Doncaster Gate
including Catherine Street
In Victorian times Doncaster Gate was one of the places to be in Rotherham. Running from the crossroads of High Street, Wellgate and College Street it climbs quite steeply uphill to the old Doncaster Road. Just up the hill there are many fine houses of stone or brick which were once family homes for the rather better off. Those for which I have been able to trace a date of building appear to be late Victorian. Most of these are now offices with the odd doctors or dental surgery.
Rotherham Hospital and Dispensary (Doncaster Gate Hospital) was founded in 1870 and opened in 1872. It stood on a large four acre site fronting Doncaster Gate. Over the years it has been subject to constant additions, improvement and rebuilding which is still going on today.
The Victorian frontage remains intact but some of the building at the back were demolished. In early 2009 Rotherham Primary Care Trust have moved all their services from the hospital to the new Health Centre over the river next to Bailey House. The two doctors' surgeries remain. The rest of the building has i understand been been sold to Rotherham Borough Council and is being used as offices. It remains to be seen what will happen in the long term. I don't think that the building has listed status but plans werw afoot to include in the town's conservation areas.
A row of terraced stone houses at the top of Doncaster Gate, a few minute's walk from the town centre. I believe, though I may be wrong, that these date from the 1870 or thereabouts. They were built for and inhabited by the upwardly mobile people of the day. Not the very wealthy, but those who had made a bob or two, and who could afford a servant, but whose money didn't run to a carriage and pair.
The building on the left was the Cinema House opened in March 1914. Despite protests the Cinema House was demolished in April 2009 and there is now just a gap.
I think that this nice old stone building was Coopers Toy shop for many years. Matthew Cooper has been in touch and confirmed that this building and part of the one next door (down the road) were indeed Coopers Toy Shop.
This large building at the corner of Doncaster Gate and Wellgate was called Van Allan's (a dress shop) in my younger day. A frequent assignation was 'I'll meet you on Van Allan's corner'. I can't remember when Van Allan's closed but the property went through a number of incarnations including long periods of closure before becoming a pub called Disraeli's. It has another name now but I've forgotten what. Got it now - The Town Gate.
Near the top of the hill that is Doncaster Gate there is a side street which runs in a northerly direction. This is Catherine Street. Rotherham Civic Theatre on Catherine Street is part of a complex of old chapels that had become largely disused by the Sixties.
