Houses: Chapter House Street-Coppergate

Chapter House Street-Coppergate

Chapter House Street (Monuments 90–93)

Chapter House Street, running N.E. from the Minster towards the city wall, represents the via decumana of the Roman fortress. Until the building of Monk Bar, c. 1330, the main entry to York from the N.E. was probably through a gate opposite the end of Groves Lane and along this street. The name first occurs in 1838 and previously the street was regarded as part of Ogleforth. The grounds of the Treasurer's House and Gray's Court (35) occupy its N.W. side.

N.W. side

(90) Houses, Nos. 4, 6, of two storeys with attics, back onto Gray's Court. Built c. 1820 of whitewashed brick with pantiled roofs, they butt against a Dutch gable of No. 8. No. 4 is double-fronted with a central entrance, and No. 6 is L-shaped, with rooms above the carriageway to Gray's Court, and a wing at the rear. The front elevation is dominated by the carriageway to Gray's Court, which is flanked by two quarter-circle niches. Both houses have round-arched recessed entrance doorways with fanlights, and flush-framed sash windows with slightly segmental-arched heads.

Internally, both houses show similar features. The staircases have open strings, shaped cheek-pieces, square balusters and turned newels. The main rooms have moulded cornices, sixpanel doors, reeded architraves with square corner blocks, and fireplaces with cast-iron basket grates.

(91) House, No. 8 (Fig. 68), occupies a secluded position at the corner of Chapter House Street and Ogleforth. It is two-storeyed with attics, built of brick, partly rendered, and has roofs covered with pantiles and plain tiles. It was originally the parsonage house of the parish of St. John del Pike, later united with Holy Trinity, Goodramgate (2), and continued in such use until sold in 1880. There are slight remains of late mediaeval timber framing internally, but the main part was rebuilt before 1736 by the Rev. William Knight (Drake, 570), rector of Holy Trinity since 1721. After that time, some of the earlier work clearly survived and a terrier of 1778 (YML, K2 M16) describes the house as 'brick built except for the kitchen and apartments over which are of wood and plaster'. The kitchen wing at the N.W. end was rebuilt in the early 19th century, and at about the same time some alterations were made to the 18th-century house.

The principal front (Plate 148), facing the garden to the N.E., is rendered and lined to simulate ashlar; it has a central canted bay window probably added in the early 19th century, platbands marking first and attic-floor levels, and parapet finished with a moulded coping. The roof is covered with plain tiles and gabled to each end. On the S.W. side is a large round-arched staircase window and on the adjacent return wall a 19th-century canted oriel window. The early 19th-century kitchen wing at the N.W. end is of stock brick and has a pantiled roof.

The surviving timber framing, in the N.W. part of the house beside the kitchen and only visible in the ground floor, consists of two posts, with associated beams and one curved brace; it indicates a range about 13 ft. wide. The Georgian house has a large entrance hall with a dining room to N.E. which was probably the parlour described in 1778 as having wainscotted walls; it was refitted in the early 19th century. The smaller room to S.E. has a corner fireplace with panelled overmantel flanked by fluted pilasters. The principal staircase, rising around an open well, has three turned balusters to each step and a ramped handrail. On the first-floor landing are original panelled doors and a coved ceiling with moulded cornice. The back staircase is of the early 19th century, with square balusters. The roof over the 18th-century part of the house is of modern construction. To S.E. is a mid 18th-century outbuilding, of one storey and lofts, built of brick with hipped, tiled roof; it is now a garage but formerly housed 'a back kitchen, turf chamber, necessary house, etc.' (Terrier of 1778).

S.E. side

(92) House, No. 1, a long narrow mediaeval structure, probably of the 15th century, with stone ground floor and timber-framed upper floor, now cloaked in brick, was incorporated into No. 4 Minster Yard (see Monument (275)) when the latter was built early in the 18th century. This mediaeval range is of two storeys with attics and together with a part of the three-storey early 18th-century wing of No. 4 Minster Yard now forms a separate dwelling. It has been much altered at various periods and most mediaeval features have been removed or covered up, but the timber wall-plate remains visible above the brick of the first floor of the N.W. elevation, and on the N.E. elevation the early 18th-century wing at the back of No. 4 Minster Yard is built against and partly over the mediaeval roof, but it leaves the gable-end exposed. This retains a collar and curved brace, suggesting that the original truss had a crown-post with curved braces from tie-beam to crown-post. Inside, a side-purlin has small wind-braces above and below.

The interior planning of the mediaeval range cannot now be recovered. One of the first-floor rooms is lined with 17th-century panelling and one has a late 18th-century fireplace. A large chimney-breast of unknown date has been removed. An oak staircase in the 18th-century part of the building has a close string, moulded handrail and heavy turned balusters: it is contemporary with that in No. 4 Minster Yard and was probably the servants' staircase.

(93) House, No. 3, is a small two-storey dwelling, comprising two ranges parallel to each other and to the street. The front range, to N.W., is of mediaeval origin, timber-framed but incorporating in the lower storey a continuation of the stone wall which forms the front of No. 1. The upper floor was jettied out over the stone wall, but the jetty has been cut back. The back range was probably built in the 17th century; its N.E. end is formed by a wall of 17th-century brickwork which continues across the end of the front range. The upper part of the back range was remodelled in the late 18th century.

In the front range is a boldly cambered tie-beam, shortened by the removal of the jetty. Above is a simple collar-rafter roof, reconstructed to the narrowed span.

House, No. 5, see No. 20 Ogleforth (299).

Church Street (Monuments 94–104)

Church Street was laid out in 1835 (YG, 14 Feb. 1835), at the same time that Parliament Street was being built. Part, to the N.W. of St. Sampson's church, was an entirely new street, and the remainder from Swinegate to Petergate was a widening of the mediaeval Girdlergate. Building sites were advertised for sale in YG, 3 Oct. 1835 and 10 Sept. 1836. All the buildings listed below were probably erected within the next year or two, and some may have been designed by the York architects Pickersgill and Oates, at whose offices particulars of the building lots were to be seen. They are all of brick, with slated or pantiled roofs, and have modern shop fronts.

N.W. side

(94) No. 1, with No. 12 St. Sampson's Square, has elevations four bays wide to Church Street and two bays to St. Sampson's Square; some sash windows retain original flush frames.

(95) No. 2 is of four storeys and has a two-bay elevation.

(96) No. 3 is very small, of two storeys.

(97) No. 4, of three storeys, stood at the corner of Swinegate with the longer elevation, three bays wide, to that street. Demolished.

(98) No. 6, of three storeys, had a plan three rooms deep with the entrance hall and staircase in a projection to one side. Demolished.

(99) No. 7 is of three storeys.

(100) No. 10 is of four storeys and has a two-bay elevation; the third-floor windows have a continuous sill-band and there is a heavy moulded cornice on large brackets.

(101) No. 11, of three storeys, has two windows on the first floor, one on the second.

S.E. side

(102) No. 12, of four storeys, has a five-bay elevation which includes a blocked carriageway with semicircular arch. There is a splayed corner and short frontage to King's Square.

(103) Nos. 13, 14, of four storeys, have a three-bay frontage marked by pilaster strips. The windows have recessed frames.

(104) Nos. 15–18, of four storeys, have a widely-spaced four-bay elevation to Church Street and a three-bay frontage to Patrick Pool, with a splayed corner of one bay. Some windows were altered in the late 19th century.

Coffee Yard, see under Stonegate

College Street

College Street runs S.E. from the Minster to Goodramgate. Its present name, used from about 1800, refers to St. William's College (34) on its N.E. side, but it was formerly called Vicars' Lane from the College of Vicars Choral in the Bedern; during the 18th century it was also known as Little Alice Lane, apparently from a local character. The church of St. Mary-ad-Valvas stood on the S.W. side and was demolished in 1362 for the building of the Lady Chapel of the Minster. Some of its foundations were seen in 1967. A garden on this side of the street replaces houses demolished between 1905 and 1937. The roadway has more recently been realigned to the S.W. The area S.E. of St. William's College and behind Nos. 24–32 Goodramgate was known as Cam Hall Garth.

House, No. 2, see No. 5 Minster Yard (276).

(105) Houses, Nos. 8, 9, 10, were built c. 1830, incorporating reused timbers in the roof construction and as studs in some partition walls. Two early Georgian doors are also reused in No. 8. The dwellings are of two storeys in randombonded brick; No. 10 is of two bays, the others single. The remains of 15th and 16th-century kitchens have been found in the garden behind (YAJ, xli (1965–6), 334, 565). The excavator connected them with St. William's College, but they are not within the curtilage of the College. Mostly unoccupied and in poor condition (1977).

Houses, Nos. 11, 12, see Nos. 30, 32 Goodramgate (215).

Colliergate (Monuments 106–129)

Colliergate, named from charcoal dealers by 1303–4, continues the line of Petergate towards the Foss. Its N.E. side may have run along part of one edge of a suggested former wide open space or green with its apex in King's Square, its opposite edge formed by the S.W. side of the Shambles and Lady Peckett's Yard, and with its S.E. end at the river crossing. The churches of Holy Trinity and St. Crux, at either end of Colliergate and the Shambles, lay across this postulated green. The statue of Old York or of Ebrauk, which stood at the corner of Colliergate and St. Saviourgate and served as a boundary mark in the 15th century, may possibly have been part of a Roman monument; the inscription recording its former position is in the Yorkshire Museum.

S.W. side

(106) House and Shop, Nos. 1, 2, of two storeys under a pantiled roof, is of 18th-century date but has been drastically altered and partly rebuilt.

(107) House and Shop, No. 3, built c. 1800, is of three storeys over a cellar. The cellar and the second floor are now only accessible from No. 4. In the party wall between Nos. 3 and 4 are the remains of a roof of a house earlier than either of the present buildings.

(108) House, No. 4, was built in the early 18th-century and heightened c. 1800 to give attic accommodation and to match the height of No. 3 adjoining. It is of three storeys and attics. The ground floor has been gutted for a modern shop. The first floor has one room occupying the full width of the three-bay front and a second room and staircase behind. The staircase has a heavy close string and widely-spaced turned balusters (Fig. 11j). The roof is constructed in two parallel spans.

(109) House, No. 5, now a shop, is of two storeys, partly timber-framed, jettied and gabled to the street, and probably 16th-century. The timber-framed part is now of only two bays, but an extension at the back in brick may replace an original framed third bay. The front bay is divided into two storeys by an original floor, but the floor in the second bay is an insertion and there is no evidence for original partitions between the two bays in either storey. The building has been extensively restored: many of the timbers are new and some that are old may have been brought from elsewhere or have been moved.

At the side of the modern shop front is a wide doorway with an ogee-arched head of modern timbers carried by original door-posts. On the first floor, the corner-posts and one of a pair of large braces are original; the other brace, the studding, and the gable above, are modern. The open truss between the two timber-framed bays has curved struts carrying side-purlins; the tie-beam is original but curved braces under it have been renewed and all above the tie appears to have been reconstructed. At the back of the second bay, framing has been removed from the ground floor but remains in position on the first floor; the truss above has been reconstructed.

(110) Houses, Nos. 6, 7, of two storeys and attics, were built in the second quarter of the 18th century, probably as a single house with a central entrance. The building has been much altered, but in No. 6 is an original staircase with close string, square newels and turned balusters, placed transversely behind the front room.

(111) House, No. 9, now a shop, was largely rebuilt in brick in the 18th century. It was originally two separate timber-framed houses. The S.E. house was built in the late 16th or early 17th century; it is of three storeys with a claspedpurlin roof and some of the upper part of its framed N. wall is visible in the roof of the N.W. house. At the front the three-storey brick elevation is continuous across the full width of the building, its upper part acting as a screen wall concealing the roof of the N.W. house, which is of two storeys and was built in the 17th century. Part of the timber framing of this house is visible in the back wall; the roof trusses have purlins overlapped and passing through the principal rafters.

(112) House, No. 10, of three storeys with a shop now occupying the ground floor, was built c. 1840 but includes the side wall of an earlier brick house. The domestic plan survives on the first floor, with a large square front room, the staircase placed transversely behind it, and a rather smaller room at the back beyond which is a small projection to which a third storey was added later in the 19th century. The staircase has turned newels and thin turned balusters (Fig. 11w).

(113) House and Shop, No. 11, was built probably in the late 16th or early 17th century as a two-storey timber-framed structure comprising one front and one back room. In the 18th century it was largely rebuilt in brick and raised to three storeys, with a chimney inserted between front and back rooms. It then formed one unit with No. 12, which has since been completely rebuilt.

Front and back elevations are stuccoed and much altered. In the back room on the first floor an original corner-post and a cambered tie-beam and joists are exposed.

(114) Houses, Nos. 13, 14 (Fig. 69), were built c. 1725 as a single three-storey structure, five bays wide. Each house is L-shaped on plan, the re-entrant angle at the back of No. 14 being occupied by the end of the earlier part of No. 15. The ground floor of Nos. 13, 14 has been converted to shops and a modern single-storey building stands between the two back wings.

The front elevation is built of red brick with a plat-band above the first-floor windows. Below the eaves, fixings remain for a large timber cornice, now removed. On plan each house has one front room and in the back wing a staircase and a smaller room beyond. Above first-floor level both the original staircases survive; they are identical, with close strings, square newels, and turned balusters.

(115) Houses, Nos. 15, 16 (Plate 141), were a pair formed from a single building. The original house, of uncertain date, was timber-framed and lay back some 14 ft. behind the present building line with its length parallel to the street. It was remodelled in the early 18th century with new brick front and back walls, a new roof and a new staircase. In the mid 18th century the house was extended forward to the present building line. In the second quarter of the 19th century it was divided into two tenements and drastically remodelled, parts of the early 18th-century staircase being reused in the N. tenement. Later in the 19th century shop fronts were inserted, returning on the S. side.

The front elevation, of three storeys and four bays wide, was of common brick with red brick dressings, a plat-band at first floor and gauged brick arches over the windows. The back elevation was lower, the back range having only two storeys and semi-attics. The roof of the back range had principal rafters angled like crucks to carry the wall-plates 2½ ft. above the tie-beams; above the purlins they were joined by collars and then reduced in size to match the common rafters (Fig. 7x). There was no ridge-piece. In addition to the reused parts of the early 18th-century staircase, the fittings included a bolection-moulded fireplace surround in the back wing and early 19th-century cast-iron hob-grates. Demolished 1959.

N.E. side (Plate 6):

(116) House, No. 17, now a shop, was built in the second quarter of the 18th century, of brick, with two storeys, basement and attics. The interior was substantially refitted c. 1840 and the street elevation rebuilt when the front part was heightened to three storeys later in the 19th century. The staircase, adjacent to the rear room, incorporates original balusters with fluted columns over complex bases on treads with shaped, carved ends. Much of the original roof structure, of kerb-principal trusses, survives.

(117) House, Nos. 18, 19 (Fig. 70), was built not later than 1748 for Ralph Yoward, attorney, who was receiver of the archbishop's rents. It was divided into two tenements c. 1830 and extensively refitted, the ground floor of the S. part being converted to a shop. Later a shop front was put in the N. part. In 1963 the S.E. angle was rebuilt.

The house is of three storeys above a basement. The front was originally symmetrical, of five bays with a central entrance. The second floor is marked by a plain plat-band, and the window arches, of rubbed, gauged brickwork, are interrupted by double key-stones (Fig. 8e). At the eaves, a timber cornice projects boldly. A fine rainwater head bears the date 1748 with the initials of Ralph Yoward. At the back the N. part has been heightened by the addition of a fourth storey of c. 1830. The storeys are divided by brick strings and there is a large round-headed window lighting the stairs. The other windows have segmental heads (Fig. 8f).

The original entrance hall, now lost, led to the main staircase at the back of the house and to the servants' staircase placed transversely to the S. and now approached by an entrance passage taken out of the S. front room. The N. back room was refitted in the early 19th century with a reeded cornice and a new fireplace. The main staircase, approached through an archway enriched with Greek key pattern, has cantilevered treads with scrolled decoration beneath and carved balusters (Fig. 71), originally three to a tread, of which every alternate one has been removed. In the 19th century the staircase was extended up to the second floor in a copy of the original and using the balusters taken out from below. The bottom flight of the servants' staircase was rebuilt c. 1830; the original staircase remains above and has close strings, square newels and turned balusters with square knops to the lower flight and round knops above.

The basement, under the N. part of the house, contains a front room with a large fireplace which was evidently the original kitchen, a central entrance lobby originally approached from a passageway down the N. side of the house, and rooms behind. To the S., the servants' staircase originally descended from ground-floor level, but has since been removed.

On the first floor the Saloon has two doorways with moulded and eared architraves (Fig. 9k), a moulded dado rail and a cornice with modillions and dentils. Above the dado rail the walls are divided into panels by applied mouldings enriched with egg-and-dart. The fireplace, set between Corinthian pilasters, has a surround and overmantel modelled on a design by Batty Langley in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Design (1745) (Plate 177). At the top of the overmantel is a large shell in a broken pediment and this is repeated on the opposite wall at the head of a panel flanked by floral drops, also set between Corinthian pilasters. Most of the other rooms on this floor and on the second floor were refitted c. 1830 and have ceiling cornices and fireplaces of that date.

(118) House, No. 20, is small, of the mid 18th century, with the ground floor converted to a shop. The first floor was refitted in the early 19th century. On plan the house has a front and a back room with the staircase placed transversely between them. The front part is roofed parallel to the street and the front windows have gauged brick arches. The back part, with platbands at each floor, is roofed at right angles to finish with a rear gable. The staircase has a close string, square newels and turned balusters.

(119) House, No. 21, of three storeys with ground-floor passage, is built on a narrow frontage with a gable to the street and was originally timber-framed. The framing of the N.W. side walls, visible on the second floor of No. 22 (120), is of three periods within the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Fragments of still earlier framing survive on the ground floor below. Mason's Hospital, an almshouse for six poor widows, was established in No. 21 by the founder's will of 1732. The front and rear walls were rebuilt in brick with a legacy granted in 1783 (4th Rep. Charity Comm. (1820), 377), and in the mid 19th century the floors at the front were raised to the existing level of those at the rear, and a transverse central staircase with open string, shaped cheek-pieces and square balusters was made. The almshouse was closed by 1958, and the building is now a shop with flat above.

(120) House, No. 22, originally timber-framed, of three storeys and attics, was built in the early 17th century; it is now used as business premises. The gabled front elevation was rebuilt in brick in the late 18th century and there is a later addition at the rear. The interior has been much altered but the original roof structure, with clasped-purlins, survives. Framing is visible in the S.E. side wall of the second floor, though much of this relates to earlier periods of No. 21 adjoining.

(121) House, No. 23 (Plate 6), three-storeyed and doublefronted, was built c. 1700. The street front is five bays wide, with a Victorian shop front, and has flat brick arches over the windows. At the back, the windows, where original, have boldly segmental arches. The original staircase, between two back rooms, has a heavy moulded string, square newel with turned pendants below, and bulbous balusters. On the first floor, bolection-moulded architraves frame three-panel doors (Fig. 9a). On the second floor, the door architraves are moulded and eared (Fig. 9b). All the fireplaces have been blocked and the surrounds removed in conversion of the premises into offices.

(122) House, No. 24 (Plate 6), of three storeys and attics, was built c. 1720 on a double-fronted plan but has been drastically altered internally to provide a shop and stockrooms. The front, above the modern shop, is built of common brick with red brick dressings to the windows and to a plat-band at each floor level. The roof rises behind a parapet. A rainwater head is dated 1768. The N.E. side is finished with an ogee-shaped parapetted gable.

Internally the house is divided by two partition walls parallel with the front: the front part had two rooms on each floor; the middle part is narrower and contains a modest staircase starting at the first floor at the N. end, and may originally have had a main staircase at the S. end; the back part contained a further two rooms on each floor. Many of the partitions have been removed. The staircase has close strings, square newels with turned pendants, and turned balusters. Some of the rooms retain original ceiling cornices and, on the second floor, simple moulded fireplace surrounds. The attics have lime-ash floors.

Behind the house, to N.E., is a small two-storey building, probably of the late 18th century.

(123) Houses, Nos. 25, 26 (Plate 6), of three storeys, were built probably in 1768, the date on two rainwater heads, and formed a pair, seven bays wide in all. The domestic planning and all the original fittings have been lost in conversion to a single shop. The attics have lime-ash floors.

(124) House, No. 27 (Fig. 72), was built in the late 16th or early 17th century as a three-storeyed timber-framed range of two bays, parallel to the street. The front was rebuilt in brick c. 1725 and the building was enlarged at the back to more than double its original size.

The front elevation has been much altered: a shop front occupies the ground floor; on the first floor are two 19th-century windows; on the second floor two smaller windows represent two of four early 18th-century windows, but there are some indications of a third, with mullion and transom visible inside. The back elevation is gabled.

The middle of the house is occupied by an open-well staircase and a large chimney. The staircase has open strings, one turned newel at the foot only, and turned balusters. It is continued from the second floor to the attics by a close-string stair. The upper rooms at the back retain some early 18th-century panelling and fire-surrounds, one with added decoration probably by T. Wolstenholme c. 1800. The top floor at the front retains some of the original timber framing; the roof over the front part is of clasped-purlin construction; the back part has simple tie-beam trusses with butt-purlins.

(125) House, No. 28, of the early 19th century, is narrow and three-storeyed, with one window to each floor above a modern shop front. The cornice matches the late 18th-century cornice of No. 27 adjoining.

(126) House, No. 28A, three-storeyed and of the second quarter of the 19th century, has been adapted for military use, with a drill-hall added at the back.

(127) House, No. 29, of c. 1800, is narrow and three-storeyed, with the ground floor converted to a shop.

(128) House, No. 30, built probably c. 1845, is of four storeys, with the ground floor converted to a shop.

(129) House, No. 31, now a shop, is of three storeys. It was rebuilt as a double-fronted house after road widening in 1830 and incorporates walling of the early 18th century in the two lower storeys of the side to St. Andrewgate.

Coney Street (Monuments 130–147)

Coney Street, 'the king's street', first recorded in 1153–8, together with its continuations of Old Coney Street (now Lendal) and Little Coney Street (Spurriergate), preserves the approximate line of a Roman road between the S.W. wall of the legionary fortress and the Ouse. The form 'Conyng Street' was the usual one until the 17th century. This has for long been regarded as one of York's most important streets and in 1308 was described as the principal street. It contains the parish church of St. Martin (10), the 15th-century Guildhall (36) and the 18th-century Mansion House (44). Most Jews in the city in 1200, including the wealthiest, Aaron of York, lived in the central part of Coney Street. Their synagogue was here and Jubbergate had acquired its name (Jew-Bretgate) by 1280. The George, the leading hostelry in York, demolished in 1869 for Leak and Thorp's department store, was on the site of this Jewish quarter. On the opposite side of the street was another important inn, the Black Swan, and somewhere nearby was the Bull, designated in 1459 as the only permissible lodging for foreigners. Four of the stations for the Corpus Christi plays in the 15th century were in Coney Street. Since it has remained a leading shopping street, the rebuilding of facades and the insertion of display windows have obliterated much of its pre-20th-century character.

Three common lanes, each with its own landing, ran down to the Ouse from Coney Street. The northernmost, which ran under the Guildhall on the line of the Roman road approaching the S.W. gate of the fortress, was the Common Hall Lane; its landing was sometimes called Stonegate Landing. The middle lane, St. Martin's Lane, is first mentioned in the period 1170–99, 'vicum qui dicitur Sancti Martini Lending', and was called 'le Kyrklane' c. 1390 and Old Lane in 1702. The name was given to both of two branches on either side of St. Martin's church. In 1399 Robert de Talkan was granted the lane with permission to build over it; in 1950 the upper part of the S.E. branch was stopped up (see Monument (140)). The third lane, called Blanchard's Lane in 1702, ran along the parish boundary between Nos. 43 Coney Street and 2 Spurriergate, opposite the end of Jubbergate (now Market Street). It has been replaced since 1852 by a lane 40 ft. to the N.W., and Waterloo Place, a court to the S.E., has also been lost in rebuilding.

N.E. side

(130) Houses, Nos. 16–22 (even) (Plate 119), a range of three, standing at the corner of New Street, are of three storeys and attics, of timber-framed construction with pantiled roofs. They were built in the 15th or early 16th century, each gabled to the street and three bays deep; the interior arrangement is not clear but there is no evidence visible of any original partitions in each house or of the positions of staircases. In the 18th century the front was plastered and the windows altered, and in the 19th century an addition was built in brick at the rear of Nos. 20 and 22. Nos. 16, 18, which in the 19th century had been occupied by Henry Sotheran, a well-known bookseller, was renovated in 1927 when the plaster rendering was removed and period-style windows inserted in the ground floor, though these were replaced by plate-glass windows in a second renovation in 1960. Nos. 20 and 22 have not had extensive modern restorations and retain on the upper floors many Georgian fittings and partitions.

The framing is exposed externally on the two street frontages of Nos. 16, 18 (Plate 119); the jettied floors of the gable-end to Coney Street have lodged sill-plates and the wall framing has pairs of curved downward braces; on the second floor the upper braces are exceptional in extending the whole storey height between sill-plate and tie-beam; the gable has a braced crown-post on a cambered tie-beam and cross-bracing to the rafters. The side to New Street, not originally an external wall, has posts with steep upward braces except for those at the corner with the jettied front, which have downward braces; between the posts are widely-spaced studs. The windows have hung sashes and include a canted oriel on the first floor of the Coney Street elevation. The interior retains an early 19th-century staircase with square balusters, and a few Georgian architraves; several chimney-pieces of the latter period were removed in 1960. One original internal roof truss survives (Fig. 6f), similar to the one in the gable-end but without the secondary braces between tie-beam and rafters; the crown-post supports braced collar-purlins. Though only a little framing is directly visible inside Nos. 20 and 22, there is enough to indicate that it follows the same pattern as that of Nos. 16, 18. The fronts of these two houses have modern shop windows and otherwise are plastered and have sash windows; the back wall is mostly rebuilt in brick or covered by the 19th-century extension. Inside, No. 20 has mostly early 19th-century fittings but there is one stone fireplace surround of the second quarter of the 18th century on the first floor; No. 22 has two early 17th-century panelled doors, and the staircase which serves it, of the mid or later 18th century, is in the adjacent house, No. 24.

(131) House, No. 24, was built c. 1600, possibly incorporating parts of an earlier structure. It was a timber-framed house of three storeys, jettied on the street front, some 17 ft. wide and 42 ft. deep, giving two good rooms one behind the other on each floor. In the mid 18th century the front of the second floor was set back to eliminate the upper jetty and to enable the first floor to be heightened at the expense of the second. The front rooms were curtailed by the insertion of a staircase. The front gable was cut back to a hip and the back part was re-roofed at a lower level, reducing its three storeys to two and semi-attics.

The front elevation is jettied above a modern shop front; the wall above is plastered, with 19th-century windows on the first floor and 18th-century windows above; the hipped roof rises behind a moulded block cornice with dentils, of late 18th-century date. At the back some original timber framing is exposed, under-built in brick. Inside, the front room has been enlarged to its original depth by the removal of the 18th-century staircase at this level. The latter has been reconstructed with 19th-century newels in the back part of the house. An encroachment has been made on the N. corner of the room to provide stairs for No. 22 next door. The ceiling beam support ing the first floor is cased but in the back room the ceiling beam is exposed and moulded. A cellar below is in part original but was enlarged towards the street in the 19th century. On the first floor in the front room the fireplace has an 18th-century surround. The 18th-century staircase has no newels, open strings and turned balusters with umbrella knops. On the second floor the front part of the house has a decorated plaster ceiling of the early 17th century, with roses and fleurs-de-lys in a pattern of quatrefoils and lozenges (Plate 164); the ceiling is cut short at the front where the wall has been set back to eliminate the jetty.

Demolition of buildings behind No. 24 revealed a roof truss (Plate 127) of late 13th or early 14th-century date, incorporated in later rebuilding. It had a flat tie-beam, common rafters, long passing braces, raking struts and a collar with tall unjowled crown-post, all, except for the larger tie-beam, of uniform scantling.

(132) Houses, Nos. 26, 28, 30, form an L-shaped range, three and four storeys high, enclosing two sides of Judges' Court. These three houses were probably built between 1830 and 1840; they have been converted to shop premises and much altered. The oldest fittings remaining date from the late 19th century.

(133) Judges' Court (Plate 141; Fig. 73), behind Nos. 28, 30, a house of two storeys, basement and attics, has walls of brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the very early 18th century but may incorporate part of a yet earlier structure around the S. corner room, where the walls have a slightly different alignment. The rear range of Nos. 28, 30 Coney Street is built against the S.W. front of the house and, though modern, it was preceded by an earlier range (map by Alfred Smith, 1822) which must have been standing when the house was built, as the exposed front is a three-bay entity, with a central doorway. By the mid 18th century it had become the Judges' Lodgings and continued in this use until 1806, when a larger house in Lendal (Monument (250)) was acquired; it was also let furnished to suitable families 'except at the Times of The Assizes and Races' (advertisements in, for example, YC, 17 Feb. 1767, 4 May 1779). It was announced to be sold in 1819 (YG, 12 June 1819) and in 1841 became the Minister's House for the New Street Wesleyan Chapel (30), which abutted it at the N. corner; it is now used as offices. A number of good original fittings remain, though some alterations were made in the 19th century.

The exterior is mostly covered with 19th-century rendering and has a high plinth containing basement windows. The front, S.W., elevation (Plate 141), partly obscured by the rear wing of Nos. 28, 30 Coney Street, has windows of the original proportions but with later sashes. The central round-arched doorway has a 19th-century moulded archivolt and is approached by a flight of stone steps of the same date. Stucco quoins at the W. corner may not be original but they obviously precede the general rendering of the walls, with which they are now flush. The rear elevation is of five bays but some of the windows have been altered; towards the S.E. end is a low addition. The two side elevations are rather plain with a few windows, some of them modern. The S.E. side has twin gables, but the roof is otherwise hipped with a flat in the central valley, 19th-century box gutters on paired brackets, and gabled dormers.

The front entrance leads into a porch with two inner doorways which are part of 19th-century alterations that reduced the size of the entrance hall. An alcove on the S.E. side of the hall has a large moulded cornice and contains two doorcases with bold bolection mouldings. The room in the E. corner is lined with bolection-moulded panelling above and below a dado rail and has a corner fireplace with surround consisting of plain columns carrying a full entablature with triglyphs in the frieze; the overmantel has two panelled pilasters on enriched scroll brackets. The S. corner room is earlier in style, with wall panelling in four heights. The room over this on the first floor has a large bolection-moulded fireplace, but most other rooms have early 19th-century fittings. The main staircase, rising out of the hall, has close strings, substantial turned balusters, square newel-posts and moulded, ramped handrails (Plate 190); on the wall opposite is a panelled dado. The back staircase has been removed below the first floor; the flights up to the attic have turned bulbous balusters, with splat balusters at the top around the well (Fig. 11e, f). In the attic, one room has a bolection-moulded fireplace.

(134) House, No. 32, now converted to a shop, of three floors and attics, is a brick building with a timber-framed core. The timber-framed building, probably three bays deep and jettied to front and rear, was built in the 16th century over a courtyard containing a brick-lined well of the late 15th or early 16th century, now under the N.W. wall. In the mid 18th century, a transverse staircase was inserted behind the brick chimneybreast serving the front room, and the building was extended to the rear. About 1820 the building was refronted and the former jetties were cut back, as is shown by the curtailed cornices in the upper rooms. The mid 18th-century staircase has been completely removed, and the lower floors are much altered. The S.W. front elevation has, above a modern shop front and below a dentilled cornice, a shallow segmental-headed arched recess in brick framing the first-floor bay window and second-floor sash window. The attic is concealed behind vertical boarding. The front attic roof has principals supporting purlins and nailed arched collars. Both attics have lime-ash floors. Timber-framed fragments of the adjacent building are visible in the rear extension, in the S.E. party wall.

(135) Range of three houses, Nos. 36, 38, 40 (Fig. 74), of four storeys, was built shortly before the rebuilding of the adjacent Black Swan in 1790. All three have modern shops on the ground floor. No. 38 has a normal town-house plan, with a spacious staircase between front and back rooms, and No. 40 appears to be similar but the upper floors are now shut off. No. 36 is of greater depth, making use of a light-well, and in the late 19th century was joined to a complex of earlier buildings behind; these include a three-storeyed timber-framed structure probably built in the early 17th century but later cased with brickwork, and two small three-storey brick houses, one of them mid 18th-century, the other a little later.

(136) The Black Swan Inn, No. 44, was among the most important inns and coaching houses in York in the 18th century. It occupied a deep site some 60 ft. wide by 208 ft. deep, with the main building fronting the street and with a yard behind, which in 1850 was entirely surrounded by buildings. At that time the inn also included a building to the S.E. on the site of the Yorkshire Bank built in 1923. The inn itself was a 17th-century structure, wholly refronted and partly rebuilt in 1790 when Mr. Ambrose Batty, the licensee, was paid £90 by the Corporation as a consideration 'for taking down and rebuilding in an upright line' the S. part. At this time a full fourth storey replaced earlier attics. By 1955 the buildings round the further part of the yard had disappeared; those that remained were mainly 19th century. The whole was then demolished.

The front surviving in 1955 was of four storeys faced with good red brick, built in two matching halves, each three windows wide, separated by a straight joint. It was a plain front with hung-sash windows and a timber cornice at the eaves. A door-case to the entrance, comprising timber Doric pilasters and entablature, has been re-erected at the Castle Museum. The back had been largely rebuilt in the 18th century but some 17th-century brick walling remained. The ground floor had been converted to shops. Some 18th-century fittings remained in the upper part. Demolished.

S.W. side

(137) Houses, Nos. 3, 5, 7, formerly four dwellings with No. 5 forming a pair, stand on the site of a 16th-century house belonging to the Darleys of Aldby and Buttercrambe. The present houses are mainly of the first half of the 18th century but incorporate parts of an earlier house, of which three decorated plaster ceilings survived into the 19th century. The early 18th-century rebuilding may have been carried out by Francis Taylor, who acquired the property from the Thompson family, goldsmiths, in 1722. Taylor left the property to his nephew Francis Meek, who added a range at the back of No. 3, but No. 7 is said to have been refronted in 1758 and to have carried a rainwater head bearing a badge of the Brooke family. Later alterations and additions may have been carried out by William Siddall, woollen draper and merchant tailor, or by Robert Sinclair who acquired the property in 1817. Drastic alterations have been made in modern times to convert the houses to commercial use, including insertion of shop windows on the ground floor and removal of the fourth storey of No. 3 and the pitched roofs of Nos. 5 and 7. Only a part of one decorated ceiling is now visible. The heraldry relating to the Darleys described by Davies has been destroyed or concealed. (Davies, 57–63; YCA, Acc. 21, Deeds; G. Benson, Pamphlet on Bishophill).

The front elevations, of brick, have been much altered. No. 3 originally comprised five bays, No. 5 six, and No. 7 six; No. 7 has stone quoins. All are now of three storeys, with modern parapets. Inside, an elaborate plaster ceiling of c. 1600 remains at the rear of the first floor of No. 7 (Plate 165). This is by no means complete, and could possibly have formed a part of the heraldic ceiling described by Davies; it has a heavily moulded cornice, which breaks forward at intervals, and a background of scrolled foliage with vine, acorns, roses and birds. At intervals strapwork encloses male and female heads. The frieze has a similar background, with heads, a shield, a heart and a double-headed eagle. The fine early 17th-century ceiling on the ground floor of No. 5 (Plate 164), with a geometrical division formed with moulded ribs and decorative motifs, and the moulded cornice continued along the dividing beam with vine enrichment to the soffit, is covered by a modern underdrawn ceiling. The only other fittings of note to survive are the staircases of the second quarter of the 18th century in No. 3 and in the S.E. part of No. 5.

(138) House, No. 9, of three storeys, basements and attics, was built in the second quarter of the 18th century. It has single rooms at front and rear, separated by a transverse staircase. The front elevation is two bays wide, of stuccoed brickwork, with flush-framed sash windows above a modern shop front and a projecting cornice supported on brackets below a slate roof. The S. side elevation is double-gabled, with the eastern gable stuccoed and set forward. The stuccoed rear elevation, partly hidden by a single-storey brick extension with a slate roof of the second quarter of the 19th century, has a projecting string between first and second floors. Inside, the staircase has turned balusters with square knops, a swept handrail, moulded close string, and square newels with attached half-balusters. Much use is made of three-centred arches internally.

(139) Row of Houses, No. 11, of which fragmentary remains survived until 1958, was built in the churchyard of St. Martin in 1335 by Robert, son of Giles, carpenter, for Thomas de Ludham, vicar. The original contract, preserved in the Minster Library, is published in Salzman, 430–2. The houses were damaged by fire and largely remodelled in the early 17th century, and further alteration took place in the 19th century.

Parts of five main posts and a few joists of the original row survived into the 20th century, enough to substantiate the layout as described in the contract. Before the 17th-century alterations, the houses stood 3 ft. from the N. wall of the church and were jettied on the N. front facing St. Martin's Lane. There was a house occupying two bays at the E. end and six smaller houses of one bay each, forming a range 100 ft. long. In the 17th century the building was widened to the S., blocking all the openings in the N. wall of the church. Demolished.

(140) House, No. 13, of three storeys and attics, has walls of common brick with red brick dressings. It was built in the first half of the 18th century, partly over a common lane leading to the river. There were alterations in the early 19th century, when a shop front was probably inserted; more recently the lane below the house was blocked and the staircase removed completely, access to the upper floors now being from the adjoining building.

The front elevation has a modern shop front and a single window on each upper floor. Originally probably two bays wide, it was carefully altered in the early 19th century when the first floor received a shallow bow and the second floor a window of similar width; the bow now has later sashes and the window above has been made narrower. The side elevation, facing St. Martin's church, has two small gables with a straight parapet wall between. A central door has an early 19th-century surround and fanlight. On the first floor is one original window flanked by blind windows, and on the second floor a central window with sliding sashes. At the rear is a projecting wing which retains, on the N.W. wall, a coved cornice. Inside, the ground-floor shop is entirely modernised, but on the upper floors are some original architraves and cornices; the first-floor front room was refitted in the early 19th century.

The passage to the river now starts at the rear of the building. It varies from 6½ to 10½ ft. wide and is covered by modern additions; the N.W. wall is of limestone and probably mediaeval. At the lower end it is covered by a depressed barrel vault of the 18th or 19th century.

(141) Office, No. 15, of four storeys and cellars, was built for the York Courant probably between 1789 and 1809 during the proprietorship of George Peacock. In 1838 it also housed Hargrove's Library, which was at that time 'recently opened' (New Guide, 64).

The front elevation is of brick in Flemish bond and has, over a modern shop front, two shallow canted bay windows with fluted friezes and modern sashes; the windows on the floors above have flush frames and retain original sashes with glazing bars. The timber block cornice returns several feet along the N.W. side wall, and the low-pitched slated roof is hipped to front and rear.

Inside, the ground floor is wholly modernised, and on the first floor all the original partition walls have been removed, though the plan can be partly recognised from surviving mid 19th-century cornices. There are a few original fittings, and on the third floor, where the plan is better preserved, the position of the top-lit former secondary staircase can be identified.

(142) No. 17 is a modern office building which retains on the ground floor a stone Tuscan column surviving from the former George Inn, demolished in 1869 (Benson, iii, 61); on the first floor is a reset sashed bow window taken from the same building. The inn, originally a mediaeval timber-framed building, was formerly known as The Bear, later The Golden Lion, and became The George in 1614 (Davies, 63–5). The S.E. part of the inn, on the site now occupied by part of a modern department store, No. 19, in 1716 was given a new brick facade, supported on stone columns (YAJ, XIV, 446); it retained a 15th-century timber porch with a ribbed vault and a boss carved with a Pelican in Piety (Cave, Plate XXXI) which had probably been brought from elsewhere and is now in the Yorkshire Museum. The N.W. end of the frontage, where No. 17 now stands, was probably built soon after 1614; it had a jettied and gabled elevation distinguished by ornate pargetting (Cave, Plate V) and in 1810 was rebuilt in brick (YCA, M17A), also supported on stone columns, one of which is that surviving. Inside was a large panelled room with a decorated plaster ceiling and heraldic glass of 1661–8.

(143) House, No. 23, of four storeys, was built in the first half of the 19th century. It has a two-bay front elevation in pink and grey mottled brick and windows with stone sills and monolithic arches with simulated voussoirs. Inside, it retains some reeded architraves, a staircase with shaped cheek-pieces and slender rectangular balusters, and a king-post roof typical of the period, but it has been considerably altered, particularly on the ground floor.

(144) Houses, Nos. 29, 31, of three storeys and attics, were built in the late 16th or early 17th century as a three-bay timber-framed range parallel to the street. A large chimney against the rear wall may be contemporary or a little later; beside it, a staircase was added in the early 18th century and a brick extension behind may be of the same date. In the late 18th or early 19th century the original jettied upper floors of the front elevation were cut back and a new wall built in brick, which is now rendered and has several sash windows and modern shop fronts. Inside, the timber framing is mostly obscured but there are cased transverse and spine-beams on all floors; part of a beam exposed on the ground floor is chamfered, with run-out stops, and on the first floor of No. 29 beams have 17th-century plaster casings decorated with vine trails. There are few old fittings except, between the second floor and the attic, the remaining part of the early 18th-century stair; it has turned balusters on two flights and splat balusters on the third. Behind No. 31 is an early 19th-century three-storey block, built of brick and with sash windows, forming a separate tenement known as No. 29a.

(145) Cottage, behind No. 31, was built in the early 18th century but was altered internally and enlarged in the early 19th century.

(146) House, No. 33, of three storeys and attics, was built in the early 18th century, but refronted in the 19th century and subsequently much altered internally. The plan probably consisted of rooms to the front and rear of a transverse staircase, with a projecting closet block at the back. The N.E. front elevation is two bays wide above a modern shop front, stuccoed with simulated stone joints, and with hung-sash windows in recessed frames and a simple eaves cornice. The rear elevation, also stuccoed, is gabled, and there are stringcourses between each floor. Few original internal fittings remain. The N.W. party wall in the attic incorporates reused timbers.

(147) House, No. 39 (Fig. 75), is formed of two dwellings of different dates, later combined into a single property. The N.W. house, of four storeys, was built in the mid 18th century. The front is two bays wide; on plan the house has one front room, a central open-well staircase, one back room and a projecting closet behind. The ground floor has been opened up to form one modern shop together with the ground floor of the S.E. house.

The front elevation, above the shop front, is rendered in modern cement and refitted with new windows. The roof rises behind an original cornice with shaped brackets and dentils. At the back, original windows remain in the closet wing set under boldly segmental brick arches. The interior is well fitted. On the first floor, the Saloon at the front (Plate 173) has door architraves and wall-panelling enriched with egg-anddart ornament and a fireplace surround of the late 18th century, in Adam style, with applied composition ornament. The back room, lined with plainer panelling, has a pedimented overmantel over a fireplace of c. 1800 with decoration from the Wolstenholme workshop (Plate 179). The staircase (Plate 193), lit from a lantern over the well, has open strings and turned balusters with square knops; there are no newels. The fireplaces on the second and third floors have original simple moulded surrounds.

The S.E. house, of three storeys, was built probably c. 1710– 20 as one of a pair; the other half of the pair, No. 41, was rebuilt in the mid 19th century leaving only a fragment of original walling at the rear. The front elevation, three bays wide, has been refitted with modern windows. The roof rises from a late 18th-century cornice. At the back, plat-bands mark the floor levels and the windows are, or were, set under boldly segmental brick arches. The plan is generally similar to that of the N.W. house, with the stair hall placed between front and back rooms and a projecting closet wing, but the house is of less depth, much less space being given to the staircase. Up to the first floor the staircase has been completely removed but it occupied a stair hall, the full width of the house, with the ceiling divided into panels by simple plaster mouldings. In the upper storeys, the staircase occupied a cramped position along the side wall of the house, and an internal room with only borrowed light was formed over part of the stair hall below. The top flights of stairs remain; they have close strings, square newels and turned balusters with square knops. On the second floor, the front room is lined with bolection-moulded panelling in two heights, with dado rail and cornice (Plate 172). The back room is lined with a miscellaneous collection of early 17th-century panelling, reused. Modernised and extended 1975–7.

Coppergate (Monuments 148–151)

Coppergate runs N.E. from Nessgate to Pavement. Its name, from coopers or joiners, is first recorded in 1120–35. It has been suggested that its S.E. side was once the edge of a wide open space or green stretching from the Ouse to Pavement which was gradually filled with houses, churches and lanes. By the 12th century both Coppergate, with its continuation of Cargate (now King Street), and the parallel Ousegate, had been formed and the churches of All Saints (1) and St. Michael (13) had been built. The S.W. end of Coppergate was widened in 1900 and few old buildings remain. Excavations on the site of Nos. 18, 20, started in 1976, have revealed 11th-century timber buildings.

(148) Former Yorkshireman, p.h., No. 10, built in the first half of the 19th century, is two storeys high, of brick, with hung-sash windows and a slate roof.

(149) Three Tuns, p.h., No. 12, of two storeys with an attic not now accessible, is of timber-framed construction, rendered externally and with a tiled roof. It was built possibly in the 16th century but has been very much altered. It consists of a short range, roofed in two bays, with a lean-to addition at the N.E. end and a large modern wing to the rear. The front elevation has a jettied first floor, 19th-century windows, and a large gabled dormer for the attic. Inside, the framed walls of the ground floor have been mostly removed; an axial-beam was originally braced to posts at each end, suggesting a range gabled to the front. Little of the present roof structure can be seen. The interior has been modernised and there are virtually no old fittings. In the wing at the rear is a stone wall about 8 ft. high, possibly mediaeval.

(150) The Market Tavern, No. 26, comprises a small front block, timber-framed and of three storeys, built probably in the 16th-century, and a longer back wing of two storeys, built in brick in the 18th century. The upper storeys are jettied to the street but the facade has been entirely renovated. The interior has been much altered but the original plan probably provided for one or two rooms on each floor with a large chimney on the back wall.

(151) Houses, Nos. 28, 30, 32 (Fig. 76), now divided into two shops, are contained in a large timber-framed building erected in the 15th century. It has an unusual plan, consisting of two conjoined ranges parallel to the street. The front range, with a span of 15 ft., is three-storeyed, three bays in length, and has jettied upper floors. The range behind, spanning 20 ft., is of the same height but originally contained a first-floor hall open to the roof, now divided by an inserted floor and ceiling. The hall was of two very unequal bays (14 ft. and 5 ft.) and the third bay of this range, at the N.E. end, was three-storeyed. The ground floor of the rear range appears to have been open through the whole length, probably for a shop. Numbering of the roof trusses indicates that there were originally two more bays to the N.E., now demolished. The front elevation is plastered and has 18th and 19th-century windows; the first floor of No. 32 has been later extended out as far as the second-floor jetty. The unjettied rear wall has exposed framing on the two upper storeys. Inside, some framing is visible within the former hall (Fig. 77) and a little more in the top storey of the front range; it is noteworthy for the large scantlings used. The roof of the front range has side-purlins only but the rear range has also a collar-purlin supported by crown-posts (Fig. 6h). Two large chimney-stacks were inserted probably in the 17th century and there are a few 18th-century fittings