York Historic Environment Record

House, with area railings attached to front and rear. c1789, with C19 alteration; renovated 1989. Red brick in Flemish bond on stone plinth, with painted stone dressings and doorcase; modillion and dentil cornice of timber to hipped slate roof with truncated brick stack at rear. Iron railings on low stone plinths at front and rear.

EXTERIOR: 3-storey 3-window front. At left end, stone steps with bootscrapers lead to 6-panel door in architrave with moulded cornice hood. All windows are 4-pane sashes with flat arches of gauged brick; those on ground and second floors have painted stone sills, sill band on first floor. Raised first floor band. At right end of cornice, inverted bell-shaped rainwater head with fallpipe on clamps enriched with fleurs-de-lys. Rear: 4-pane sashes in enlarged openings with segmental arches. 3-course raised band of brick at first floor, and brick dentil eaves cornice.

INTERIOR: ground floor: moulded dado rail and cornice in entrance hall. Round arch on pilasters with moulded imposts leads to staircase hall. Moulded round arch at foot of staircase leads to rear left room. Cantilevered staircase with slender turned balusters and moulded handrail wreathed at foot around column newel on shaped curtail step, rises from ground to second floor. Front room has dado rail beneath applied plaster wall mouldings, and dentil cornice with coved fluted frieze. First floor: moulded cornice to landing. Front room has fielded panelling and shutters in window reveals; doorcase with fluted frieze, rosette paterae, and moulded cornice; moulded frieze and cornice; fireplace with fluted frieze and dentil cornice shelf. Second floor: dentilled moulded cornice to landing. Original fireplaces survive in all three rooms.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: railings at front are square section with pointed tips: railings at rear have anthemion tips and standards with urn finials. (City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 86-88). Listing NGR: SE5985351593

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


House, No. 92, a good example of the smaller town house was built c. 1798 (when the rating assessment was increased), probably by the firm of John Carr; the staircase balusters are like those of the Black Swan, Coney Street, and No. 18 Blake Street, the latter being by Peter Atkinson senior. A two-storey range at the back, possibly of the first half of the 18th century, was modernised in the 19th century, when a first floor was added to the vestibule joining it to the main building. In 1948 wrought-iron scroll-work was added to the side of the entrance doorway (York Civic Trust, Report 1948–9).

Robert Fairfax of Steeton, a Captain in the Royal Navy, who bought the site, became M.P. For York in 1713, and Lord Mayor in 1715, when he gave a fine brass chandelier to St. Martin's Church, Micklegate. In 1725 he died, aged 60, and was buried at Newton Kyme; his wife, who died in 1735, was buried at St. Mary Bishophill Senior (Davies, 141–4). The house was sold, in 1805, by John Fairfax of Newton Kyme, grandson of Robert, to Mary Coates of York, widow, who had been the occupier since 1800 (YCA, E.96, f. 39; Rate Books). Later owners were Thomas Backhouse, seedsman, from 1817 until his death in 1845, and his brother James Backhouse (1794–1869), nurseryman and seedsman, who lived here until he moved to Holgate House (52) in 1859.

The main front is in red brick, with stone dressings, and has a slated roof. The windows have deep flat arches and stone sills, and the modillioned and dentilled cornice overlaps the adjacent Micklegate House; to E. Is a moulded rainwater head with a fall-pipe secured by holdfasts decorated with opposed fleurs-de-lis. The iron railings are original.

The entrance leads to a through passage off which the staircase is placed transversely between front and back rooms. The front dining room is typical of a York house of the period. It has a moulded skirting and dado rail, applied plaster mouldings to the walls, and a dentilled plaster cornice, with transverse fluting to frieze. The fireplace, though correct in style, is said to be a reproduction. The staircase has a swept moulded pinewood handrail, spiralling over a newel at the bottom; cantilevered treads with plain cheeks and moulded edges; slender, turned balusters, three to a tread, with an urn feature under a square knop; and on the inner side, a moulded dado rail and skirting. Some of the upper rooms have original cornices and fireplace surrounds.

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

NMR Information

NMR Record 2
Full description
(SE 59855159 - O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. 5343 MICKLEGATE (north side)
No 92 and railings SE 5951 NE 15/351 14.6.54
Grade II*
2. Circa 1798. Architect, probably the firm of John Carr. Red brick; 3 storeys; stone plinth and band between 1st and 2nd storeys; 3 sash windows (single glazing bars olly) with deep flat arches;
plain doorcase in moulded stone architrave with plain rectangular fanlight and light cornice; dentil and modillion eaves cornice; slates, moulded rainwater head on right-hand side. Original plain wrought iron railings extending to right from doorway with side rail on left-hand side topped with
scrollwork. (RCHM Vol III, Monument 83) (1)

Sources
1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest DOE (HHR) City of York, N.Yorks, June 1983, 215

NMR Record 1
BF060830 92 MICKLEGATE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued

Architect JOHN CARR 1770 1770 Principal architect practising in the north of England in the later Eighteenth Century.

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

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

On Site Archaeology, 2023, 92 Micklegate and land to the rear (Unpublished document). SYO2988.