Town Trails
1 HSBC Bank
1 High Street (HSBC Bank) – built 1897, architects Demaine and Brierley of York. Portland Stone masonry and octagonal copper-clad dome with cupola carrying statue of Eros
2 50 High Street
A distinctive bow windowed Georgian building of painted brick and Welsh slate roof. This shop was occupied by Parkinson’s of Doncaster Butterscotch fame until 1960. It was saved from demolition by the efforts of Doncaster Civic Trust, and restored in 1976.
3 Priory Place
Priory Place – built in 1832, architect William Hurst. The original town houses are now all in commercial uses and, together with Priory Methodist Church, form a fine piece of townscape.
4 Priory Place
4 Priory Place (Jordan’s) – built in 1832, architect William Hurst. This building has the only surviving original ground floor in Priory Place. Its subtle bow window and impressive double doors are flanked by pilasters and surmounted by an arch with prominent voussoirs (the individual stones forming the arch).
5 Mansion House
Doncaster Mansion House – designed in 1744 by architect James Paine. Imposing, decorated building in Palladian style faced in painted ashlar stone. Grade one listed building, originally costing £4,523 4s. 6d.
6 High Street
43 High Street – built 1826, architects Woodhead and Hurst. Today only the portico remains of the former Subscription Rooms, a major venue for betting during Doncaster’s St Leger Race Week. Note the central Ionic columns and the anthemion (honeysuckle flower) acroteria on the parapet above.
7 Cactus Jack’s
18 Hall Gate (Cactus Jack’s) – a Georgian town house with later shopfront incorporating curved glass. This building was bounded on both sides by modern redevelopments in the 1960s, but these were re-faced more recently in stone and render in a historic style.
8 Countrywide
26 Hall Gate (Countrywide) – built 1798, architect William Lindley. This fine Georgian house has bow windows which extend through three floors and are set on coursed limestone walling. Note the ornate doorway with urns and and a balustrade above, the shell-like mouldings below the second floor windows and the lead rainwater hoppers.
9 Pillar House
19-21 South Parade (The Pillared Houses) – built 1804, architect William Lindley. Distinctive Georgian building in painted stucco with a colonnade supporting the upper two floors.
10 Salutation Inn
The Salutation Inn, South Parade – dating from 1779, this building stood on the Great North Road and was an important coaching inn. Stage coaches gained access to its extensive stables through the tall arch on the left.
11 South Parade
South Parade – Doncaster’s most complete historic street, where all buildings are listed and, with one exception, c.1800 Georgian and faced in painted render. The exception is 6A, the red brick Victorian Gothic building of 1869.
12 Hall Cross
The Hall Cross – erected in 1793, architect William Lindley. The new cross replaced another which stood in the way of road improvements at the nearby junction, and was possibly unfit for re-construction.
13 Regent Terrace
1-2 Regent Terrace – a pair of Regency “Gothick” style houses of c.1825. Note the castellated parapet, the pointed arches over the first floor bay windows and the ogee mouldings over the front doors. The central “blind” windows hide the line of the dividing party wall and were used to achieve a symmetrical design.
14 Regent Square
Regent Square – mid C19 town houses in brick and sandstone with Welsh slate roofs set round Victorian gardens. Note the decorative barge-boards on the roof gables and the six Venetian windows at first and second floor levels above stone bays on the ground floor.
15 Christ Church
Christ Church – built in 1829, architect William Hurst. Built of magnesian limestone, with a replacement copper-clad spire from 1938. The building was saved from demolition only after a vigorous campaign by Doncaster Civic Trust in the early 1990s. Since 1995 its new owners Reachout have undertaken comprehensive repairs.
16 Christ Church Road
Christ Church Road – from 1895 onwards, architect F W Masters. This and the streets on either side were built in the park of Nether Hall. Note the lime and plane trees in the streets, and the details of the buildings: red and cream contrasting brickwork, canopied bay windows and decorative gabled timber porches over paired front doors.
17 Nether Hall
Nether Hall – early Georgian house with painted render walls and a hipped roof covered in Westmoreland slate. Once standing proudly in grounds of 30 acres, it is now surrounded by later development, severely affecting its setting.
18 Sunny Bar
Sunny Bar – built 1902, architect Henry Beck. One of Doncaster’s finest rounded corner buildings, this has curved shop windows and a wealth of decoration in both terra cotta inj the walling and wrought iron in the balustrading and the spandrels in the arch above.
19 Corn Exchange
Corn Exchange – built 1875, architect William Watkins of Lincoln. A sandstone building in a lively Renaissance style. Note the polished granite and red sandstone columns on the facade, and the sculptured panel over the main entrance depicts the Mansion House and the demolished Guildhall which stood in French Gate. The interior has a roof of decorative ironwork and glass, skilfully restored after a disastrous fire in 1994.
20 Halifax
Halifax, Market Place – the mid C18 facade was retained in a rebuild of 1978 which included a new ground floor with arched openings, built of red handmade bricks.
21 Greggs
35 Baxter Gate (Greggs) – built in 1894 for Leesing’s, noted pork butchers. Narrow Victorian brick building with ornate gable and decorative stone and ironwork.
22 St George’s Minster
St. George’s Minster – completed in 1858 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott. It replaced a similar but much older church dating from c.1200, and destroyed by fire in 1853. Built of magnesian limestone with steep lead-clad roofs, it is considered to be a magnificent example of Victorian neo-Gothic and is listed grade one.