IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lairgate, BEVERLEY, HU17 8EP

An old through route in the town centre, and necessarily one way because of its width. The church ahead is St Mary's.

At the junction with Newbegin, No.24 Lairgate, a large house built circa 1798. The building was soon to become home to the East Riding Bank. By 1922, the London County Westminster & Parr’s Bank branch had outgrown its premises at 24 Lairgate, which it had occupied since at least the 1860s, and required a larger home in a more prominent position. Hull Corporation Telephones transferred its exchange here from No.40 Lairgate in 1924, when the demand for telephones necessitated a larger switchboard. The building continues to be used for this purpose by KCOM. Grade II Listed Building http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-167253-24-lairgate-beverley-#.VZU2rJXbKUk

At the junction with Newbegin, No.24 Lairgate, a large house built circa 1798. The building was soon to become home to the East Riding Bank. By 1922, the London County Westminster & Parr’s Bank branch had outgrown its premises at 24 Lairgate, which it had occupied since at least the 1860s, and required a larger home in a more prominent position. Hull Corporation Telephones transferred its exchange here from No.40 Lairgate in 1924, when the demand for telephones necessitated a larger switchboard. The building continues to be used for this purpose by KCOM. Grade II Listed Building https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1346343

Set in the pavement outside No.24 Lairgate, the town's telephone exchange, are two adjoining utility covers, bearing the legend 'POST-OFFICE-TELEPHONES' and 'CORPORATION TELEPHONES' respectively. The former Hull Corporation Telephones had provided telephony services in the town since 1905, moving its exchange to the current premises in 1924. Calls made to subscribers outside the licensed area were transferred to the former General Post Office. This may well explain the presence of the utility covers of the two undertakings.

A small plaque on the wall says" Newbegin in the 14th century was called Neubighing, meaning New Building and indicating a new street.

Rather an oblique view but the narrow street precludes a more frontal picture.

Narrow Racket is an alley that runs from Lairgate, opposite Newbegin, to Saturday Market, between Nos.58 & 59. Its original name was most probably Narrow Lane, first recorded in 1409, that ran between the High Street (which then comprised North Bar Within, Saturday Market, Toll Gavel, Butcher Row and Wednesday Market) and Lairgate. According to The Yorkshire Palette: http://theyorkshirepalette.com/2013/09/19/snickets-and-rackets-of-beverley/ A racket is an open expanse between passages so-called perhaps because these were the haunts of the unsavoury, the unscrupulous ,the down right drudge of society that carried out their dodgy deals and “rackets” in these areas. Viewed from Narrow Racket, looking across Lairgate to the junction with Newbegin.

The Market Cross Hotel is situated on Lairgate. Photo taken from Saturday Market looking along Old Waste.

Unusually and inexplicably, the street name on the wall of No.1 Newbegin is defined in black upper case letters just exceeding the depth of two bricks and painted on a white background. Perhaps this was done to increase legibility. The sign on the opposite side of the street is of the normal type, and is affixed below a wall-mounted street lamp.