Houses: Market Street-New Street

Market Street-New Street

Low Petergate, see under Petergate

Market Street (Monuments 267–269)

Market Street, running N.E. from Coney Street to Parliament Street, is the old Jubbergate, the southern stretch of a line of streets just outside and approximately parallel to the S.E. wall of the legionary fortress, continued by New Street, St. Andrewgate, the former Kirk Lane and, beyond the mediaeval walls, by Love Lane. When Parliament Street was formed in 1836 it cut across Jubbergate; the S. part was later widened and was renamed Market Street in 1852.

(267) House, No. 15, at the corner of Peter Lane, of four storeys in brick, with slate roofs, is of the mid 19th century. The Market Street elevation is of four bays, the Peter Lane elevation of two bays, with a recessed splayed corner between them of one bay. The ground floor has been completely modernised as a shop, while the fenestration above, originally of hung-sash windows, has been much altered.

(268) House, No. 21, two-storeyed with attic, is of rendered brick and has a pantiled roof. This and the adjacent house to the N.W., which has a slated roof and is now part of No. 23, were built as a pair in the early 18th century. The front elevation is much altered but retains a coved plaster cornice across the whole width, and the S.W. house has two original window openings on the first floor fitted with modern sashes; each house has a gabled dormer window with Yorkshire sash. Originally the houses were only one room deep, but additions were made at the rear in the 19th century. The interiors have been virtually gutted; a lime-ash floor was removed from the N.E. house in 1974.

(269) The Hansom Cab, p.h., No. 23, formerly the Burns Hotel, of four storeys, attics and cellars, was built in the second quarter of the 19th century. It is of stock brick, with slated roof, and has a two-bay front elevation with a modern ground floor. It has been altered inside but the second and third floors retain the original planning, including internal rooms with borrowed light from the landings and staircase at the rear.

Merchantgate

Merchantgate was formed in 1912 and named from the nearby Merchants' Hall. For the Red Lion p.h., see under Walmgate, Monument (519).

Minster Court

Minster Court, to the N. of the Minster within the close, forms a continuation of Minster Yard. It consists of a group of houses of mediaeval and later dates used as residences for canons, the Minster organist and others.

(270) Houses, Nos. 1–3 (Fig. 97), form three sides of an open courtyard with a block, No. 1a, formerly detached, standing to the N.E. Buildings which almost completed the fourth side of the yard were demolished for the new Deanery by Pritchett, built between 1827 and 1831 and since demolished. Nos. 1 and 3, on the N.W. and S.E. sides of the courtyard respectively, incorporate mediaeval stone walling in their lower parts; other walls are all of brick, mostly of the 18th century, and many must replace timber framing. The roofs are tiled towards the court but include slate and pantiles elsewhere. The houses are generally of two storeys, except for No. 1a which is of three.

The date of mediaeval stone walls in the N.W. and S.E. wings is uncertain. The main range, N.E. of the courtyard and mostly occupied by No. 2, retains three early roofs. In the S.E. part of the range is a 15th-century hall roof of four bays. The wider N.W. end of the range, which includes a part of No. 1, has remains of a 14th-century roof running at right angles to the hall roof and behind it, to the N.W., remains of a 16th-century roof.

Evidence for alterations in the 17th century is provided by a richly-decorated early 17th-century ceiling on the ground floor below the 14th-century roof, but reconstruction was mostly carried out at the end of the 17th century and at varying dates in the 18th, with some new building.

No. 1a, to the N.E., is an 18th-century block, originally built for storage, which was enlarged after 1850 to accommodate an organ and converted into a separate dwelling between 1945 and 1950. The N.W. wing, No. 1, retains a few courses of masonry only on the N.E. elevation. It was first reconstructed in brick to a much smaller size than at present but was lengthened to the S.W. and heightened in the mid 18th century. Its main front, facing the courtyard, has a plat-band and moulded eaves cornice and large hung-sash windows.

The main range has the N.W. end set forward under a hipped roof with boldly projecting eaves much lower than the eaves of the N.W. wing. At first-floor level is a string-course. Above a projecting porch a round-headed window lights the staircase of No. 1. A tripartite window on the ground floor further S.E. is modern. The longer part of the range, to the S.E., has been divided; the N.W. part with the roof set back behind a parapet forms the main part of No. 2. The S.E. part with the roof brought forward with a hip is now No. 2a. The doorway to No. 2 with its moulded surround is 18th-century, that to No. 2a is a modern copy. The back elevation of this range is in three parts. Whitewashed brickwork to the S.E. is an 18th-century rebuilding of the wall of the 15th-century hall. It has a string-course at the first floor, a round-headed window lighting the staircase to No. 2 and other windows, mostly modern. Further N.W. the wall is set forward, unpainted, with a plat-band and irregularly-spaced hung-sash windows. The roof above is of the 16th century. Further N.W. again is an early 18th-century wall, set back and meeting the corner of No. 1a.

The S.E. wing, Nos. 3 and 3a, consists of a long range overlapping the end of the main range and doubled in width at its S.W. end. A projection between the main body of the wing and the end widening is modern. In this wing the principal rooms are on the first floor, giving a S.W. end elevation with five lofty hung-sash windows above four squat windows. The S.E. elevation has a mediaeval stone base interrupted by four low windows; the main windows are above. The staircase window is round-headed; other windows have three-centred heads.

Interior. In the N.W. wing, No. 1, the Dining Room to the S.W. has a fireplace with enriched surround of the late 18th century. To the N.E. was the kitchen with a large fireplace between two arched recesses. Projecting further N.E. in the end of the main range but forming part of No. 1 is a small room with early 18th-century fireplace surround and flanking niche. The staircase to No. 1, also in the main range, is of the mid 18th century and has open strings, turned balusters and handrail swept round the bottom newel-post. The ceiling over the staircase is decorated with scrolled foliage and ribands. On the first floor the Saloon or Music Room occupies the later S.W. end; it has an elaborate decorated ceiling (Plate 169) and a richly-carved wooden fireplace surround.

In the main range, No. 2 has a large entrance hall with a late 18th-century cornice. Arched openings lead to a service passage and to the staircase, which rises in two flights at right angles to one another between two walls, and has on one side a balustrade of the second half of the 18th century and on the other a swept dado. The room to the N.W. of the entrance hall contains a fine early 17th-century plaster ceiling (Plate 166). The kitchen contains a large three-centred arched fireplace, flanked by round-headed recesses, as did the original kitchen of No. 1, and similar recesses flank a modern fireplace in the ground-floor Drawing Room to the S.W. of the main staircase in No. 3. Fittings throughout are mainly 18th-century and consist of simple fireplace surrounds, fielded panel doors and moulded architraves, but the large room to S.E. of the entrance hall, and the bedroom above it, both of which have been sub-divided, contain good early 19th-century cornices and window surrounds.

The much-altered early 14th-century roof in the N.W. end has passing braces halved over a collar (Plate 134). One truss survives of the early 16th-century roof to the N.E. It has a cambered tie-beam, kerb-principals supporting side-purlins, and a cambered collar. In the S.E. part of the range much of the roof of a four-bay open hall, of mid to late 15th-century date, is visible above the inserted attic floor. There are three open trusses, and a closed truss at the S.E. end. The open trusses of arch-brace construction are moulded, with moulded side and collar-purlins, and have carved foliage bosses (Plate 134). The closed truss has symmetrical closely-spaced diagonal timbers from the tie to the collar and crown-post (Plate 134).

In the S.E. wing, No. 3, the main staircase is of the early 18th century (Fig. 11m). The Study, to the S.W. of the main staircase, was remodelled in the early 19th century; the fireplace has composition ornament and the cornice is enriched with palmettes, roundels and vertical grooves. The moulded dado rail and skirting, and the panelled shutters in the window reveals, are also found in the adjacent Dining Room. Here, however, the cornice with applied foliage decoration and the heavy fireplace are late 19th-century. Two bedrooms have early 19th-century fireplaces with composition ornament.

In the attic, at the N.E. end of the wing, the corridor at the head of the secondary stairs is lined with run-through panelling. The Living Room contains a modern fireplace with an 18th-century moulded shelf. The roofs to the S.W. of the main staircase have principal rafters, without ridges, and with through-purlins. Mortices in the tops of the ties suggest that the original truss form has been modified.

Minster Gates (Monuments 271–274)

Minster Gates, the site of one of the gateways into the cathedral close, leads from Stonegate to Minster Yard. In c. 1470 it was known as Bookland Lane and later as Bookbinders Alley. Posts blocking the passage to vehicles, as now, are mentioned in 1370. A drinking fountain existed here in c. 1470. The gateway apparently still existed in 1736 but was destroyed before 1800, without any plan or illustration. The houses on either side of the passage are mostly of 18th or 19th-century date.

N.W. side:

(271) House and Shop, No. 1, and No. 38 High Petergate, stands at the corner of the two streets with the main elevation facing Petergate. It was built in the 15th or early 16th century as a three-storeyed timber-framed range, four bays long, and in the late 16th century a fourth storey or attic was added. The elevations to Petergate and Minster Gates were rebuilt in brick in the late 18th century, and in 1804 the property was described as 'part rebuilt and divided into two houses' (YML, w1). Subsequently in the early 19th century the ground floor was altered and a range of shop windows inserted, probably for John Wolstenholme, bookseller, who was one of the occupants (Directories, 1816, 1823).

The four-storeyed street fronts are in Flemish bond and have sash windows with recessed frames; on the seven-bay wide Petergate elevation the central windows on the first and second floors are emphasised by moulded wood architraves and also by a pediment on the first floor only. On the short Minster Gates frontage and half of that facing Petergate is an early 19th-century unified shop front, consisting in all of six windows and three doorways, separated from each other by pilaster strips rising up to shallow enriched brackets. Above the windows are semi-elliptical tympana with fluted spandrels, and surmounting the shop front, at the angle of the two elevations, is a carved representation of Minerva, reclining and resting her arm on a pile of books. On the back elevation the framing is rendered and there are later additions in brick, including two large chimneys. Inside, the framing is cased but the bay arrangement is readily apparent; on the upper floors, spine-beams are offset towards the front, indicating that jetties have been cut back. Some framing of the rear wall is visible in an attic room of No. 3 Minster Gates (272), including the original wall-plate and part of the late 16th-century heightening, with ogee braces. One room on the second floor has early 17th-century panelling and a fireplace overmantel with arched panels and fluted attached columns. Other fittings, of later date, include some 18th-century fielded panelling on the first floor and three staircases, of the early and late 18th and early 19th centuries, respectively.

(272) Houses and Shops, Nos. 3–9 (odd), and No. 11 Minster Yard (Plate 7; Fig. 98), are a range of five, three storeys high with cellars and attics, probably built between 1710 and 1734 (YML, wf, ff. 78–9; wg, ff. 397v–8). The basic plan comprises two small rooms on each floor and staircases at the rear, partly within the back rooms and partly projecting from them. The northernmost two houses have been combined and a new staircase was inserted in the light-well between two original staircase projections, in the first half of the 19th century. The original fenestration, of flush-framed sash windows with thick glazing bars, is most intact at second-floor level. Except for part of the Minster Yard frontage, all the original ground-floor elevations were altered in the early 19th century by the insertion of shop fronts. There is a five-brick plat-band between first and second floors. The first and ground-floor windows have flat-arched heads of gauged brickwork; one has a castiron balcony. A deep moulded cornice supports the tiled roof, which is lit by dormers. Three of the windows on the Minster Yard frontage are blind.

S.E. side:

(273) Houses and Shops, Nos. 2–8 (even), and No. 40 Low Petergate, were rebuilt some time after June 1839 on the site of several houses which had stood forward of the present building lines (YML, H10(2), f. 160). They were built as shops with living accommodation behind and above, and form a tall block of four storeys and basements, comprising four single-fronted units to Minster Gates and two bays to Petergate, all with uniform elevational treatment. The original pilastered shop fronts remain, although the glazing has been altered. The hung-sash windows of the upper floors have flat arches of common brick. No. 2 has blind windows to the upper floors of its elevation to Minster Gates and a large window with pilastered surround and moulded cornice to Petergate. A rainwater head between Nos. 4 and 6 bears the crossed keys emblem, indicating ownership by the Dean and Chapter. The cornice is supported by grooved brackets and is of the same pattern as that on Monument (338) to S.E. No. 8 retains the rear wall of the former house on the site, built in 1753–55 as a pair with No. 10.

(274) House, No. 10 (Plate 7; Fig. 99), of four storeys, with cellar and attic, was built between 1753 and 1755 by Dean John Fountayne and leased to William Darwin, verger (YML, wh). It was then a house of three storeys and attic, and formed a pair with No. 8. In the very early 19th century a shop front was inserted and the internal walls were removed on the ground floor; about the middle of the century the front wall was heightened to make four full storeys and, probably at the same time, a new attic was created partly over the stair-well.

The front elevation, of brick in Flemish bond, has a deep plat-band at second-floor level; the early 19th-century bowfronted shop window, now lacking glazing bars, is flanked by doorways, of which the one to the left has a fanlight with Gothic glazing bars, and that to the right a half-round fanlight and ornamented frieze. The first and second floors each have two sash windows with 1¾ in. glazing bars, and the 19th-century third floor has one central window. The back elevation is three-storeyed with a wide 19th-century window on the ground floor; the other windows have segmental brick arches.

Inside the ground-floor shop are fluted columns supporting the upper floors, and a shallow dome in the ceiling below the stair-well. The original main staircase, placed transversely in the middle of the house, now starts at the first floor and is quite substantial for a house of this size, with superimposed steps and elaborate turned balusters. A lesser stair continues to the third floor where there is a balustraded balcony overlooking the top-lit stair-well. Another small staircase, adjoining the main stair and probably inserted in the 19th century, rises from the second floor to the attic. Some original doors, architraves and fireplaces remain.

Minster Yard (Monuments 275–281)

Minster Yard was formerly an enclosed area usually entered by Minster Gates or by the gateway at the head of Lop Lane (now Duncombe Place) and bounded on the N. by the Minster, on the S. by a row of houses and the church of St. Michael-le-Belfrey (12), on the E. by the Old Deanery and on the W. by Peter Prison. There was also access by College Street to Goodramgate. The demolition in 1828 of the gateway, of the nearby Peter Prison and the houses W. of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, the replacement in 1832 of the Old Deanery by the present Minster Song School (49), and the formation in 1903 of Deangate have transformed the appearance of the former close. It is conceivable that Minster Yard may preserve a memory of the courtyard of the headquarters building of the Roman fortress. A public square ('platea populi') between the royal palace and church is mentioned in the 8th century (A. F. Gasquet (ed.), A Life of Pope St. Gregory the Great written by a Monk . . . of . . . Whitby (1904), 18). During the 10th and 11th centuries, however, most of this area was occupied by a graveyard covering the ruins of the headquarters building and apparently extending into Petergate and Stonegate (York 1, Addendum to p. 38 (1977)). After the Norman Minster had been built in 1080–1100 on a different site and on an alignment probably more correctly orientated E.-W. than its still unlocated Anglo-Saxon predecessor, the area S. of the cathedral was paved. Wheel ruts seen in the area of metalling exposed S.E. and S.W. of the S. transept indicate considerable traffic, probably to and from the N.E. gate of the city. The extension of the Minster in 1365 blocked this route which, since the walling of the area in 1283, must have been increasingly inconvenient to the Dean and other residents of the close.

(275) House, No. 4 (Plate 145), of two storeys with basement and dormered attics, was built at the beginning of the 18th century within the confines of a complex of mediaeval buildings at the E. end of the Minster; some parts of these earlier structures were incorporated in the building. It appears on John Cossins' map of c. 1727 as Dr. Ward's house.

The five-bay symmetrical front elevation of brick laid in Flemish bond was built against a lower mediaeval structure and at its upper floor extended over it at the N.W. end. It has a late 18th-century doorway (Plate 160) similar to that of No. 39 Bootham (York IV, Monument (41)), with reeded columns and open triangular pediment with composition decoration, flanked by four modern hung-sash windows beneath flat arches of gauged brick (Fig. 8c). The five first-floor windows are similar. The modillioned and dentilled cornice is a late 18th-century modification and the three dormers in the tiled roof are modern replacements for the three shown on Cossins' map. The N.W. side elevation has a Dutch gable in part obscured by a later chimney-stack. The mediaeval range on this side has been modified at various periods and although once incorporated in No. 4 Minster Yard is now occupied as a separate dwelling (see No. 1 Chapter House Street (92)). The rear elevation, of brick with a serrated cornice of bricks set diagonally, has a hipped roof but incorporates at the N.E. end a mediaeval timber-framed gable. The windows have segmental heads (Fig. 8d).

Inside, two original bolection-moulded doorcases remain on the ground floor but the S.E. front room was refurbished with composition ornament in the late 18th century (Plate 179). The staircase, at the rear of the house, has a moulded close string, heavy bulbous balusters, square newels with attached half-balusters and pendants, and a heavy moulded handrail; it rises to the attic about a rectangular well with three flights and quarter-landings between floors. The N.W. room on the first floor retains its full complement of bolection-moulded panelling and doorways (Plate 162), although the window architraves have been altered. Most other fittings are of the 19th century or modern.

(276) Houses, No. 5, and No. 2 College Street (Fig. 100), appear externally as two separate dwellings of the 19th century but encase remains of a late 13th or early 14th-century two-storeyed timber-framed building, five bays long, which lay parallel to the College Street frontage. Parts of three trusses of a roof of passing-brace construction survive (Fig. 6a), two of them bearing assembly numbers II and III and another presumably iv, to E. of which a post exists at ground floor. In the second bay of the roof, a rafter with a timber morticed into it suggests a scissor-braced construction.

In c. 1600 a large chimney-stack was inserted in the second bay from E., with a staircase to N. and presumably a passage or lobby to S.; a two-storeyed timber-framed addition was also built to N. of the second and third bays. The building was divided into two dwellings c. 1700; the E. part was rebuilt in brick but the original roof was retained, and a new staircase was formed.

The W. part was rebuilt with a stone S. facade and an oriel to the first floor bearing the date 1891. The W. gable-end was also probably rebuilt at this time, as the 1852 OS map shows a different alignment of the W. bay, and considerable alterations were made internally, including the formation of an entrance hall and a staircase made up from bulbous balusters of c. 1700. The W. end room contains a good fireplace surround and overmantel of c. 1600, and most of it is lined with reset panelling of the same period. The N. side wall was removed when the entrance hall was formed, and replaced by a partition of panelling. A small two-storeyed timber-framed block at the N. was joined to No. 5 at some unknown date. The E. end was heightened to three storeys in the 19th century.

(277) The Old Residence, No. 6 (Plate 139; Fig. 101), standing in a detached position close to the S.E. angle of the Minster, of three storeys and basement, has brick walls, mostly rendered and painted, and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the second quarter of the 18th century, and was the prebendal house of Strensall before being sold to the Dean and Chapter in 1783–4 for the Canons Residentiary, in which use it continued until 1827, when the New Residence (154) was built in the Dean's Park. Repairs were made in 1786 and £390 was spent in 1792, when the bricklayer was James Rusby and the joiner William Halfpenny. In 1827 it was recorded that the house was 'about to be faced with composition in imitation of Portland stone' (YML, Hornby MSS. 274). The front rooms on the first floor were refitted in the late 19th century and about the same time a two-storey annexe was added on the S.W. side. Now used as a school, it is a substantial house with a number of good original fittings. In the basement are several rubble stone walls which probably survive from an earlier building.

The front elevation, five bays wide, has a stone plinth, bands at the first and second floors, and an Ionic timber cornice and modillions. The rendered wall has incised lining to represent ashlar, now barely discernible. The eight-panel front door, approached by a flight of steps, has a half-round fanlight, moulded architrave, and is surmounted by a dentil cornice on consoles. On the first floor the windows have panelled aprons and the centre one over the doorway is emphasised by a pediment on consoles, and pedestals with ballfinials flanking the apron. The rear elevation is of brick in random bond, with the basement in limestone; the second floor appears to be a late 18th-century heightening, and has a corbelled brick eaves cornice. There are brick bands marking the first and second floors on the main body of the wall but not on the wing, which projects at the S. corner. The main windows have low segmental arches, except for the large round-arched stair window. Over the back door is a lead rainwater gutter, inscribed 'This house repair'd and the roof new slated in the year 1786'. The side elevations, which formerly had buildings against them, are irregular. The roof is hipped.

Entry through the front door is into a stone-flagged hall; this leads through an archway, enclosing a fanlight, to the main staircase (Plate 192) which has an open string, two balusters on each step and a moulded handrail with a large scroll at the foot on a substantial turned newel. The two principal ground-floor rooms are on the N.E. side and have panelled walls above plain dados. In the front room the fireplace has an eared surround and pulvinated frieze and the overmantel is a large panel also with moulded eared surround. In the back room the fireplace surround is eared and enriched, the plain frieze has a carved block at each end, and the overmantel has a panel flanked by fluted pilasters carrying a Doric triglyph frieze and broken pediment (Plate 176); the cornice in this room has modillions. On the first-floor landing the doors have moulded, eared architraves and the door to the larger front room is set within an arched recess with plain pilasters. The two front rooms are modernised, but the E. rear room, though divided by a modern partition, retains the original cornice and moulded and enriched fireplace surround. The service staircase, with close strings and square newel-posts, continues to the second floor, which has simple original fittings. The basement rooms at the front of the house have brick barrel vaults.

(278) House, No. 7 (Fig. 102), of brick, with slated and pantiled roofs, was formerly part of the prebendal house of Strensall. It consists of a front range facing N.W., of two storeys, attics and cellars, built in the second quarter of the 18th century, and a range at the rear, partly of the same date, but incorporating fragments of a two-storey timber-framed building and which was heightened to three storeys in the late 18th or early 19th century.

The front elevation is rendered, has two two-storey canted and pedimented bay windows, and a central door-case, all of early 19th-century date. The exterior is otherwise partly rendered but largely of brick of several periods, resulting from the gradual manner in which the former framed building was rebuilt; an original tie-beam, wall-plates and parts of posts survive at the S.E. end. Part of the S.W. wall of the second floor is of poor quality framing of late date. All the windows have hung sashes, some of them modern. Several original 18th-century fittings remain, including the main staircase, doors of two fielded panels and two fireplaces, one of stone; the other, on the first floor, has unusual carved oak-leaf decoration. Among later Georgian fireplaces, two have composition ornament (Plate 180).

(279) Houses, Nos. 8, 9 (Plate 151; Fig. 103), originally designed as a Wills Office by J. P. Pritchett for the Dean and Chapter in 1837, were completed as private dwellings first occupied by William Hudson and Edward Barker. They form part of a larger complex including Nos. 48, 50 Low Petergate (339). The main block, in Perpendicular style, is of two storeys with attics, built of stone with slate roofs, and has gabled side elevations and a gabled central bay, corner octagonal turrets, and a battlemented parapet. A wing to the rear of No. 8 is of brick and three storeys high. Several rooms contain moulded cornices and Gothic type fireplaces. The main staircases have cast-iron balusters, based on Gothic tracery in No. 8 (Plate 195) and on vine stems with grapes in No. 9.

(280) House, No. 10 (Plate 142), at the corner of Minster Gates, of three storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of brick and slated roofs. It was built between 1753 and 1755 by Dean John Fountayne at a cost of £600, and leased to Mrs. E. Fountayne (YML, wh, ff. 68–9). Later occupiers were John Smith, verger, in 1767, William Mills 1795 and Robert Mills 1848. It is now used as offices. The house has a simple plan of two rooms flanking the staircase but is irregular in shape.

The front elevation, in two planes, has original sash windows and an early 19th-century door-case; there is a moulded timber eaves cornice and a rainwater head, inscribed JF 1763, bearing the elephant crest of Dean Fountayne. The N.W. room on the ground floor is fully panelled and the staircase, with turned balusters and ramped handrails, is a good example of the date (Plate 193). The attic staircase was rebuilt in the early 19th century, re-using original balusters.

House, No. 11, see Nos. 3–9 Minster Gates (272).

(281) Former Consistory Court, No. 12 (Fig. 104), was designed by J. P. Pritchett for the Dean of York, probably in the 1830s. The original design included a room above the vestry of St. Michael-le-Belfrey church, and would have blocked access from the vestry to Minster Yard. The plan, using a difficult wedge-shaped site, consists of a three-storey block facing the Minster linked by an extension housing the staircase to a two-storey block at the rear. The main block is of stone with a slate roof, in Perpendicular style, with an oriel window projecting from the gabled N. elevation. The lower rear block is a mixture of stone and brick, with a pantiled roof. Most of the fireplaces are late 18th-century but there are some of Gothic type, and the reused staircase, with turned balusters, dates from the first half of the 18th century.

Monk Bar Court, see under Goodramgate (Monuments 204–206)

Museum Street (Monuments 282–284)

Museum Street runs from the N.E. end of Lendal Bridge to the junction of Blake Street and St. Leonard's Place with Duncombe Place, which continues its line towards the Minster. The present name, from the Yorkshire Museum opened in 1830, had been adopted by 1852, replacing the former name of Back Lendal. The street originated as a narrow lane along the outside of the S.E. boundary wall of St. Leonard's Hospital. It is first recorded as Footless Lane ('Ffotlesgayle') in 1260–70, and this lane, or its continuation, was later known as Finkle Street, names perhaps derived from cripples thronging at the hospital gateway and from a corner or bend in the lane. The street was widened in 1782, when part of the boundary wall and arches of the hospital were removed, and the popular Etridge's Royal Hotel was established at its N. end. The lower end, leading beside the waterworks in Lendal Tower to a ferry and St. Leonard's Landing, was left unchanged beside the wide elevated approach to Lendal Bridge of 1863, although houses built against the city wall have been largely removed.

N.W. side:

(282) Lendal Hill House, of two storeys and attic, is built against the N.E. side of Lendal Tower (York II, 108–110) and, at the rear, incorporates remains of the city wall. The house was built in two periods in the third quarter of the 18th century which may have been successive stages in the replacement of earlier buildings on the site. Public baths were established in the house by Col. Thornton, who had bought the York Waterworks in 1752 (Hargrove, ii, 452) and he may have built the first stage specifically for this purpose. His widow, Mary, is said to have extended the buildings in 1769 which probably represents the second stage. According to Hargrove there was 'one room for hot and tepid baths with a comfortable dressing-room adjoining, and another room for cold bathing, with similar convenience'. None of this remains, and the building, which is owned by York Waterworks Company, is used as a store and living accommodation.

The S.E. elevation, of brick in Flemish bond and with a pantiled roof, is of five slightly irregular bays. A first-floor band is interrupted at the S.W. end by the segmental arch of a blocked carriageway. The central doorway has a semicircular fanlight, and immediately beside it is a vertical straight joint, marking the division between the two building periods. On the rear elevation, the ground floor of magnesian limestone is a section of the city wall, but much rebuilt. The first floor is of brick and has a vertical straight joint at the junction of the two stages, though not in a corresponding position to that at the front. Windows and doors are of various dates and include an 18th-century canted oriel on the first floor. The ground floor has been very much altered inside. The staircase, of the later 18th century, has a close string and balusters with square knops; on the first floor there are a few original fittings and several of the mid 19th century.

(283) Former Engine House, near Lendal Tower, was built to house the pumping engine of the waterworks which was moved there from Lendal Tower in 1836 (York II, 109). The engine was removed from the premises some time after 1849, when new works were constructed at Acomb Landing, and in 1854 tenders were invited for work in connection with the taking down of the engine chimney, the removal of the engine beds and the conversion of the engine houses into offices, etc. for the York New Waterworks Company (YG, 16 Sept. 1854).

The building is of brick with stone dressings, the main range running S.-N., with a wing to the E. side at the N. end. The main elevation towards the river at the S. is symmetrical and of two bays, in Flemish-bonded brickwork above a stone plinth. It has round-arched windows set in large round-arched recesses and, above an ashlar band, a parapet with ashlar capping swept up over a central decayed stone panel. This is surmounted by a chimney of brick and stone, in pedestal form, with supporting shaped stone side pieces. The other elevations have a recess to each bay, some with fanlights to the upper parts and windows below, and others with no openings.

S.E. side:

(284) Thomas's Hotel, No. 3, a brick-built two-storey, five-bay house of c. 1700 with integral side passage, formed part of Etridge's Royal Hotel in the early 19th century. It was heightened by a storey c. 1820–30, and after its purchase by William Thomas in 1858 (YG, 13 Nov. 1858) the front elevation was further altered.

The front and rear elevations have floor bands; the front windows have flat arches and the rear windows segmental arches. In plan, over a small basement, the house had a staircase at the back of a central entrance hall and two rooms to each side. On the first floor, three rooms across the front and two plus a closet at the rear opened from a landing. The added second floor has three rooms to front and rear off an axial corridor. The remaining original fittings include the staircase with bulbous balusters and several first-floor three and six-panel doors, two with bolection-mouldings. The original fireplaces appear to have been back-to-back angle fireplaces against the gable walls, but when the building was heightened, there was some internal structural alteration and refitting. This included the provision of moulded cornices to all ground-floor rooms and one on the first floor, the addition and alteration of chimney-stacks, and the fitting of a chimney-piece identical to those on the second floor to another first-floor room.

Navigation Road

Navigation Road runs N. from Walmgate to the site of St. Margaret's Landing on the former bank of the Fishpond of the Foss near the Red Tower. In 1145–51 this street was called Bretgate, 'the street of the British', distinguished by 1251 as 'Little' to avoid confusion with the more important Bretgate, now Jubbergate and Market Street, to the W. Although there were a stone house and other messuages here in the 12th century, all maps of York until 1829 show it as a lane through open ground. By 1829, however, a linen manufactory had been built at the N. end, with new houses on either side, called Caroline Place or Row. In c. 1852 the street received its present name from the Foss Navigation, and narrow rows of terrace houses – Constitution Place, Providence Place, Rosemary Place, St. Margaret's Terrace, School Lane and Speculation Street – led off its E. side towards the city wall. Since 1950 these have been replaced by council flats.

Nessgate (Monuments 285, 286)

Nessgate, 'the street leading to the ness or headland', first recorded by c. 1160, is only 100 ft. long, a continuation to the S.E. of Coney Street and itself continued by Castlegate. Widening on the N.E. in 1767–8 destroyed a house dated by an inscription to 1500. The houses on the opposite corners with Low Ousegate and King Street were rebuilt in brick when those streets were widened in 1820 and 1851. The two timber-framed houses left in the centre of the block were removed when the Coach and Horses public house was built in 1891.

(285) Midland Bank, No. 1 (Plate 156), was built for the Yorkshire Agricultural and Commercial Bank in 1839; the architects were J. B. and W. Atkinson. The bank is a stone-faced building of three storeys and a basement, in a heavy Italianate style, with equal elevations to Nessgate and High Ousegate; the manager's house, with a simple brick front, adjoins the bank, facing Nessgate. The bank had been founded in 1836 but had to close in 1842 owing to the expenditure on 'injudiciously . . . building elaborate and expensive premises at York and Whitby' (History of Banks, 412).

The ground floor is rusticated with arched openings, and the position of the entrance has been altered. The first-floor windows are crowned by cornices; the central windows are emphasised by pediments, and formerly had balustrades to the small balcony projections below them. At the top, the elevations are finished with a heavy modillioned cornice. The interiors have been much altered.

(286) House and Shop, No. 7, on the corner of Coppergate, of three storeys, was built in the second quarter of the 19th century and was originally square in plan, but the corner has been cut back to a splay. It comprises a small shop, with one room on each floor above.

New Street (Monuments 287, 288)

New Street, planned in 1745 and paved in 1747, runs across ground cleared by the demolition of a derelict house facing Coney Street and of Davy Hall towards Davygate, and links the two streets. It was first known as Cumberland Row after the terrace built there, but by the early 19th century was more generally called by its present name.

S.E. side:

(287) Cumberland Row, Nos. 3–9 (odd) (Plate 4; Fig. 105), a terrace of four houses of three storeys, basements and attics, built of brick with slated roofs, occupies part of the site of Davy Hall, demolished in 1745. A lease to build four houses, 'all double (except against the churchyard which would not admit it)', was granted to Charles Mitley, carver, and John Theakston, whitesmith, but Theakston withdrew in January 1746 and Mitley, joined by his brother-in-law, William Carr, carpenter and joiner, subsequently built six houses (YCA, B43, ff. 187, 192, 240–7). They were being roofed in 1746 on the day that the Duke of Cumberland passed through York after the battle of Culloden and were named Cumberland Row in his honour (Hargrove, 407). Of the six houses, four survive, each having the common town-house plan of front and back rooms with central transverse staircase; the other two, towards the Davygate end of the street, were only one room in depth because of the existence of St. Helen's burial ground (20) immediately behind. The house which stood at the corner of the two streets was pulled down and replaced by a smaller building when Davygate was widened soon after 1891; this replacement and the second house (No. 1 New Street) were both demolished in 1958–9, and new offices built on the site reproduce the original facade. The four houses which remain are occupied as offices, and interconnecting doors have been made between Nos. 5, 7 and 9. Many of the original fittings survive in good condition and the range is of special interest as one of the earliest terraced developments in the city, comparable with others in St. Saviourgate (Monument (409)) and Bootham (York IV, Monument (41)).

The front elevation, of red brick in Flemish bond, is twelve bays in length, three to each house; it has a brick plinth containing basement windows, and bands at first and second-floor levels. The early 19th-century doorcases are identical, with plain pilasters and friezes and panelled reveals. The hungsash windows have flat arches of gauged brickwork with stone key-blocks on the ground and first floors; key-blocks are doubled on the windows immediately over the entrances. The second-floor windows were heightened in the early 19th century when the timber cornice was replaced by one less deep than the original. The N.E. end wall is of stock brick but the window details and half-round gabled motif are all late 19th-century work. At the S.W. end, most of the wall has recently been covered by a facing of modern brick but two original round-headed stair windows are preserved, and the M-shaped gable, with three attic windows, is still visible. The back elevation is of stock brick, mostly in stretcher bond, with bands at first and second-floor levels. It was originally twelve bays long, like the front, but some window positions have been altered, many sashes renewed or replaced by casements, and there is a later 18th-century addition against No. 9. The original arrangement survives most complete in No. 7, though one first-floor window has been blocked; all the openings have segmental arches.

Inside, the central staircases in the middle houses are top-lit, but those in the other two have windows in the end walls. All have similar balustrades, with two turned square-knop balusters on each step and bulky newels at the foot, but the proportions vary between the separate houses (Plate 192). The ramped handrails are reflected in panelled dados on the walls. The flights from the second floor to the attics, except in No. 9, are simpler, with close strings and square newel-posts.

In No. 3, on the ground floor, the front room is lined with pine panelling which has clearly been removed and reset after restoration; the door-case has a pulvinated frieze and dentil cornice. On the first floor, the front room is lined throughout, with large sunk panels above a plain dado, moulded skirting, rail and dentil cornice. The fireplace has a slightly segmentalarched stone surround which includes some Gothic carved motifs; above is a panel with lugged architrave, pediment over, and the whole flanked by panelled pilaster strips. The back room, divided by a modern partition, is panelled on the fireplace wall. The overmantel (Plate 176) has a panel with broken pediment above and flanking carved scrolls, and contains a central disc with radiating rays. The overdoors have moulded friezes of cyma section and triangular pediments (Plate 163). On the second floor, both rooms, now sub-divided, have simple stone fireplace surrounds and moulded cornices.

In No. 5, the ground-floor front room is fully panelled, but the doorways have been altered. The fireplace surround is 19th-century, but to the right is a cupboard, with rounded back and head and containing shaped shelves. The front room on the first floor is panelled but has been divided and the fireplace blocked up. The other rooms in this house are rather plain and have been partly altered.

No. 7 contains the most sumptuous fittings in the range. The ground-floor front room is panelled in similar manner to other rooms. The fireplace surround has a carved frieze with acanthus leaf ornament, and the overmantel is a panel with lugged architrave incorporating some profusely carved arabesque ornament; a central block at the top has a rococo cartouche, and the entablature above has a pulvinated frieze (Plate 176). To the right is a round-arched cupboard. On the first floor, the front room, fully panelled, has enriched door and window architraves; to the right of the chimney-breast, a false door matches the landing door and both have pulvinated friezes and enriched dentil cornices (Plate 163). The fireplace has an enriched frieze like the one in the ground-floor room, but the overmantel has a panel with lugged architrave decorated with a Greek fret, and surmounted by an enriched pulvinated frieze and scroll pediment (Plate 176). The back room is only panelled on the chimney-breast; the fireplace has a pulvinated frieze decorated with rococo motifs, and the overmantel is a plain panel with lugged architrave. On the second floor the fireplaces have simple stone surrounds.

In No. 9 the ground and first floors were refitted in the early 19th century; all the rooms have fireplaces of that date and there are reeded cornices in the front rooms. On the second floor, original door architraves survive (Fig. 9i, j). The front room has a segmental-arched stone fireplace surround similar to one in No. 3 (first floor); it was probably reset in this position when the lower floors were refitted. In the back room is a stone fireplace with trefoiled motifs on the jambs (Plate 180). The staircase window on the second half-landing contains some painted, stained and engraved glass probably by William Peckitt, with urns and festoons, together with a floral panel possibly by Henry Gyles (Plate 187).

All the houses have basements under the front rooms, out of which open vaulted recesses under the entrance passages. The kitchens were probably in the ground-floor back rooms but all these have been altered. The attic rooms have two-panel doors and simple fireplaces; the roof construction is of principal rafters with staggered butt-purlins.

N.W. side:

(288) No. 8, of two storeys, has brick walls and tiled roofs. It was probably built shortly after 1745 as a coach-house and stable for a house, now demolished, which stood in Coney Street. In 1846 it was the enginehouse of the Yorkshire Insurance Company (Sotheran's Guide of 1846, 160) and is now used as offices. The fenestration of the front wall is entirely modern, but before alterations in the 1950s there was a blocked coach entry with a semicircular window above. In the S.W. wall are three original windows with brick segmental arches, and in the N.E. wall a 6 ft. wide blocked opening with elliptical arch. Inside, there has been much alteration and a chimney-breast was inserted in the 19th century. The staircase has reset turned balusters of earlier date (Plate 190).