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Picture source: Hania Franek

The Elephant & Castle was situated at 109 Westgate. A pub had been on the site since the 18th century although the most recent Grade II Listed building dates from the early 20th century.

From Historic England:

Westgate was one of Wakefield’s four principal medieval streets. In the C17 and C18 it became a popular residential district for the mercantile classes. Local tax records suggest that there was a public house on this site from at least the mid-C18. There is an early reference to the inn as the Elephant and Castle in a notice in the London Gazette on 12 August 1775, concerning a meeting of the creditors of Thomas Smith, a bankrupt wine merchant. There are records for the public house through the C19. In 1894 it was acquired by Warwick & Co, Boroughbridge. Plans were submitted the following year for alterations; however, the elaborate tiled and terracotta frontage (a good example of Edwardian use of the frontage of a public house to form an advertisement), dates to the early C20. It is shown in plans submitted on 20 July 1903 by the architect J Jackson of Barry Street Bradford. Ownership passed to John Smith’s of Tadcaster in 1925.

Listed building details:

Early C20 pub in a fanciful style. Red brick with pedimented dressings and slated roof. Two storeys, three windows. Segmental pedimented gables over outer bays, and a small central one above the blocking course of an entablature with symbols in frieze. Title in raised gold lettering on terracotta scrolls over each bay. Various windows, mostly with segmental pediments. Round central ground floor opening flanked by wide 4-centred arches. Glazed brown tiles with pilasters, spandrels and frieze ornamented in gold and green.

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