| Description | Three storey tenement block of 30 council flats, built in 1909 as part of a social housing project by the Bradford Corporation to re house occupants of the area. Constructed of sandstone with slate roofs, the block has a two window bay at each end, stepped forward with a gabled front, and in the centre is another stepped, gabled, two window bay. Balconies with iron railings run between the outer bays, supported on iron pillars, the original windows and doors have been replaced though the stone ashlar surrounds survive: each flat has a single front door and two adjacent windows, The roofs of the outer flat at each end of the gable are angled in the return of the forward projecting bay. In the centre of each half is a stairwell running through to each floor. At ground floor it has later doors with electronic access but is open to the upper floors. The concrete steps have a cast iron balustrade.
To the rear, original privies have been removed and extensions built onto each pair of flats to provide extra space: these are flat roofed and have windows on each side and a back door for the ground floor flats. The open space between this block and the Chain Street tenement (PRN 11053) is gated and has a central cobbled strip running through, possibly pre dating the tenements.
Inside, the building is divided into 30 flats, the majority having one bedroom and those at each end and in the centre having two. The one bedroom flats have a living room and bedroom with a scullery kitchen and bathroom extending into the trear extension (formerly the scullery was at the rear with access to the privy). The two bedroom flats are similar but with a second small bedroom facing the front alongside the living room. Fireplaces have been removed but the chimney breast remain, and original ceilings may survive behind false ones. The flats have rubbish chutes, apart from the ground floor.
History: The Longlands District of Bradford, centred on Chain Street, was designated an insanitary Area in 1898, containing a slum and back to back housing amounting to 284 houses. At the beginning of the 20th century various plans were drawn up by the city architect, W. Williamson, of proposed labourers’ dwellings to replace the condemned slum housing and re house the displaced people.
As part of the new scheme the old street pattern was altered as the old houses were demolished, moving some street (Longcroft Place and Baptist Place) and removing others (Bell Street, Turk Street and One Street). In 1908 plans were agreed for the first stage of the scheme, and involved the construction of five blocks (of which only two survive) located on the north side of Chain Street (PRN 11053) and south side of Longlands Street (PRN 8535), as well as Wigan Street and St Thomas’ Road to the western end of the area.
Further east on the south side of Chain Street (PRN 11054) and the north side of Roundhill Place (PRN 11055), two further blocks were built in 1912. These are of different design to the original tenements, although the architect still appears to have been Williamson. The central area, between Baptist Place and Longcroft Place (PRN 11056) was filled around 1925, with a U shaped block of tenements of a very different design to the earlier blocks, and which faced inwards to a central area. Longcroft Street, which formerly ran continuously north west to south east across the area was split in two by this later development. |