Welcome to Doncaster's historic Rounded Corner Buildings.
Rounded street corners are not an uncommon feature of the urban scene but few towns can have a greater proportion of their street corners rounded than Doncaster has.
Of course, it is much easier to make the corner of a building square, or even splayed, than it is to make it rounded. The construction of a wall or roof on the curve is a skilful and expensive operation and is not the normal method of building.
Therefore, the question arises, how is it that Doncaster has so many of its street corners rounded? The answer is that it results from a policy first adopted by the Corporation two centuries ago.
At the beginning of the 18th century, Doncaster, like many other market towns, would have been a jumble of houses, interspersed with gardens, set in imperfectly drained streets. Civic consciousness became alive to Renaissance thought and ideas. Men looked on their surroundings with a new outlook, they saw the visual disorder they had inherited and began to try and bring shape and seemliness into the works which they themselves undertook.
Doncaster grew in importance during the 18th century due to its position on the Great North Road and the town’s population doubled to nearly 6,000 by 1801. The Corporation were the lords of the manor and owned extensive estates from which they enjoyed a considerable income, a great deal of which they spent on civic improvements. The more obvious of these were the building of the Mansion House in 1745, a theatre in 1774, and the Grand Stand in 1777; but apart from these, the Corporation carried out many improvements to give greater order to the street scene.
In 1731 the streets were now paved and the channels were removed from the centre of the streets. In 1764 the town was lighted with oil lamps at the expense of the Corporation (but the lamps were not lit when the almanack showed that the full moon would shine). In the 18th century the idea of the “Street” grew in importance – it was seen as expressing civic order and pride of citizenship. Ancient buildings that protruded into the highway would detract from the overall effect. In 1777 the Corporation resolved to join with the freeholders “in purchasing and taking down such projecting buildings and nuisances in the town as shall be thought necessary for widening the streets”. At the same time the Corporation decided to approach Thomas Atkinson to secure the purchase of the house at the corner of Baxter Gate and French Gate for the purpose of taking down the house and widening the street to make the same more commodious to the public. In 1780 the Corporation paid £180 for the leasehold of a house at the corner of High Street and Scot Lane so that the house could be taken down for improving the street.
Having purchased a property with a view to demolition the Corporation had several options open to them: they could demolish the building and re-develop the site themselves, they could demolish the building and lease what was left of the site to someone else to re-develop, or they could lease the building to someone to demolish it, and have the re-use of the building materials in re-building on the site. If the Corporation disposed of the site they would approve what was rebuilt and would lay down the building line and sometimes the form of the new building.
The Town Council minutes do not always specify which course of action was followed as discretion in these matters was often left to the Building or the Flagging Committee. In 1788 the Corporation purchased Miss Frances Wade’s house at the corner of Scot Lane and the Magdalens for £250. On this occasion the minutes set out clearly what was intended for the site.
The Corporation resolved that William Lindley was to draw a plan for building a house on the site, in a neat manner, and the committee was given power to build it. William Lindley, a pupil of John Carr of York, had already acted as architect for the building of the theatre in the Magdalens, the new Gaol in St Sepulchre Gate, and the re-edification of the Town Hall in the Magdalens. The building that was erected appears on the right of the photograph at the beginning of this article. William Lindley’s brief had been to prepare a neat design and this is what he produced – not a grandiose or ostentatious design, nor one devoid of interest and mean, but one that was simple and well proportioned with a generously rounded corner. Whether William Lindley was involved in the deign of other rounded corners is not certain but the Corporation accounts show various payments to him for unspecified plans.
The Corporation did not always have to resort to purchasing properties that they wished to improve; sometimes they were able to persuade the owners to re-build in the required manner with some financial inducement. In 1811 £317 was paid by the Corporation to Mr F Turner for improving his property at the corner of St Sepulchre Gate and French Gate.
In 1812 £700 was paid to Alderman Morris for the great improvement that would be made by him taking down his house and shop in the Far Market Place (at the corner of Sunny Bar) and widening the street there and rounding the corner under the direction of the Building committee; and in 1814 £200 was paid to Thomas Elston for an improvement at his property at the corner of Baxter Gate and the Market Place.
The old-fashioned White Hart Inn stood at the junction of High Street and St Sepulchre gate and projected into the highway. In 1818 the Corporation bought it and decided to auction it to be re-built according to plans provided by William Hurst, the successor to William Lindley’s practice.
The effect of all these street corner improvements was to give the town a sense of urbanity that was unusual in a market town but was entirely appropriate for a town widely celebrated for its races and noted for the magnificence of its Mansion House.
Author: Eric Braim Doncaster Civic Trust Newsletter Issue No.40 April 2010