Kirkgate & Cheapside before the Midland Hotel

2.40   BRA c.1885 HIN   BHM 1766 B27

Property map, Kirkgate & Cheapside (J. Hindle, surveyor)

Oiled paper  10 yards: 1 inch   56*51 cm   Condition: good

Keywords: Midland Railway, Cheapside, Kirkgate

This is an undated city centre plan, the main purpose of which would seem to be the sale of a 300 sq yd property at the intersection of Cheapside and Kirkgate. Near their junction is the Midland Railway Station the presence of which obviously indicates a date after 1850. Also identified is the Brown Cow, Kirkgate near which is Brown Cow Yard, Bermondsey. I cannot find out much about the Brown Cow Hotel except that the occupier, a year or two before its demise, was an Emily or Emilia Ostcliffe (b.1838) who, with her husband John, feature in the 1881 census. The presence of Milnes & France’s designed ‘Beckett’s Bank’, where Dale Street & Cheapside join Kirkgate, ensures that the plan must be later than 1885. The whole essentially shows the ground plan in this area immediately prior to the construction of the Midland Hotel between 1885-90. The hotel was to occupy the whole of the 300 sq yd site and a good deal more besides. To understand the subsequent building history of the area I can recommend the illustrations contained in Bradford Old & New (1976) by Jane & John Ayers.