History (extract) Westgate Studios, 55 Westgate, Wakefield. 

The original access to the rear of the property was via a carriage arch through the centre of the Westgate elevation, the rear of the property being further developed with a complex of buildings used for warehousing, shops, small-scale industry and cottages. The large south-ward projecting range on the west side of the central yard, with its basement stables, is thought to date to the late C18, and the rear projecting range on the east side, on Market Street, is considered to be early C19. A separate meeting room on the south side of the inn’s rear yard, which no longer survives, was used by the Freemasons as a lodge for many years until they built their own building on Zetland Street. The yard itself was used in 1774-1775 for theatrical performances before the theatre company moved to the newly built Theatre Royal further down Westgate. Adverts in 1772 and 1773 for a weekly waggon-train service for merchants between West Yorkshire towns and London recorded the Black Bull as the calling point for Wakefield with another service going via Cambridge and Newark to Norwich. A 1786 advert claimed the Black Bull to be larger than any two other Wakefield inns put together.