats. Of the oldhydros only Wells House is presently a listedbuilding.

By the 1880s, however, hydropathy was in rapiddecline as the treatment became discredited.Several hydropathic establishments that did notfind new uses, declined and were demolished forredevelopment while the reputation of llkley as ahealthy place to take air and exercise allowed othersto branch into early tourism by evolving into Hotels.

Allied to the development of the hydropathicinstitutions, and located within the same part of theConservation Area, is former The GroveConvalescent Hospital, built in 1862 to anotherVictorian Gothic Revival design by Perkins andBlackhouse of Leeds. The gardens of theConvalescent Hospital fronting The Grove are ofespecial importance to the character of the lattershopping street.

Within this Spa Town sector, are some importantchurch buildings such as the imposing Church ofSt.Margaret’s on Queens Road (1879) - designedby Norman Shaw for the rapidly expandingcongregations of residents and visitors to llkley, andthe more homely Friends’ Meeting House (1869) onQueens Road.

Also contributing to the character of the Spa Townarea are some of the earliest of the middle classhousing which began to develop beyond the lessdesirable old commercial centre as the town’sprosperity improved. Belle Vue, Mount Pleasant andthe impressive listed houses on West View datefrom around 1840. Simple proportions and analmost rustic character reflect the fact that at thattime llkley would still have been a small Dalesvillage, Many of the above later became lodginghouses for growing numbers of visitors, and someare still in hotel use today. Wells Road was the mainroute to the Moor and Wells House. Many visitorswould be carried up by donkeys hired in the town.A set of mounting steps in Wells Road is aninteresting remnant of these times.

lkley Hall and its surviving grounds is anotherimportant early house, being one of the first builtfor a professional man of independent means in1825.

A distinct sector of the Conservation Areaincorporating the above Institutions, the openspaces between them and the town centre, and theintervening buildings - many of which arecoincidentally devoted to health care following theirconversion to nursing homes - has been identified.

Wells Road (east): set back on the east side of theroad, hidden by a late 20th century mewsdevelopment, is the former Vicarage of 1848, nowconverted to four flats. It is a fine early VictorianTudor Revival building with transom windows andoriel. Its setting has been compromised by the rowof garages immediately to its front. Ilkley Hall is amodest Regency villa built c.1825 with coach-houseand stables attached to its rear. It has a 3-bay northentrance front, its sash windows having stonearchitrave surrounds and retaining their original 16-paned sashes to the ground floor, with 12-panedsashes above. It now serves as suites of officesand was for many years the headquarters of localfirm Spooners. When it was a house it was thechildhood home of the popular author Jilly Cooper,nee Geldard. Set in front of the house is a terracedgarden with contemporary sundial. Set within itsown grounds it is bounded by mature trees andhedges retaining its entrance gates; though thesprawling arm of suburbia hems it in on every side.

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Wells Road: a leafy boulevard climbing to the moor.The almost continuous terrace of West View, on theeast side, has some of the earliest houses developedin the town from the 1830s. The lowest house inthe row, no.3 was built as a boarding house and itwas here that Dr Rischanek stayed in 1843 whileconducting a hydrotherapy practice using the bathsat White Wells. It was the success of ‘The WaterCure’ that led his sponsor Hamer Stansfield to erectthe first purpose-built hotel for hydrotherapy in thecountry at Ben Rhydding. All the houses on WestView have modest 3-bay frontages retaining theirsashed windows either side of a central door. Atthe north end of the terrace smaller 16-paned and12-paned sashes characterise the earliest dwellings.Whilst larger 2-paned sashes are a feature of thelater Victorian houses which have projecting 2-storey bay windows, alternately square and canted.They have small gardens to their fronts enclosedby dwarf walls, levelling the ground as theyprogress up hill, topped by iron railings. Further upthe simple Classical style gives way to Italianatedetailing to the taller 3-storey buildings whichfeature arch-headed windows and decorativecolumned doorcases. Moor Lodge c.1827 at the topof the terrace has a fine doorcase with pediment,its fanlight infilled with decorative stained glass. Itsstair-tower attached to the rear is a later stylishaddition, standing on triple arches with a tall archedwindow under a pediment. It was the retirementhome of the Scottish artist David Anderson who

moved here in 1946. The garden of the house isthe only one on the road enclosed by wavy-ironbalusters with urn finials. Both it and its neighbourthe Rombalds Hotel of c.1834 were built on landowned by John Dixon of Ilkley Hall who laid downconditions for a “Flagged Causeway” the length ofthe terrace, the gardens to be set behind “IronPallisadoes”. Separating the pavement from theroad is a broad grassed area, the road lined withmature trees planted around 1900; this gives anelegant feel to the road. Standing on its own MoorCottage is the only 18th century house in this partof the CA. Built c.1727 is has a 3-bay gabled fronttreated as a pediment with an oval window in itstympanum. The stonework is painted white copyingWhite Wells visible on the hillside above the top ofWells Road. Branching off to the left as it meets themoor, is Crossbeck Road, following the contoursand important as being the location of some ofIlkley’s earliest hydropathic spa-hotel institutions.

Crossbeck Road: is a pleasant winding leafy roadwith a mixture of two- and three-storey largerterraced houses, semi-detached and moresubstantial detached dwellings. They stand on thebank above the south side of the road, their gardenshaving dense tree cover and enclosed by stoneretaining walls with iron railings and stone gate-piers. The houses at the western end of the road,Wells Terrace (now Hillside) was where CharlesDarwin (see Wells House below) rented an

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apartment for himself and his family in mid October1859. Nos. 4 & 6 next door are dated 1869 and havepaired Gothic arched doorways. The later Victorianhouses employ a modest Classical style thatfeatures canted bay windows to their ground floors.No.8 is a good example with tri-partite windowsabove its bay windows. Each house differs, with atower, mock-timber framing, stepped gables andogee-pointed windows. Progressing along the roadto the east the terraces give way to larger detachedhouses, the Victorian pillar box complementing thecharacter of the street. The superintending doctorat Wells House Dr. Smith built the Troutbeck in 1863as a modestly sized hydro, when compared to thelarger and earlier hydros. It continues its care roleas a private nursing home with a health suite. Builtin a Jacobean Revival style, it retains its mullionwindows and 2-paned sash windows. RombaldHouse next along has unusual windows and shapedDutch gables. New development is confined to thenorth side of the road except for the recentdevelopment to the rear of Craiglands where theformer stables and coach-house, dated 1867, hasbeen converted to two dwellings. John Dobson builtthe Craiglands Hotel in 1859 as a smaller hydrowhere treatment was less expensive than the moreexclusive hydros at Ben Rhydding or Wells House,thus catering for the middle classes. However, TheCraiglands is the only hydro to survive as a hotel tothe present day, and is important to themaintenance of the historic character of Ilkley as aspa town. It retains its original fenestrationremarkably well: the hotel entrance is contained inthe original 7-bay symmetrical 3-storey building that

accommodated forty guests. Three further bayswith a full height semi-circular bay were added tothe east in the early 1860s, finally terminating in atall 4 1/2 storey wing built in a Scottish Baronialstyle with crenellated gables and parapets carriedaround the building with corner turrets. Built insimilar style were large additions to the rear,including by 1900, an 85 feet long recreational roomcum ballroom to accommodate up to two hundredguests. During the Edwardian period Spring andAutumn Balls were popular events. The hotel isparticularly well sited, backing on to the moor andbeing set amid mature well laid-out grounds withfine specimen trees. The only jarring note is theaddition to the west: a 2-storey square box of steeland glass providing banqueting and conferencefacilities.

Cowpasture Road: close to the south-easternboundary of the CA, above Craiglands and next toTarn Villas, stands Rockwood House which openedas a small hydro in 1871. Lower downhill from TheCraiglands at right-angles to the road stands MountPleasant, an early Victorian 3-storey terrace in amodest Classical style that steps down the hill instages, probably dating from c.1840. Only thepilaster doorcases with panelled doors andoverlights retain their original elegance. Most of thewindows have suffered from later replacement. Thecentral block has a canted bay window, an additionbearing the date 1873. The house at the bottom ofthe row, nearest the road, is an addition of 1900.The next terrace below, following the alignment ofthe road, has fared better as most retain their timbersashes. Built in a simple Gothic Revival style it

Cowpasture Road

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features front-facing gables at each end andpointed-arched windows and doorcases. Set backfrom the road up hill is Belle Vue Terrace, aninteresting row of six early-Victorian 3-storeyterraced houses built c.1840 of fine dressed ashlarwith margin tooling and pilaster doorcases.Providing different sized accommodation, some aredouble-fronted with basket-arched passagewaysleading to the rear. The canted bay windows arelater Victorian additions on to the simple elegantfronts of this important terrace, one of the earliestof its type to be developed in the town. The 1841census shows that this area, the ‘east out quarter’,was where those of independent means chose tolive. It also had its own small park Belle Vue Gardensseparating the terrace from the road. It is informallylaid out with specimen trees and curving gravelpaths, largely overgrown, which lead down to thetown. It is an unusual little park, typical of others tobe found in the town, and an important feature ofopen ‘rural’ space in this part of the CA. This helpsto preserve the open setting of the terraced housesoften compromised, by in-fill development in thegardens of larger houses, elsewhere in the town.

Top of Wells Road: a cattle grid marks the beginningof the moorland section of the road. This part ofthe CA is characterised by a mature tree-linedavenue leading to the entrance of Wells House, itstowers appearing through the tops of the trees. Thebackcloth of the heather-covered moor, the woodedghyll, and the rocky outcrops, is very much a featureof the Conservation Area (though outside itsboundary). The road runs alongside the denselywooded grounds of Wells House, with itsovergrown woodland paths, large fishponds oncewith fountains; part of the landscaped scheme byJoshua Major who had laid out parks in Manchester.The top entrance stands opposite the car park andaccess path to the quaint group of buildings ofWhite Wells, restored in the 1970s, up the donkeytrack. Looking to the success of the first hydroestablished in Ben Rhydding in 1844, Wells Houseopened in 1856. It is a large and impressive 9-baysquare building built around an inner courtyard,with 2-bay corner towers that rise a storey higherthan the main 3-storey ranges set between.Designed by Cuthbert Brodrick (architect of LeedsTown Hall and the Corn Exchange, Leeds) it has arichly textured façade: smooth faced ashlar wallsto the upper storeys above a vermiculatedrusticated basement that continues as pilaster stripsup the corners of the tower. Each floor has adifferent style of window: segmental on the ground-floor, tall semicircular-arched with Gibbs surroundat the first floor, and square headed above; with 3-light arched windows articulated by Corinthiancolumns and pilasters on the top floor of the towers.

Unusually all windows retain their original timbersashes, having different pane sizes and pattern toeach floor. An impressive central arched doorway,with a deeply recessed surround, leads down acorridor to a transverse stair hall with an open-wellcantilevered stair at each end with cast-ironbalusters of unusual design using geometricshapes. The main corridors have rich plastercornices and archways, some with fanlights. Theprincipal reception room is on the north (rear) side,and has a full-depth circular bay window. It is lit onthe inner courtyard side by fanlights set in recessedarches. The building predominantly houses largenumbers of single bedrooms, with double-suitesin the corner towers. The original bathhouse hadextensive facilities set in the basement under theadjacent terrace, now largely filled in. Marble wallsand encaustic tiled floors in stair area are indicatorsof the original opulence. One of the mostdistinguished visitors to Wells House was CharlesDarwin who came here for treatment in earlyOctober 1859, prior to the publication of hisimportant book ‘The Origin of the Species’, whenhe was full of doubts as to whether or not he shouldpublish. Following closure of this site as a college,later buildings have been cleared, and Wells Housewill be converted to apartments. At this opportunity,it is intended to retain and reinstate original details.In the 1880s, when this was a popular hotel, theWinter Gardens with sprung dance-floor, raisedbandstand, fully glazed walls and a 3-span roofsupported by decorative arched cast-iron trusseswas built on top of the terrace. This has now beenremoved as part of the conversion. A bridgeconnected it to the Annexe added c.1900 to provideextra accommodation as a private hospital wing forconvalescent patients. It is a charming rusticbuilding with timber-framed upper storey, on a rock-faced basement, with decorative gables, its roofretaining its original stacks and chimney pots. Itbecame a Domestic Science College during the1950s its many rooms serving as studentaccommodation. Many other buildings were addedin the grounds to serve the needs of the college,more recently known as the Bradford & IlkleyCommunity College. The closure of the college inJuly 1999 has enabled many of these later buildingsto be removed in the current scheme to convertWells House to domestic accommodation.

The broad sweep of the open grounds on the westside of Wells Road is an important visual amenityand is provided with a picnic area and car park. WestView Park was created in the early 1900s by theLocal Board as an attraction in their drive toestablish the town as an inland resort. Paths werelaid out with rustic bridges and a bandstand, wherethe Town Council’s own Military Band entertained

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throughout the summer. More recently, theMillennium Project has seen the creation of a mazeand new attractions in what are now DarwinGradens. Nearer the town the rock-faced stone twinlodges of the former Ilkley College (see QueensRoad below) c.1869 frame the clock tower of thecollege and the fine east window of St. Margaret’sChurch.

Enhancement proposals

The strategy to preserve and enhance this sectionof the Conservation Area will focus on safeguardingthe key buildings - especially the landmark buildingsand their grounds, mature trees both in groundsand the public realm and the views out across thetown and over to the moors. Both the Listed andunlisted buildings are important in this respect, asis the historic mix of institutional and domesticarchitecture. Given the loss of so many other formerhydropathic institutions, it will be important toensure retention of the surviving examples and toemphasise the importance of the Spa to llkley’ssubsequent growth. The preservation of theinterlinking open spaces which provides a maturelandscaped setting for the main buildings and agreen thread running through the fabric of theConservation area is also of paramount importance.In this respect, the identification of Major UrbanGreenspace on the Bradford UDP proposals Map,and application of the corresponding policy EN7,provides Development Plan backing forConservation Area objectives.

It is likely that new uses will have to be found forsome of the key buildings -

The Council will resist proposals which harm thecharacter of the domestic architecture in this sector.Several rooflines, for example, have been adverselyaltered by the addition of dormers which would notpass the requirements of today’s dormer windowspolicy. Early terraces such as Mount Pleasant andBelle Vue are probable candidates for an Article 4Direction, to encourage co-ordination of featuresand to protect their character.

v) Victorian and Edwardian

Suburbs

Historical and Architectural

Characteristics

The period 1865-1901 saw the building of a largenumber and wide variety of dwellings throughoutllkley, representing a range of Victorian andEdwardian architecture, as the railway madecommuting to work in the more smoky centres ofthe West Riding textile industry a possibility, andas land was sold off by William Middleton - Lord ofthe Manor. The western part of the ConservationArea is dominated by houses from this period,which provide visual quality and are harmoniousin terms of design, scale and materials, andcontribute to a high standard of environment. Inthis period, llkley houses became more elaboratein design - illustrating the prosperity of the incomingWool Merchants and professional classes and theirdesire for houses reflecting the latest tastes inarchitecture.

Parish Ghyll Road was one such centre of residentialdevelopment in the early 1870s. New residentscommissioned often richly ornamented individualdesigns and heavy looking bay windows were apopular feature. There is a strong building line tothe east side of the street. Further up the hillside,detached villas were also under construction. Forexample, Ashburn and Heather Bank (1871).Alexandra Crescent and St.Margaret’s Terrace aretypical terraces of the 1870s, but perhaps the mostattractive domestic architecture is located on thesouth side of Kings Road facing the MemorialGarden.

The 1880s saw a slump in house building in llkley,but there was a revival in the 1890s but by then thegrander houses were being built away at somedistance from the centre.

There are presently few listed buildings in this area,although this is not necessarily a criticism of thearchitecture.

Bolton Bridge Road: is really a continuation of TheGrove, going downhill to the Skipton Road. Its eastside has particularly good terrace of late Victorianhouses characterised by decorative open timberporches. Strathmore at the top end has the additionof a projecting bay inset with elaborate carved whitemarble panels. To either side of the bay are similarcarved white marble roundels, each featuring awoman and two children. It stands on the corner ofRegent Road laid out in the 1890s. Only the former

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St Margaret’s Church Hall dates before this. Thishas a bold frontage with a prominent gable aboveits triple-arched entrance. It has been sensitivelyconverted to a health club that keeps its open spacewith gallery and roof trusses exposed. Here smallerterraced houses c. 1900 have rustic rock-facedprojecting bays under lean-to blue slate roofs. Atthe junction with Cunliffe Road is Morten’sHardware Store, originally Cunliffe Café c.1900, alarge purpose-built pair of shops with cornerentrances, the angles covered by the oversailinggable on large timber brackets. The road providesaccess to the large central car-park set in the squarebehind the backs of the buildings on Church Street,Brook Street and The Grove, where the rear additionto Betty’s features timber windows, with glazingtypical of the late Victorian style of the town. Theshopping development of Dalesway House issingle-storey with gables, dormers and linkedglazed canopies reflecting the style of local shopson The Grove. Some attempt has been made to tidyup the backs of the shops in recent years and newshops have been created looking inwards to thistarmac piazza. This car park is central to the townand is many visitors’ first experience of the town. Itoffers potential for improvement by the introductionof more sympathetic surfacing and landscapingwith the introduction of trees and additional seatingareas to break up the expanse of harsh surfacing.

Grove Road/Kings Road Area: at the western edgeof the conservation area is an interesting terrace ofmid-Victorian villas c. 1880, on the south side ofGrove Road, in a restrained Gothic style. Theyfeature gable fronts, with bargeboards, andbelvedere towers with fish-scale slate-hungpyramidal roofs. The north side of the road wasdeveloped after 1901 when the area was sold off inlots. Number 2, Morven was built 1905/06 and is afine example of the Arts and Crafts style, featuringsnecked masonry to its symmetrical three-bayfaçade, where the central bay is set forward its gablerising above the eaves with tapering sides. Mullionwindows are set into battered walls, all retainingtheir original lead-lights and metal casements. Likemany of the houses in this area it has a red tiledroof, possibly influenced by Heathcote, Lutyen’smasterpiece built at the same time further up theroad (not presently included within theConservation Area). Built for a doctor as his housewith consulting rooms, it was designed by a MrGaunt (a local architect) who was also responsiblefor several other houses in and around Ilkley. Itstands next to Spence’s Garden, a delightful publicpark, more of a wooded glen, with magnificentmature specimen trees and timber bridge over thebeck that runs through it. It is set in the fork withKings Road on which is the Baptist Church builtc.1902 in a Perpendicular Gothic style, its windowsfilled with Art Nouveau coloured glass; this standsnext to the earlier Chapel Lane.

Grove Road

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Chapel Lane: Yew Croft dates from the early 19thcentury and is a modest terrace of cottage houses.The row was extended northwards in the 1920s.Leading down to Bolton Bridge Road, the lanenarrows. Here no. 10 is possibly of 17th-centuryorigin, constructed of rubble masonry with an 18th-century doorcase obviously cut into the earlierwalling. It may be one of the only remaining earlythatched cottages that were such a feature of thetown before its 19th century transformation.Originally it was part of a longer row of which thereis no sign except for a mark of a roofline on its gableend. Number 11 rises a storey higher and is an early19th-century cottage now with uPVC imitationsliding sashes.

Queens Road: standing close to the broad junctionwith Wells Road are a particularly good pair of mid-Victorian villas in Gothic Revival style, built on thesite of the Mill Dam which was drained and filled induring the 1870s. All the early development, aselsewhere in the town, is built on the uphill southside of the road. Here was built the Friends’ MeetingHouse in 1869, standing originally on its own butnow with dwellings on either side. The mid-to-late20th century houses, ‘little boxes’, built on the northside of the road do not complement the largerbuildings opposite. A more recent stone terrace ofthree houses with gable fronts makes a moreconscious attempt to balance with its neighboursopposite, where the Gothic style predominates. Theformer Ilkley College

(Deaconess Court), erected as a boys boardingschool in 1869, was later extended in 1874. In 1902the building was purchased by the WesleyDeaconess Order as its teaching college. It closedin 1968 when it was converted to flats. The designof the building by T.C. Hope (architect, Bradford),helped establish a formula that became a patternfor the larger villas built in this part of theConservation Area. Typically the entrance is set ina tower with a gabled wing to one side and the mainhouse to the other. Other buildings on the road sportbelvedere towers, one with fish-scale tile-hungspire. The road widens at its approach to St.Margaret’s Church and is characterised bymagnificent trees on every side. Built on a steepslope, the east end of the church rises high above acrypt with monumental buttresses which, with thelarge Perpendicular style East Window and NorthTransept, create an impressive effect. Built in 1878to the designs of the eminent architect RichardNorman Shaw, it demonstrates an early use ofsnecked riser masonry to its walling. It has pointedarched windows to the aisles, with 3-light windowsto the clerestory, which provides a well-lit interior.Standing opposite the church, in the woodland, isa railed enclosure of archaeological interest: itcontains three large rocks decorated withprehistoric ‘cup-and-ring’ marks, moved here in1892 from Panorama Woods. The western end ofthe road was a favoured location for the larger villas.Norman Shaw also designed St John’s (1879) at thesame time as the church; and T.C. Hope designed

St. Margarets Church, 1878

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Arden Lea (1881) and Arden Croft (1897) in an OldEnglish style first introduced by Norman Shaw.Hope was largely responsible for the layout ofManningham as a residential suburb where he didmany villa and terrace designs. These buildingsinfluenced the designs of terraces and villas builtin Ilkley during the last quarter of the 19th century.

St. Margaret’s Terrace: a steep road that linkingQueens Road with Albany Walk on a parallelcontour further down the hillside. Here the terracedhouses are grouped in pairs with Moorish-styletimber porches covering their paired doorcases.

Albany Walk: has some interesting larger mid-Victorian houses on the south side of the road.These have gables decorated with frettedbargeboards and blue-slate roofs with contrastinglighter fish-scale slates. One house dated 1871 hasa decorative iron cresting to its spired tower. Thereis a fine stone setted back lane behind the housesaccessed between the two larger houses at the endof the road fronting Wells Walk. Running downhillfrom Albany Walk are four roads leading to TheGrove: Parish Ghyll Road, Back Parish Ghyll Road,Riddings Road and Wells Walk.

Mill Ghyll Public Gardens: sandwiched betweenWells Walk and Wells Promenade is a pleasantnarrow garden running down the hill on either sideof Mill Ghyll. The paths were laid out in 1873. Aminiature waterfall was constructed and timberbridges built across the stream amid variegatedtrees, bushes and ferns.

Riddings Road: most of the houses near the top ofthe road date from around 1900 and arecharacterised by stone fronts with white-paintedrendered backs. Close to the bottom of the road,next to the Congregational Church is Riddings Hall,a Gothic Revival building of 1880 with bold detailingto its window and door heads and a corner orielwith spirelet. Just above is the Police Station, builtslightly later, which features fretted bargeboards toits gables.

Back Parish Ghyll Road: the road provides usefulparking for the houses that front Parish Ghyll Road.The main point of interest up this back lane is theformer Ilkley Hospital of 1862. Following theaddition of and extension in 1885, its name waschanged the following year to ‘Ilkley Hospital andConvalescent Home’. Built in a Scottish Baronialstyle, similar to the extension to Craiglands, it is U-shaped to the north with prominent stepped gableswith conical turrets. The hospital closed a few yearsago. The extensive grounds run down to The Grove,where in the lower end of the field, local boy and

TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh has agreed to advisethe Abbeyfield Society on landscaping the area forthe general benefit of the town.

Parish Ghyll Road: was developed after 1869 andhas an interesting and varied range of Victorian andearly Edwardian architecture with some morerecent late 20th century in-fill. Carefully groupedup the slope, nos. 13 to 19 is a balancedcomposition with good doorcases. Opposite somehouses have carved faces decorating the parapetsof their bay windows. The earliest houses featureprominent gables; some decorated withbargeboards (nos. 26 & 28).

St James Road: to the west of Parish Ghyll Road,and just off the end of The Grove, was developedin the late 1890s. It has long rows of modestEdwardian stone terraced houses with timber baywindows, square on one side of the road, andcanted on the other. Some semi-detached housesat the junction with Oakburn Road, developed inthe early 20th century, have stone lower walls withrendered and pebble-dashed upper walls withdelicate timber verandas. These demonstrate achange in style that was taken up in the latersuburban developments on the outskirts of thetown, to the east and west of the Conservation Areaboundaries.

Enhancement proposals

The Conservation Area Statement sets out anintention to preserve and highlight the value of theVictorian/Edwardian residences through controlover the design and form of new development -particularly in the face of very strong pressure fordevelopment due to Ilkley’s popularity as a placeto live - and to encourage restoration of olderproperties of character. Extensions, dormerwindows and other alterations to dwellings mustbe carefully controlled to retain the essentialcharacter of what the Victorians and Edwardianshave built.

Some streets have been marred by inappropriateinfill development in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Thereis now thought to be very limited scope for furtherdevelopment or redevelopment in this sectorwithout harming those mature gardens which havemanaged to survive this process and which providecontrasting green breaks between the high densityterrace development. There will be a presumptionagainst infilling of visually important gaps in theConservation Area. Loss of trees and boundarywalls will be resisted.

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The western boundaries of this part of theConservation Area are somewhat arbitary,representing neither distinct geographical orhistorical breaks in the built up area. SignificantVictorian and Edwardian architecture exists to thesouth and west of this sector of the Conservationand is now included in the existing boundary.

vi) The Residential Expansion

The suburban growth of Ilkley was spurred by landsales by the Middleton Estate from the 1860s.Building slowed in the 1880s but the pace resumedin the 1890s. Eaton Road is typical of family housesbuilt at this time. The gradient and curve of the roadstrengthens its character, with the general use ofdeep coursed gritstone providing uniformity. Theblack and white decorative gables are a distinctivefeature of the Edwardian houses, most of whichretain contemporary doors, windows anddecorative woodwork. Wilton Road includes largerdetached houses, with the use of red rosemary rooftiles, which became a common feature ofEdwardian Ilkley and which should be retained. Keylandmark buildings include One Oak, on ParishGhyll Drive, built in 1891 for Jonathan Walley, awoollen cloth merchant. The house is prominenton the junction with Princess Road. Across isFerndale of 1870 built for architect George Hill whoassisted Cuthbert Brodrick. Many original featuressurvive.

As Queens Road climbs steadily, the houses growin size and status. St Johns, by Norman Shaw(converted rather clumsily to flats in the 1950s) is apowerful and forbidding mock vernacularcomposition. Straven House of 1881, Belmont andShandon of 1891 and Iddesleigh of c.1886 all followmore typical styles of the time although each isindividual with towers, turrets and Gothic detailing.Most retain contemporary windows and joinery. Allhave spacious gardens, with extensive views acrossthe valley. The houses are either behind or abovesubstantial stone walls providing privacy but alsouniformity. These are important to the area andshould be retained. Creation of new openingsshould be resisted. The road leads up to what werescattered important houses on Queens Drive andWestwood Drive.

Queens Drive is dominated by Arden Lea, built in1881 to designs of Thomas Hope for George Thorpe,a Bradford department store owner. The house,recently listed Grade II, is a bold Italianatecomposition dominated by the tower and projectingbay windows. The iron cresting to the mansard roofand free use of fenestration is complemented to

the interior where much of the high quality fittingsincluding tiled floors, cornices and the grand stairhall survive. The house is set in large grounds withspectacular views northwards. Immediately east area pair of semi-detached villas, Arden Croft andBriarwood of 1897, again by Thomas Hope. Theseindicate a change in style to Edwardian and Artsand Crafts, with rendered upper storeys,ornamental barge boards and red clay tile hangingand roofs (although one has beenunsympathetically replaced). Arden Croft andBriarwood were for the son and daughter of Thorpe.The cottage for the staff, and carriage house to thewest complete the estate.

Further along Queens Drive, development is widelyspaced, but the houses are distinctive and havespacious grounds, worthy and appropriate of theirstatus. Fairstowe and Greystones, built as one in1894 and Baillegate of 1905 are typical. The treesand open settings contribute to views through thesites and across Ilkley, and any further developmentmust fully respect this. The area indicated forinclusion in the conservation area is seen as typicalof the higher status development in Ilkley from the1880s into the Edwardian period, and the area whichis still most redolent of this and retains its character.

To the south of Queens Drive, The Chalet andFairmount are imposingly set above maturegardens. The ornate overhanging eaves and longroof slopes of these houses built in 1876/7 givesthem a unique appearance. The increasingly steepground south of Queens Drive Lane has led tolimited development. This mainly fronts ontoWestwood Drive at the higher level with woodlandbelow, enabling dramatic views across the town tothe north, and dignified settings for the buildings.The 1990s development at Westwood Rise is of adensity and form not sympathetic to the vicinity.The lack of perimeter tree cover and new materialscreate a discordant element when viewed from theMoor. However, the remaining wall and railings toWestwood Drive are included as forming thetraditional frontage to the street.

Further up onto Panorama Drive, the characterbecomes more informal and wooded. PanoramaWoods includes some fine native firs, but isconsidered adequately protected by Urban GreenSpace status and is not included in the conservationarea. Opposite set dramatically in heavily woodedgrounds is Moorside, with a huge stained glass stairwindow and elaborate barge-boarding. Beyond areseveral unusual detached properties, some of onestorey with attic accommodation and low roofs, alsoincorporating distinctive masonry and timberwork.Heber Cottage and The Larches were certainly

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constructed by 1888. The group of houses at theend of Panorama Drive has an individual villagecharacter, with cottages to the right with an opengrass frontage, and larger houses with former coachhouses opposite. Amblethorpe was built in 1892and Yan Tan formed the coach house. The proximityto the Moor and the grassed links providing accessadd to this unique character. The stone and slateused in construction, detailing, and survival of mostoriginal features reinforces the special nature of thisarea, and great care is required with anydevelopment to respect this character.

Wilton Road, lined with large houses of the 1890s,descends in a graceful curve to Grove Road.Neasham House of 1889 was built for onegeneration of a family, Linden, Friarswood andGlenwood were built for their offspring. At the top,Wyndecliffe was built in 1895/6. Harmony is ensuredby the use of red clay roof tiles, decorative mocktimbering and gritstone throughout. Grove Road istree lined, with regular coursed stone boundarywalls and mature garden tree cover forming a beltto either side of the road. This is typical of thecharacter of affluent Edwardian Ilkley. Thearchitectural style is different from the Italianate orGothic late Victorian villas further up the slopes,with a wider variety of materials, includingwhitewashed render, decorative timberbargeboards and balconies, and often rosemary redroof tiles. Arts and Crafts influences are clear on anumber of properties. The uniformity of materialsis clear on Grove Avenue, a cul-de-sac of 9 housesbuilt in 1904/5 to designs of H.W Pease &Co. ofIlkley. Each house is different in design, but most

retain typical multi-paned upper lights to windowsand restrained Arts and Crafts details. The materialsand details which are vital to the homogeneity ofthis group would benefit from the controls of anArticle 4(2) Direction.

The western end of Grove Road is archetypal Ilkley:a wide avenue, substantial tree cover to gardensand large semi-detached or detached houses. Thegreenery and the spacious nature lend the area anair of elegance and maturity. Subtle details such asthe stone kerbs and the Victorian pillar box on thecorner with Victoria Avenue reinforce the periodatmosphere. Most of the houses here and on HebersGhyll Drive were built between 1900 and 1910: GhyllCroft 1903, Barn Cottage 1907, Hollycroft 1904,Peartree, Westcote and Fairholm by 1903. Thewesternmost extremity is bounded by the extensivewell wooded grounds of Hebers Mount (1890). Nowconverted to flats, it still retains its periodappearance, and the detached houses in thegrounds are well screened. The densely plantedboundary is a strong feature, and any pressures tocreate new openings and further infill the groundsshould be resisted.

Infill development has occurred along Grove Roadwith varying degrees of success. The low rise,timber clad apartment-like houses in the groundsof Summerfield are in contrast with the traditionallarge villas, but they are inconspicuous, with treecover and boundaries retained their impact is low.Warlbeck of 1986 is built on the site of a detachedhouse. Greater density is noticeable, but theretained boundaries and sympathetic materials,

Grove Road

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especially red roof tiles, does reduce the impact.‘The Lutyens’ development of 1996 next to GradeII* Heathcote is of lower density and its scale makesthe impact acceptable. Norwood Park wasconstructed in the early 1990s, again on the site ofa detached house. The proximity of one house toGrove Road is less comfortable in relation to thepattern of the area. Heath Park, built on part of theformer grounds of Heathcote, and 97 to 109 GroveRoad in the grounds of houses on Hebers GhyllDrive are uncompromisingly 1970s with materialsand design making no reference to the locality. Themost recent infill has seen the demolition of HollinGrange and its neighbour at the western end ofGrove Road. These have been replaced by 8detached houses. Whilst some trees and most ofthe boundaries remain, the strength of detailcombined with the pressing density of the housesleads to a cluttered and overcrowded site.

The remaining detached houses become moreimportant since some have been lost. Heathcote,by Lutyens in 1906-8 is a remarkable composition,which by reason of its materials and appearancewould appear more at home in classical Italy thanIlkley. The complete set piece of house, ancillarybuildings, walls, grounds and garden structures isjustly afforded Grade II* listing and registeredHistoric Garden status. The Briery on the corner ofGrove Road and Victoria Avenue was built in 1897.It again features red tile hanging and roofs andattention to detail typical of the Arts and Craftsmovement. The extensive grounds contain goodtree cover and are bounded by high stone walls.An attractive arched gateway and stylish summerhouse elaborate the Victoria Avenue stretch. Thehouse is now a convent and any pressure for infillon the site should be resisted. The same is true for

Glen Rosa to the east. Built in 1894 with a lodge of1912, the spatial relationship of the house, now anursing home, to its grounds is important.

The character of Kings Road is less cohesive butstill distinctive. To a number of detached properties,including Heathcote, Warlbeck and Norwood, thecoach houses and service buildings front onto KingsRoad. These have been recreated in some newdevelopments, recognising the grain of the area.To the north are more typical Edwardian detachedand semi-detached villas. A number, especiallythose on Beechwood Grove, built around 1905,feature white-washed rendered gables, orielwindows, multi-paned windows, ornamentaltimberwork combined in Arts and Crafts styling.Most retain original details and these meritprotection by Article 4(2) Direction. Elmleigh of the1880s, now a convent, forms the corner with EasbyDrive, which is characterised by large detachedhouses to the eastern side. The grounds of Elmleighare extensive, contained behind a high stone wall,again a feature of this road. Further down the road,the houses are more typically Victorian, manyretaining original features and at Garsdale at least,a period conservatory. South Parade, linking KingsRoad and Grove Road, is lined by large detachedproperties set well back from the road behindhedges or walls. Chilliswood and Grove Mount ofthe 1880s display interesting tile hanging, andextensions of the 1980s to form flats. The setting ofthese to the rear and the scale means that thecharacter and spatial form is not compromised. Tothe north, further late Victorian villas abut WestvilleRoad, with the former coach houses to the rear. Tworows of Edwardian terraces with uniform verandahsand dormer windows line one side of WestvilleAvenue, with more recent houses opposite.

To the north of the cohesive area ofresidential growth are the MiddletonVillas on Skipton Road. Although notarchitecturally distinguished, theyare historically important as they arebuilt on land forming part of the firstland sales by the Middleton family.Generally grouped in pairs, withprominent steep overhanginggables to the fronts and tall chimneystacks, they date from around 1870.The mature gardens with stoneboundary walls are important totheir setting and to one of theprincipal accesses to the town.

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BoundaryRationaleThe development of Ilkley’s suburbs has beensporadic and scattered, rather than a steadyoutward expansion. This stems in part from gradualland sales for development. The result is an almostrandom mix of property age and style. Whilst veryindividual, accentuated by the steeply slopingsetting in part and mature tree cover, not all ofIlkley’s suburban area has the special architecturalor historical interest to merit inclusion in theconservation area. Some areas, whilst attractive andtypical of the period, could be recognised in manyother locations and hence are not ‘special’.

Areas excluded including the eastern end ofWestwood Drive and most of the band north toQueens Drive, are predominantly post 1960s, withisolated earlier buildings. The same is true of thezone between Parish Ghyll Lane and Parish GhyllDrive, including Heath Park, Hollingwood Rise,Ghyll Wood and Premiere Park. These areas do notexhibit cohesive character of special merit and toinclude them would undermine the importance ofthose which are included. Important tree cover willremain protected by Tree Preservation Orders oras protected open space in the case of PanoramaWoods.

Further north, the western reaches of Skipton Roadhave been excluded as too isolated from thecohesive area, and whilst exhibiting good Victorianand Edwardian linear development, it is felt thatbetter and more comprehensive townscape existselsewhere in the proposed and existing area.

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Whilst the spatial aspects of Ilkley, its tree coverand the design of the properties are critical to thecharacter of the affluent suburbs, other less obviousfeatures are also vital. To both the wide avenues ofdetached houses and the rows of dignified familyhomes, the boundaries, usually walls butsometimes hedges or railings, are a keycharacteristic. The definition of gardens, and theenclosure and seclusion of larger properties istypical of development of this period.

The streets of terraced or semi-detached houseswere often built as one development, and featurematching details to doors, windows, and verandahs,barge boards or dormers where these occur. Sashwindows and good panelled doors with otherquality craftsmanship are typical, giving the streetsan identity and reinforces their style and character.In most cases, these details still survive, indicatingthe quality of construction, but also that they areappreciated for their appearance. The largerproperties also exhibit quality and more individualcraftsmanship and detail. The contemporary doorsand windows, timberwork, roof materials andfinishes are vital to the appearance of theseproperties, as they formed part of the cohesivedesign.

It can clearly be demonstrated that by replacementof contemporary details by modern mass-produceddesigns, simplified details or alternative materials,the appearance of the properties is changed, thecohesive effect is lost and character of the

conservation area harmed. Whilst individually thenet change may be small, the combined effect ofpiecemeal changes is a steady erosion, and theultimate loss of contemporary detail and the subtleyet defining character of the area.

To prevent the loss of important details,conservation area status, which only gives verylimited protection, is to be supplemented by anArticle 4(2) Direction. It is intended that this willcover streets which are considered to have the mostcomplete indicative or outstanding character whichmerits enhanced protection.

The Direction will include doors, windows, porches,conservatories, decorative timber work, chimneystacks, roof materials, dormer windows andboundary walls. The consultation of residentsshowed strong support for the retention of suchdetails. The controls will not necessarily preventchange, but will co-ordinate it and provide designguidance. This will retain the character and style ofthe houses, to the benefit and pride of the owners.

ComplementaryDevelopmentControls

Opposite page : Heathcote 1906-8

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Preservation &EnhancementPolicies & ProposalsThe City of Bradford Metropolitan District Councilwill use the powers afforded to them by legislationand apply the policies set out in the UnitaryDevelopment Plan to control further change in IlkleyConservation Area and protect its heritage value.

Specifically, there will be a strong presumption infavour of retaining both listed and unlistedbuildings, and spaces which contribute to thespecial interest of the area. When taking decisionson new development in the conservation area,special attention will be paid to the desirability ofpreserving its character and appearance. Elementsincluding density, materials, trees, design and shopfronts will be carefully considered.

Certain elements have been identified as problemsor features which require control or enhancement.The following are proposed as methods ofaddressing these issues:

• The character of the conservation area isconsiderably augmented by the extensive survivalof original details to properties, including doors,windows, chimney stacks, decorative woodworketc. These features add to the cohesive effect ofgroups of properties and the wider area. Thereplacement of such features by simplified detailswithout co-ordination, in combination leads to thesteady erosion of this subtle character.

Such works within a conservation area are normallypermitted development and do not need planningpermission. Using its powers under Article 4 of the

General Development Order, the local planningauthority intends that an Article 4(2) direction beimplemented. On specific streets and properties,this will control extensions, changes to roofmaterials, removal of chimneys, replacement ofdoors and windows and alterations to decorativetimberwork.

• Design guidance for shopfronts in the commercialcore will be produced. The basic principles willinclude identifying original details, insistance ontimber, the use of stallrisers, recessed doorways,careful control of signage including opposinginternally illuminated and plastic signs, and asympathy to the building.

• The central carpark off Brook Street is a valuablefacility but also a bland open expanse in the heartof the conservation area. Measures to break up theopenness of this area and increase planting will beencouraged.

• A co-ordinated approach to materials for roads,kerbs and footways, and for street furniture will beadopted in the central commercial core. This willensure a quality appearance in sympathy with thelocation, whilst retaining an identity. Where thecharacter of the area changes, consideration willbe given to varied treatments, to prevent a dilutionof character. Removal and rationalisation of streetfurniture will be encouraged to reduce clutter.

Conservation area status will reinforce theprotection afforded to trees, which are a keyelement in the character of the area.

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Ashlar : Smooth faced, finely finished masonry.

Bargeboards : Board at the gable end of abuilding, covering the ends of the horizontal rooftimbers and forming an inverted V. Often piercedand decorated.

Batter : A sloping or inclined face of a wall.

Clerestory : A range of windows in the upper partof a building, over adjacent roofs such as aisles,giving extra light to the interior.

Crocketed : A decorated and carved projectionused to ornament the angles of roof or spires,often with the appearance of a hook.

Dentil : A small square block used in series forornamentation in Classical cornices or to supportguttering.

Gritstone : coarse sandstone quarried locally,mainly from the Moor ridge. The individualmineral grains are more visible than in the finerBradford sandstone. Usually cut into blocks 6 to10 inches deep and regularly coursed.

Kneeler : The projecting block or corbel at the topcorner of a building, supporting the lowestcoping stone. Usually decorated with concaveand convex mouldings.

Mullion : Vertical division of a window opening,usually in stone.

Oriel : A bay window projecting from an upperstorey, often with ornamental support.

Pilaster : A column attached to and onlyprojecting slightly from a wall, for Classicaldecoration or to divide bays.

Rubble : Undressed stone, roughly coursed forwalling to secondary elevations on buildings, butprevalent in villages of the Yorkshire Dales wherethe stone is less easily worked.

Tympanum : The area within a pediment, eithertriangular or segmental.

Vermiculated : Literally means ‘wormlike’. A formof masonry carving, usually on the plinth of abuilding, with wavy ridges separating deeprandom recesses cut into the stone.

Vernacular : The traditional or most frequentlocal construction style.

Watershot : masonry finish. The top edge of eachcourse projects slightly with the face taperingback slightly, intended to throw water off the faceof the building.

Contacts

For further information please contact:

The Conservation TeamTransportation, Design and Planning ServiceCity of Bradford Metropolitan District CouncilJacob’s WellBradfordBD1 5RW

e-mail: conservation@bradford.gov.uk

Glossary of Terms

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14 & 16 (Castle House) Bridge Lane, built as onehouse, about 1740. 3 storeys, coursed stone withstone slate roof. Central doorway with Gibbssurround, secondary inserted door to side. 3windows, central over door with Gibbs surround.

Crescent Hotel, Brook Street, around 1860. 3storeys, almost a quadrant of a circle. Ashlar, 6 baysto left of recessed bay and 4 to right. Arched headsto windows, with moulded architraves, keystonesand moulded sill bands. Central porch with 2 pairsof Tuscan columns supporting entablature and flatroof. Round headed doorway with fanlight, andflanking narrow windows. Plain rear elevation withmulti-pane sashes.

2 & 3 Crescent Court, similar date to hotel or earlier.2 storeys. Wide coach door with segmental arch.Upper storey has central roundel, with keystone andmatching quarter blocks, small casements. Stoneslate roof with copings.

Manor House, Castle Yard (Grade I), 16th centuryor possibly earlier. Main south front 2 and 3 storeys,gable to left and 2 to right. 4 light window underdripmould, 3 light, 5 light and 5 light. Plain pointeddoorway to left, and 2 later flat lintelled doorwaysto right. Most windows round headed and leadedglazing. Right hand gables have crocketed finials,stone slate roof with kneelers and coping, 2 largeashlar stacks.

Parish Church of All Saints, Church Street (Grade

II*), south doorway 13th century, 15th century westtower with 2 low stages with single archedopenings, crenellated with corner crocketedfinials.16th century nave and aisles, 4 light archedmullioned windows to clerestory, 3 light chamferedmullioned windows to aisles, with buttresses. 2 baychancel of 1860 and north chapel and vestry of 1927.Interior has medieval font, 17th century pews andmonuments.

3 stone crosses within All Saints Church (Grade I),early and mid 9th century. Elaborate carving to all,head to tallest not original.

7 Headstones S/W of All Saints Church, 18th

century, one with double lobed head.

4 & 6 Church Street, about 1750. 2 storey, sashesto first floor, doorway with moulded hood, withmodern shop window to left and modern bow toright. 3 light window over archway to rear yard.

12 Church Street, 18th century. 2 storey, courseddressed stone, stone slate roof. Modern bow shopwindow and doorway, squared opening to rearyard.

14 Church Street, 2 storeys, coursed dressed stone,stone slate roof with copings. Sash window to firstfloor, with modern shop bow and doorway beneath.

16 Church Street, The Mallard, dated 1709, coursedrubble, 2 storeys, stone slate roof with large centralstack. Central chamfered doorway with dated Tudorlintel. 4 light chamfered mullioned windows toeither side all under drip mould. Similar windowsto first floor with round light over door.

18 Church Street, late 18th century 2 storey house,coursed dressed stone, stone slate roof withcopings. Single light windows.

19 & 21 Church Street, a pair of 18th centurycottages, coursed stone with stone slate roof andlarge stack. 3 light windows to first floor, the centrallight wider and taller, a vernacular Venetian window.Early 19th century shopfronts with pilasters andcornice to ground floor, with doorway between, andpassageway door to right with multi-paned fanlight.Rear extension with Venetian window in west endwith Gothic glazing bars.

37 Church Street, Box Tree Restaurant, early 18thcentury former farmhouse. 2 storeys with courseddressed stone, projecting long and short chamferedquoins, kneelers and coping to roof, central ashlarstack, with small gable stacks. Central doorway withmoulded architrave and pediment. Modern bays toeither side. First floor central window with earedarchitrave and 2 light window to either side. Archedfireplace to interior.

Within proposed extension) Gatepiers flanking

entrance to Heath Park, 1906-8, Lutyens, part ofdesign for Heathcote. Stone piers of coursed rubblewith banded sphere.

Heathcote, Kings Road (Grade II*), 1906-8 byLutyens. 3 storey central bay with hipped roof,Roman pantiles. 2 storey side bays to north andsouth projecting forward, further single storeywings to north. Orange ashlar, quoins, severalbands, string courses etc, and strips of pantilesbeneath 3rd storey to north. Complex fenestration,round headed and straight headed windows, withmouldings, panels etc. Tall chimneys in the form ofbanded doorways. Interior has barrel vaultedvestibule, black marble staircase, main south roomdivided into 3 by Tuscan columns of green Siberianmarble. Other rooms with panelling, vaultedceilings, doors etc.

Appendix 1: Summary of Listed Buildings in Ilkley Conservation

Area

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Courtyard and entrance walls with gates and piers

to Heathcote (Grade II*), coursed rubble with heavycoping, moulded wooden gates, walls extend bothsides to outbuildings, and return, with openingsand piers, to the house.

Heathcote Cottages (Grade II*), coursed rubblewith pantile roofs, pair of 2 storey cottages formingpart of almost symmetrical setting to house.

Outbuilding NW of Heathcote (Grade II*), coursedrubble, moulded cornice, pantile roof. 7symmetrically placed leaded casement windows.

Terrace to south of Heathcote, with steps and

fountains (Grade II*), coursed rubble, ashlardressings, upper stage bordered by 3 steps,concave to centre of house, lower stage withparapet with 7 banded openings, 3 with balconiesand decorated iron rails, outer 2 with fountains aslion’s heads over oblong pool.

Apse on east boundary wall, Heathcote (Grade II*),moulded stone, flanking detached columns, tiledgable roof. Closes view along terrace.

Apse on western boundary wall, Heathcote (Grade

II*), identical to eastern apse, and mirroring itsposition.

Steps, piers and sundial in garden south of

Heathcote (Grade II*), 2 semicircular flights, lowerconvex, upper concave, with sundial between,flanked by piers with moulded circular flowerbasins above.

Piers and gates forming south entrance to

Heathcote from Grove Road (Grade II*), flankingpiers with banded sphere finials, decorated irongates.

Church of All Saints Hall (Operatic House) Leeds

Road, dated 1899, one storey, coursed stone withslate roof. Gable to each end, right hand with two2-light mullioned and transomed windows underogee moulding. Left hand has 5-light window withogee moulding. To middle are three 2-lightwindows, with projecting gabled porch withcrocketed finials and coat of arms in tympanum.Pointed doorway under ogee moulding withoverlight with lancet glazing bars.

Former All Saints First School and caretakers

house, Leeds Road.

c1870. Includes boundary walls and railings.Coursed stone with ashlar dressings, Welsh slateroof. Long range with mainly 2 and 3-light windowswith chamfered mullions and transoms,

shouldered heads and original glazing. Main gableshave quatrefoil or cinquefoil windows with originalleaded glazing. 2 storey 2 bay house at west end ofhall range. South front has projecting gable withcanted bay, 2-light sash above, and pointed windowabove again. Square tower in return angle, withdouble pointed arch openings at bell stage,pyramidal roof and patterned slates. Interior of hallhas arch-braced roof on corbels, now concealed.Gothic doorcases and some stone fireplaces.

Ardenlea, Queen’s Drive (within proposed

extension), 1881, altered 1914 and 1963. By ThomasHope for George Thorpe. Coursed and rock-facedgritstone with ashlar dressing, Westmorland slateroof. East elevation symmetrical with projectingsquare 4 storey tower. 3 light bowed window toground floor with single arched sash above,Venetian windows to top storey. Altered doorwayunder entablature with Doric pilasters. South façadehas 3 sashes to each floor, set back top sectiontopped with pediment. Mixed fenestration, some20th century alterations out of keeping. Ornate ironrailings to hipped roofs. Minton tile floor to mainhallway, fine plaster ceilings, original panelleddoors and good stained glass to staircase.

Railings, walls and gatepiers to Ardenlea, Queens

Drive, contemporary with house, coursed stone,ashlar dressings. Square ashlar piers withchamfered sides rise to octagonal band, uppersections round with ribbed ogee caps. Linked bylow stone walls with cast iron railings.

Church of St Margaret, Queens Road (Grade II*),1878 by Norman Shaw. Perpendicular style. Aisleswith 6 windows, broad nave of 3 wide bays, fineeast window. Porch to south-west corner, withdouble bellcote to roof over chancel arch. Nave hasopen beam wooden roof, and carved stone font.

St John’s Flats, Queens Road (within proposed

extension), 1878/9 by Norman Shaw. 2 and 3 storeywith basement and attics. Asymmetricalcomposition in squared rubble. Mostly mullionedand transomed windows, blocked entrance to eastend with almost flat arched head with mouldedpendant in centre, and dripmould over. Severachimneys, attics altered c1955 when converted toflats.

Former Lister’s Arms Hotel, Skipton Road, 1825, 3storey, dressed coursed stone, hipped slate roof. 5sash windows, end bays set back slightly. Centralround-headed doorway with keystone, fanlight and9 panelled door. Later single storey extension toright and 3 storey extension to left.

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Former stables to Lister’s Arms Hotel, Skipton

Road, originally formed 3 sides of a yard, butnorthern side demolished. 2 storey, hipped slateroof with pediment-like gable to centre. 4 carriageentries, round headed windows over centre,octagonal flanking.

Old Grammar School, Skipton Road, 1637. coursedstone rubble, stone slate roof. Central doorway withchamfered jambs and Tudor arch lintel. 4-lightchamfered mullion window to either side with 5-light to east gable. Chamfered tabling and kneelersto gables.

Ilkley Station, Station Road, 1864 by J H Sanders.Originally a terminus, adapted for through use, butnow a terminus again. Single storey ashlar, strongcornice with hipped slate roof. Taller central blockwith Venetian window with Tuscan columns, and3-light window in end projections. 5 sash windowsbetween to each side. Canopies to front supportedon cast columns with decorated spandrels. Maincanopy over 3 former platforms, 2 spans on 5 pairsof square columns, fluted to the base. Each span of6 horizontal ridges and furrows of glazing. Lowercanopies extend along the platforms, with cast ironrailing on north platform, and 4 decorative gas lampcolumns to middle platform.

Town Hall and library, Station Road, 1906-8 by WBakewell. Mainly Franco-Flemish classical in style.2storyes, steep hipped slate roofs, almostsymmetrical with central section recessed. Centraldoor with Ionic columns and pediment, transomedwindow either side with 3-light oriel above. Centralridge clock turret. Projecting end blocks, right handslightly wider, with recessed central doorway, bothhave 3-light pair of flanking windows, and to firstfloor, 3-light windows rising through cornice to formlunettes under moulded arches, flanked by full-length carved figures and a pair of roundels beyondthese. Tripartite roofs with central pyramidal sectioncrowned by finial.

Winter Garden, Station Road, part of samecomposition as Town Hall. Recessed doorway withmullioned and transomed windows either side. 3-light oriel above flanked by 3 windows either side.Raised skylight to roof, decorated metal canopyover pavement.

United Reformed Church, The Grove, 1868 by J PPritchett. Coursed squared rubble and slate roofs.5 light Decorated window at either end, aisles of 4gables each with 2-light windows. Tower and spireover projecting porch at north-west corner.

3 & 4 West View, Wells Road, pair of early Victorian(?) houses, 2 storeys, dressed coursed stone. 3 sashwindows with glazing bars to each floor. Centraldoorways with Tuscan pilasters and straight hoods,margin glazed overlights, door to No.3 marginglazed, to No.4 with 6 panels. Moulded cornice andgable copings.

Railings and gates to front gardens of 3 & 4 West

View, spear finials on all sides to No.4, mouldeddecorated finials, possibly later to 2 sides and gateto No.3.

6 & 7 West View, Wells Road, early Victorian pairof houses, 2 storeys, coursed dressed stone. 3-lightwindow to ground floor with pediment over, anddoor with moulded straight hood, additional doorbetween to passage has rusticated arch on corbels.All doors 4 moulded panels. First floor windowswith sills on block brackets.

Railings and gates to front gardens of 6 & 7 West

View, low railings on ashlar copings, with dartfinials, and gothic piers to central gateway.

12 West View, Wells Road, Probably c1800.symmetrical, dressed coursed stone, 2 storeys,stone slate roof. Gable copings and kneelers. Pairedgutter brackets. 3 sash windows to first floor, centraldoorway with open pediment on half-columns,fanlight with glazing bars, later canted bay to eitherside.

Railings to front of 12 West View, iron with alternatespiralled rods, urn finials to primary rails.

Moor Cottage, Wells Road and 1 South View,

Crossbeck Road, 2 storeys, painted dressed coursedstone. West front has moulded pediment acrosswidth, enclosing oculus. 3 glazing bar sash windowsto first floor, ground floor later canted bay windows.North front (1 South View) has 2 storey baywindows, central door of 6 panels.

Ilkley Hall, Wells Road, about 1840. 2 storey, ashlar,hipped stone slate roof. 3 windows to first floor ofnorth front, with moulded architraves and glazingbars. Central doorway with plain pilasters,entablature and heavy pediment. Single storeyextension to left as canted bay with sashes. Westfront of 7 windows, extension and lower 2 storeyformer stable wing.

Wells House, Wells Road, about 1860 by CuthbertBrodrick as a large hydropathic establishment. 3storeys, rusticated ground floor with moulded stringcourse above, ashlar to upper 2 floors. Symmetricalsouth front of 9 sash windows, end 2 bays project

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with quoins and extra attic storey. Central coveddoorway, segmental head windows first storeywindows arched headed with vermiculated blocksurrounds and carved motif beneath. Attic storeyshave 3 round-headed windows flanked bycomposite pilasters supporting bracketed cornice.Fielded panels separate pilasters to outer corners.North front has central bay of 3 windows.Balustrade to eaves.

Westwood Lodge, Westwood Drive, about 1875.2 storeys and attics, coursed rubble with steep slateroof. East front, left and central bays gabled withpierced bargeboards. Central section over Gothicdoor with colonettes forms tower. Right handsection has 2-light windows, the left a 3 light bay toground floor with colonettes and a frieze of roundelsforming a balcony. To left is a single storey rangeof 9 bays with pink colonettes enclosing raised solidpanels. Continuous band of foliage at capital leveland frieze of cusped roundels above. Interior hasgood stained glass to stair window, decorativedoors and good encaustic tiles to lobby floor.

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Appendix 2 : Legislation and Council Policies Relating to

Conservation Areas

This is a brief summary of the legislation and

policies relating to conservation areas at the time

of the issue of this report. These will be subject to

constant review.

Legislation to Protect the Character and

Appearance of Conservation Areas

Conservation area designation intrinsically bringswith it a certain number of additional controls toprotect the existing character of the area:

• Removal of certain permitted development rightsincluding various types of cladding; the insertionof dormer windows into roof slopes; the erectionof satellite dishes on walls, roofs or chimneysfronting a highway; the installation of radio masts,antennae or radio equipment. Applications forplanning permission for these alterations must bemade to the Local Planning Authority.

• Control over the demolition of buildings:applications for consent must be made to the LocalPlanning Authority.

• The Local Planning Authority is required to payspecial attention in the exercise of planningfunctions to the desirability of preserving orenhancing the character or appearance of theconservation area. This requirement extends to allpowers under the Planning Acts, not only thosewhich relate directly to historic buildings. It shouldalso be a consideration for proposals that affect thesetting of the conservation area.

• The local authority has powers (under Article 4 ofthe General Development Order and under theAdvertisement Regulations) to control developmentwhich would normally be allowed without the needfor permission, but which could lead to thedeterioration of the character and appearance ofthe conservation area. (For further details of thesecontrols see PPG15).

Listed buildings, which usually form an integral partof a conservation area, area afforded more stringentprotection. The Local Planning Authority must givelisted building consent before any work that wouldaffect the character or interest of the building canbe carried out, be they internal or externalalterations. Tight control restricts the nature of anyalteration to which consent will be given.

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s

Policies Concerning Conservation Areas

Structure, local and unitary development plans arethe main vehicle that local authorities have toestablish policies that can be utilised to protect thehistoric environment. The City of BradfordMetropolitan District Council has recently (June2001) published the first deposit of the‘Replacement Unitary Development Plan’, whichwill ultimately, following a period of consultationand amendment, form the basis of decision makingon planning applications in the district. The adoptedUnitary Development Plan has only two policiesrelating to conservation areas:

Policy EN23

Development within conservation areas shown onthe proposals map or subsequently designated,including extensions or alterations to existingbuildings, should be sympathetic to the characterand appearance of the conservation area bysatisfying all the following criteria:

1) Be built of materials which are sympatheticto the conservation area;

2) Incorporate appropriate boundary treatmentand landscaping;

3) Be of a scale and massing appropriate to theimmediate locality;

4) Must not result in the loss of open spacewhich contributes to the character andappearance of the conservation area.

Development close to the conservation areas whichis highly visible from within or has a significantimpact on their setting should ensure that the scale,massing and materials are appropriate to thecharacter and appearance of the conservation area.

Policy EN24

Planning applications for the reuse or conversionof large historic buildings in conservation areas willbe granted, provided that their importantcharacteristic features are retained, proposals forthe demolition of large historic buildings inconservation areas will not normally be permitted.

The first deposit of the Replacement Unitary

Development Plan increases the number of policiespertaining to conservation areas, which are listedbelow. These are likely to be subject to alteration

in the course of the consultation process. Theintention of increasing the number of policies is toprovide a more consistent and effective control toensure the conservation of our local heritage.

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Policy BH7: Development within or which would

affect the setting of conservation areas

Development within or which would affect thesetting of conservation areas will be expected tobe of the highest standards of design and to respectthe character and appearance of the conservationarea. The council will actively support the use ofnew designs and materials for infill schemes as analternative to traditional building methods wherethe applicant can demonstrate the higheststandards of design and detailing whilst respectingthe scale of development setting and historic valueof the conservation area.

Policy BH8: Shop fronts in conservation areas

Within conservation areas proposals affectingexisting shop fronts or proposals for new shopfronts must demonstrate a high standard of designand be sympathetic in scale, style and detail to theoriginal building. Proposed external shutters sunblinds and canopies must be sympathetic in style,colour and materials to the buildings to which theyare attached and their architectural style. Blindswill not normally be permitted on buildings withouta shop front or fascia.

Policy BH9: Demolition within a conservation

area

Within conservation areas, permission will not begranted for the demolition of buildings, walls orfeatures which make a positive contribution to thespecial architectural or historic interest of the area.

Policy BH10: Open spaces within or adjacent to

conservation areas

Planning permission for the development of anyopen area of land or garden within or adjacent to aconservation area will not be granted if the land:

1) Makes a significant contribution to thecharacter of the conservation area.

2) Provides an attractive setting for thebuildings within it.

3) Is important to the historical form and layoutof the settlement.

4) Affords the opportunity for vistas in or outof the conservation area which arehistorically or visually significant.

5) Contains natural water features, tree andhedgerows which the developmentproposals propose to destroy.

Policy BH11: Space about buildings

Proposals maintaining traditional townscape withindesignated conservation areas will be favoured andconsideration may be given to relaxing approvedpolicies and standards if by doing so features ofparticular townscape merit under threat in theconservation area can be retained.

New developments seeking to integrate into anexisting built form will be encouraged by relaxingapproved policies and standards.

Policy BH12: Conservation area environment

The visual impact of traffic management schemes,parking, provision of street furniture, thereintroduction of historic features and theintroduction of new features into a conservationarea.

1) The design, materials and layout of trafficmanagement and parking areas mustminimise the adverse visual impact whichmay arise from such development.

2) New and replacement street furniture shouldbe appropriate design and materials thatpreserve or enhance the character of thesurrounding street scene.

3) Proposals for resiting an historic feature orfor the introduction of a well designed newpiece of public art or street furniture will beencouraged where it can be shown thatenhancement of the character or appearanceof the conservation area will result.

Policy BH13: Advertisements in conservation

areas

Within conservation areas the council will requirethe design of advertisements to be of a highstandard, therefore:

1) Consent will be granted only where theproposal is in scale and character with thebuilding on which it is located and withsurrounding buildings. In principle, all newshop fronts, fascias, signs and letters shouldbe made of natural / sympathetic materials.

2) Within conservation areas internallyilluminated box signs will not be permitted.Sensitively designed fascias or signsincorporating individually illuminatedmounted letters on a suitable backgroundmay be acceptable in town centres where thescale, colour, design and intensity ofillumination would not detract from thecharacter or appearance of the conservationarea.

3) Where unacceptable advertisements alreadyexist in conservation areas, the council willwhere appropriate take discontinuanceaction to secure their removal.

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In addition to these there are separate policiesrelating to the listed buildings within the confinesof the conservation area:

Adopted Unitary Development Plan

Policy EN20: Alterations to Listed Buildings

Planning permission for the alteration or extensionof listed buildings will normally be granted providedall of the following criteria are satisfied:

i. The essential character of the building ispreserved;

ii. Features of special interest are preserved;iii. Materials sympathetic to the listed building

are used;iv. The development would be of appropriate

scale and massing.

Policy EN21: Setting of Listed Buildings

Planning permission for development close to listedbuildings will be granted provided it does notadversely affect the setting of listed buildings.

Policy EN22: Listed Agricultural Buildings

Planning permission for the conversion of listedagricultural buildings to residential use will not begranted unless the developer can clearlydemonstrate that the character and essentialfeatures of the building will not be harmed.

First Deposit Replacement Unitary Development

Plan

Policy BH1: Change of Use of Listed Buildings

Where possible the original use of a building shouldbe retained or continued. Change of use will onlybe supported where the applicant can demonstratethat the original use is no longer viable and withoutan alternative use the building will be seriously atrisk.

The Council will not grant planning permission foran alternative use unless it can be shown that:

1) The alternative use is compatible with andill preserve the character of the building andits setting.

2) No other reasonable alternative exists whichwould safeguard the character of thebuilding in its setting.

Policy BH2: Demolition of a Listed Building

The demolition of a listed building will only beallowed in exceptional circumstances. Beforepermission is granted for the demolition of a listedbuilding, applicants will have to submit convincingevidence to show that:

1) Every possible effort has been made to repairand restore the building and to continue thepresent or past use;

2) It has been impossible to find a suitableviable alternative use for the buildings; and

3) That there is clear evidence thatredevelopment would produce substantialplanning benefits for the community whichwould decisively outweigh the loss resultingfrom the building’s demolition.

Policy BH3: Archaeology Recording of Listed

Buildings

Where alterations or demolition of a listed buildingwould result in the loss of features of specialinterest, a programme of recording agreed with theLocal Planning Authority and where appropriate,archaeological investigation will be required beforethe commencement of development.

Policy BH4: Conversion and Alteration of Listed

Buildings

The alteration, extension or substantial demolitionof listed buildings will only be permitted if it can bedemonstrated that the proposal:

1) Would not have any adverse effect upon thespecial architectural or historic interest of thebuilding or its setting;

2) Is appropriate in terms of design, scale,detailing and materials;

3) Would minimise the loss of historic fabric ofthe building.

Policy BH5: Shop Front Policy For Listed

Buildings

Proposals for the repair or alteration of existingshop fronts or installation of new shop fronts on alisted building should be a high standard of designand respect the character and appearance of thelisted building. External roller shutters will not begranted consent on a listed building shop frontunless there is clear evidence of an original shutterhousing and the shutter is traditionally detailed andin timber and/or metal of a traditional section.

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Policy BH6: Display of Advertisements on Listed

Buildings

Consent for the display of advertisements on listedbuildings or which would affect the setting of alisted building will be permitted only where:

1) The advertisement is appropriate in termsof its scale, design and materials and wouldnot detract from the character or appearanceof the buildings.

2) The advert is not an internally illuminatedbox.

3) If the proposed advertisement is to beexternally illuminated, the design of themethod of illumination would not detractfrom the character or appearance of thebuilding.

4) Plastic fascia signs whether or notilluminated will not be granted consent on alisted building.