York Historic Environment Record

Town house with railings and lamp brackets attached to front. Dated 1752, with C19 and C20 alteration and extension. For Sir John Bourchier of Beningbrough, probably by John Carr.

MATERIALS: front of orange-red brick in Flemish bond on stone-faced basement; rusticated quoins and doorcase of painted stone: rear of buff-pink brick with orange-red brick dressings. Dentil eaves band beneath projecting modillion cornice of timber; slate roof with brick stacks. Railings and lamp brackets of wrought-iron on low plinth of moulded stone.

EXTERIOR: basement and 3 storeys; 7-bay front, three centre bays pedimented and breaking forward. Pedimented doorcase of detached Corinthian columns in centre has door of 6 raised and fielded panels with radial overlight in rusticated round-arched surround with moulded imposts. At right end is panelled service door with divided overlight. Both doors approached by steps, those to front door shaped and with anthemion pattern bootscrapers. Windows are sashes, of 12 panes on ground and first floors, 6 panes on second floor, all beneath gauged brick arches with stone fasciated keyblocks. Sill bands to ground and first floor windows; raised bands of painted stone to first and second floors. Rear: basement and 3 storeys. Central round-arched radial-glazed staircase window between ground and first floors. Remaining windows are sashes, 12- or 6-paned, with brick arches and stone sills. Raised brick bands to first and second floors. Moulded cornice. Dated rainwater goods, stamped with the initials JMB and the Bourchier crest.

INTERIOR: cellars: brick vaulted. In one room, second kitchen fireplace and bread oven survive. Ground floor. Entrance hall: stone-flagged floor; moulded dado rail; carved marble fireplace; plaster panelled ceiling with enriched modillion cornice. Panelled round arch with moulded imposts leads to stairhall at rear. Left front room: dado rail, panelled walls and enriched cornice; marble fireplace with fluted frieze and cornice shelf beneath bolection moulded overmantel. Eared doorcases, with pulvinated friezes and dentilled cornices. Right front room: fitted cupboards and drawers. Staircase hall: stone-flagged floor. Open string main staircase to first floor has cantilevered stairs with three balusters, alternately turned, fluted and twisted, to each tread, and moulded serpentine handrail, wreathed at foot around turned newel. Matching ramped-up dado panelling. Staircase window is round-headed radial-glazed sash in Ionic arch on fluted pilasters. Secondary staircase to second floor has turned balusters and ramped-up moulded handrail. Left rear room: moulded marble fireplace and firegrate with pulvinated frieze beneath bolection-moulded overmantel. Alcove cupboard with C19 glazed doors to right of fireplace. Painted glass inserts in windows by William Peckett. Right rear room: segment-arched kitchen fireplace. First floor. Stairwell: enriched modillion cornice. Ceiling of plaster panels enriched with arabesques of leaves and tendrils, and medallions containing busts in relief. Pedimented doorcases on landing are later replacements. Left front room: moulded plaster ceiling, cut by inserted partition wall: central panel of dog and crane in relief, framed in asymmetrical scrolls and foliage, and four corner panels each enclosing a relief moulded head. Left rear room: panelling; fitted drawers. Roof. 4 numbered principal rafter trusses with notched and pegged joints. Cross-gabled roof at rear renewed.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: railings are swept up front steps to doorcase with palmette bootscraper at each side. Railings are of square section with barbed spear tips and incorporate scrollwork panels with twisted finials. Doorcase is flanked by elaborate scrolled lamp brackets with rinceaux. (RCHME: City of York: London: 1972-: 85-86).
Listing NGR: SE5985451600

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

Micklegate House, Nos. 88, 90 (Plate 177; Figs. 58, 59) the most important Georgian residence S.W. Of the Ouse, was built for John Bourchier (1710– 59) of Beningbrough as his town house, and was finished by 1752. It is said to have been designed by John Carr of York (G. Benson in Architectural Review, II (1897), III), and though there is no proof of this, it resembles other houses known to have been designed by him. The house passed to Bourchier's widow who died in 1796, and was then leased to James Walker and, from 1811, to Joshua Crompton (1755–1832), who bought the freehold in 1815 and in whose family the house remained until 1896. When the house was for sale in 1815 it was described as comprising, on the Ground Floor, Entrance Hall, Dining Room, Parlour, large Kitchen, Back Kitchen, Pantry, Housekeeper's Room, Butler's Pantry, Water Closet; First Floor, two elegant adjoining Drawing Rooms, two good Lodging Rooms one with attached Dressing Room, the other with a Light Closet; Second Floor, six good Lodging Rooms, one Dressing Room; Attics, four good Servants' Rooms, and a Light Closet; Vaulted Cellars and a Laundry; good Garden, Coachhouse, Stables for 11 Horses, 'a large Reservoir Well supplies the house with Water' (York Courant, 3 April). After 1896 the house became business premises and much of the panelling was removed and sold; a fireplace from the best bedroom is now in the Treasurer's House. Though now only a skeleton of its former self, it remains the best house of its date in York, at least in regard to the main staircase and the plaster ceiling over it.

The main front (Plates 177, 178) is built in good red brick with stone dressings above a stone-faced basement and has not suffered from any alteration; the doorway at the E. End which departs from the strict symmetry of the elevation is part of the original design. The rainwater pipes have been renewed and the wrought-iron railings have been restored. A pair of gates matching the railings is in the Yorkshire Museum.

The back (Plate 55) is built of buff-pink brick with pale red brick dressings. The storeys are divided by projecting brick bands. Some of the windows still have original sashes, others have replacements with thinner glazing bars. A lead rainwater head (Plate 81) bears the initials of John and Mildred Bourchier with the date 1752 and each holdfast to the downpipe bears the Bourchier crest, a man's head wearing a ducal coronet and a long tasselled cap hanging forward.

Inside, the hall has a panelled plaster ceiling, and a fireplace with a marble surround (Plate 73); to N. An archway leads to the stair hall (Plate 179). To the W., the Dining Room is lined with simple panelling under an enriched cornice, and has a fireplace with a marble surround (Plate 74). Behind the dining room and under the Best Bedroom was the Library, also lined with panelling and having an original fireplace surround. The windows contain two painted glass panels (Plate 181): a spaniel, 'Dick', sitting on a cushion, and a greyhound, 'Rover', both signed 'W. Peckitt Pinxit 1756'. Peckitt's account book (York City Art Galley, Box. D.3) has the entry: '1756 February— For John Boutcher Esq. A setting Dog £1. 1. 0; For Miss Boutcher a lap Dog £1. 11. 6.' The E. Front room was the Housekeeper's Room and has a series of fitted drawers and cupboards in a recess. Behind this room the Servants' Staircase has cut strings and turned balusters with square knops similar to the servants' staircase in No. 55 Micklegate. To the N.E. Below the Retiring Room, the Kitchen has a large segmental-headed fireplace which contained a steel grate (Plate 92) with ovens, two movable trivets with swivelling circular hobs, and a swing arm for a kettle. Above is an elaborate mechanical spit, worked by a smoke jack in the main flue, transmitting a drive through bevel gears to a horizontal, square shaft. (Range and spit removed.) The main staircase (Plate 182) rises to the first floor only; it has broad cantilevered steps and enriched balusters (Plate 84; Fig. 180) and is lit by a round-headed window flanked by pilasters (Plate 90).

The Cellars are covered by brick vaults except under the kitchen where there is a large room with a fireplace and casement windows.

On the first floor the stair hall has an enriched modillioned cornice and a ceiling in rococo style (Plate 180), resembling one at Fairfax House, Castlegate. To the N. And S. Are medallions containing busts in relief, one representing Shakespeare. Over the landing is an extension of the ceiling with an oblong panel.

In the front of the house are two intercommunicating rooms. The larger, formerly called the Reception Room (31 ft. By 19 ft.), has been stripped of most of its fittings. The smaller Drawing Room (25 ft. By 19 ft.) has also been stripped, the carved mantlepiece having been removed to Esholt Hall, but the rococo ceiling remains. It has a centre piece with a spaniel barking at a water bird, perhaps a heron, framed in asymmetrical scrolls and foliage, with four heads in panels at the angles (Plate 77), perhaps representing the seasons. In the room to N.E., once called the Retiring Room (23 ft. By 19½ ft.), is a plain fireplace of white marble. In the former Best Bedroom the walls are plainly panelled. The modern fireplace in the W. Wall takes the place of that removed to the Treasurer's House (Plate 71).

The second floor is reached from the servants' staircase, and above are attics where parts of massive oak roof trusses are exposed. The joints are notched and pegged, and bear position-marks in Roman numerals. There are four intermediate trusses visible, spaced about 10 ft. Apart.

Information 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 81

NMR Information
A town house and railings built circa 1752. The house has 3 storeys and basement, and is constructed of brick. The architect may have been John Carr. The interior retains some original features such as fireplaces, painted glass panels and decorative plaster.

Full description(s) ?
1. 5343 MICKLEGATE (north side)
Nos 88 and 90 (Micklegate House)
SE 5951 NE 15/350 14.6.54
Grade I
2. Circa 1752. Attributed to John Carr. Red brick with stone dressings; 3 storeys plus basement; stone base, bands between storeys and quoins at sides; sill band at 1st storey; 7 sash windows in lined reveals with flat brick arches and triple keyblocks; slightly projecting 3-windowed bay at centre with
pediment; central doorway in rusticated stone surround with full entablature and pediment supported on free Corinthian columns with semi-circular radial fanlight, 6-fielded-panelled door
and steps up; dentil and modillion eaves cornice; lead rainwater head dated 1752 with the initials J M B and the down-pipe clamps with the Bouchier crest of a man wearing a teasselled cap and
ducal coronet. Interior: very fine despite removal of some original fittings, including panelling; excellent staircase with decorative plaster ceiling above; 3 good fireplaces; 2 painted glass panels in former library by William Peckitt. (RCHM Vol III, Monument 81).

1. 5343 MICKLEGATE (north side) Railings and lamp brackets of Nos 88 and 90 (Micklegate House)
(formerly listed as railings to Micklegate House)
SE 5951 NE 15/944 14.6.54
Grade I

2. Circa 1752. Restored. Good wrought iron railings extending over frontage with square returns to doorway on right-hand side and with curved returns flanking central doorway each topped with
scroll-work which rises to form a lamp bracket.
(RCHM Vol III, Monument 81) (1)

Situated at SE 5986 5160. (2)

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060828 MICKLEGATE HOUSE, 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.