York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Nos.134 AND 136 MICKLEGATE. Town house. 1740, refronted c1900; C20 shopfront. For Thomas Brown of Middlethorpe. Also known as Frank's Hotel.

MATERIALS: front and left side of red brick in English garden wall bond, rendered between shopfront and first floor; timber eaves band at front and brick modillion cornice to left side. Tile and pantile roof, hipped at front, M-shaped at rear, with brick-coped parapet masking the valley. Brick stack. PLAN: town house plan with rear staircase hall.

EXTERIOR: 3-storey 3-window front. Shopfront continued from Nos 128-132 adjacent (qv): at left end is recessed door, possibly original behind later boarding, approached by steps. In centre of first floor is 3-light canted bay window with prominent dentilled cornice and 1-pane centre sash over panelled riser. All remaining windows are 1-pane sashes, those on second floor having painted sills: all, except bay window, have cambered heads beneath flat arches. Raised brick band of 3 stepped courses at second floor level. Fluted inverted bell rainwater head to left of centre window. Rear: 3 storeys and attic; twin-gabled, 3-window wing. Ground floor partly blocked by later outbuilding: two boarded-up windows to left. On first floor, round-arched staircase window at right end is encroached upon by later outbuilding; to left, two original 15-pane sashes. Second floor windows 1-pane sashes, with 2-light casement to attic. All windows have flat arches of gauged brick. Raised brick bands to all floors.

INTERIOR: ground floor: entrance hall and stairhall have moulded ceiling cornices enriched with egg-and-dart mouldings. Moulded round stairhall arch on plain pilaster responds with moulded imposts and bases, bases extended into moulded skirting. Both ground floor rooms (incorporated into shop at Nos 128-132, qv) have modillion cornices, and front room plaster-moulded ceiling. Main staircase is cantilevered and rises to first floor, having slender column balusters, two to a tread, and serpentine moulded handrail, wreathed at foot around enriched turned newel on shaped curtail step. Radial-glazed staircase window in moulded round arch on Composite pilasters, lower part altered to doorway with 6-panel door. Moulded dado rail. First floor: moulded round arch on landing, similar to ground floor stairhall arch. Front floor has heavy moulded cornice and raised and fielded dado panelling beneath moulded dado rail. Secondary staircase to attics has close string, thick turned balusters, square newels and flat moulded handrail, attic flights closed off.
Second floor: most doors are of 2 panels on L-hinges. Front room has heavy moulded cornice, and square fireplace with moulded stone surround. Attic not inspected but RCHM record 2-panel doors, gypsum plaster floors and original roof timbers. (City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 95). Listing NGR: SE5975251527

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

House, Nos. 134, 136, occupies the site of old houses sold by Jeremiah Ridsdale, baker, to Thomas Brown, esq., of Middlethorpe (YCA, E.93, f. 118). Brown built the present house in 1740, when a Roman statue was found while digging the foundations (York Courant, 8 and 22 April). In 1759 Brown sold to Charles Radcliffe, esq. of Heath the house and offices 'as the same have been lately new built by the said Thomas Brown ...' in the occupation of the Hon. Marmaduke Langdale (later 5th Lord Langdale, d. 1778). Radcliffe died in 1768, leaving the house to his daughters Frances and Elizabeth. Between 1775 and 1790 this was the town house of the widowed Lady Goodricke and her son Sir Henry, the 6th baronet (d. 1802), the owner of Trinity Gardens on the other side of Micklegate. They were followed by members of the family of Duffin, occupants until 1851, (Davies, 133; Rate Books; Directories). In 1863 the freehold passed from descendants of the Radcliffes to Henry Crummack, surgeon and apothecary, who left it to his wife; in 1883 the property was sold to Samuel Richard Brown Franks. The red brick front was added during the period when the building was well-known as Franks' Hotel.

The front was refaced with cherry-red brick c. 1900; openings remain in their original positions at first and second floors. Above is a modillioned cornice, almost certainly reused, and an early 19th-century waterhead, with fluted bowl and moulded cornice, and lead pipe with opposed fleurs-de-lis on the holdfasts. The roof is hipped. The W. side, nearly all cased with the same modern brick, has a dormer with pedimental head, probably original. The original three separate square or oblong stacks of the main chimney are now conjoined by a later head. The back is of flecked red brick with projecting bands and double gable. Only the first-floor windows retain original sashes.

The entrance hall at the W. side of the house, leads to a central lobby off which the main staircase lies to the back of the house and a secondary staircase (partly removed) to the E. The rooms have been modernised, but that to the front retains a good plaster ceiling. A fireplace surround removed from this room belongs to the York Georgian Society.

From ground to first floor, the main Staircase has turned balusters; at the bottom the oak handrail is swept down to a turned and enriched newel (Plate 84). At the half-landing is a large stair light, with moulded round arch supported on Composite-order pilasters; its lower half has been removed. From first floor to attics, the staircase has coarser balusters and square newels.

Most of the rooms on first and second floors have original cornices and one retains a fireplace with heavy moulded stone surround. In the attics the floor is of gypsum plaster; most doors are original, having two large fielded panels. The roof timbers are also original.

Derived from RCHME - 'Secular Buildings: Micklegate', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west (London, 1972), pp. 68-96.Monument 98

Information from NMR

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060846 134-136 MICKLEGATE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.