The Local Studies Library has a large stock of nineteenth century sale plans. I like them since they are normally very accurate and come supplied with an exact date. In this instance there is to be an auction on 6 May 1875 at St George’s Hall. The auctioneer is Mr J Buckley-Sharp. Thanks to the LSL image collection we have an idea of the auctioneer’s appearance.
Mr John Buckley-Sharp had been born in Bingley and ran a well-known firm of auctioneers and estate agents at 29 Well Street. He lived in 3 Chesham Gove off Great Horton Road with his wife Elizabeth and three children (1881 census).
John Allison, the Borough Surveyor, has drawn up the plan a couple of months earlier, which confirms the statement that it is Bradford Corporation that is offering the land for sale.
This portion of the plan indicates many of the land lots that are available. At the top is Piece Hall Yard, connecting Kirkgate and Hustlergate, and now home of the Bradford Club and City Vaults Pub. The unnamed thoroughfare below must be Bank Street. I assume that the Corporation had obtained land by compulsory purchase for street development and was now selling off the unwanted portions. Note the location of the Post Office, the Bradford Banking Corporation and the Commercial Bank.
The second detail from the map shows the Bradford Exchange. This must be the ‘new’ Wool Exchange building which was constructed in 1867. It is now largely occupied by Waterstones Bookshop.
I assume that the faint lines on the plan refer to the original building lines; the plan is annotated in pencil which suggests that it was a ‘working copy’.
On this occasion it has proved possible to find details of the sale in the Bradford Observer. It was conducted in the saloon of St George’s Hall. Lot 2 is described as a corner plot containing the Talbot Hotel, having frontages on Kirkgate and ‘the intended new street’. The sale advertisement also gives the occupiers of the other plots. Lot 3, for example is shared by Mr Dale, a stationer, and Mr Johnson, a chemist. Lots 5-10 apparently also contained building materials which were to be sold off on a different occasion.
Bradford and District Libraries Map Collections 
The unamed new thoroughfare across Kirkgate from Darley Street was named Bank Street.
Prior to its creation most of the former Talbot Hotel was across Kirkgate from Darley Street. The replacement Talbot was built on ‘Lot 2’, from the looks of it. An advertisement in The Bradford Observer on Saturday 28 June 1879 announced the new Talbot would open on 1 July 1879. The newspaper reviewed the new Talbot on 3 July. A pediment above a first floor corner window misleadingly declares ‘1878’.
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