York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.31 MICKLEGATE. Hotel and shop, now shop and offices. Late C18, remodelled c1860. Renovated 1991.

MATERIALS: orange-red and vitrified brick in Flemish bond at front, with painted stone dressings and moulded dentilled eaves cornice, returned at each end; shopfront of timber; brick end stacks to shallow pitched slate roof.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic; 4-window front. Shopfront of plain pilasters and moulded dentil cornice on grooved bulbous brackets, with glazed shop door between half-canted plate glass windows. Shop door and windows have moulded glazing bars of Art Nouveau form. At left end of shopfront, elliptical carriage arch of voussoirs on plain pilasters with moulded imposts contains panelled double doors beneath blocked fanlight. At right end, upper floor entrance door of 4 sunk panels with blocked fanlight in panelled reveal. First floor windows are tall 4-pane segment-headed sashes in architraves with cornice hoods on consoles. On second floor, windows are cambered arched 4-pane sashes in eared architraves with moulded bracketed sills. Squat 6-pane sashes to attic. First and second floor windows have small wrought-iron balconies in front of them. Raised first floor and attic sill bands. Rear: 4 storeys, 4 bays, with central full height chimney stack. Ground floor largely obscured by later 1-storey extensions; at right end, former segment-arched carriage arch partly blocked by brick screen and C20 board double doors. Windows on first and second floors are 16-pane sashes, with 12-pane sash to right of stack on first floor, and round-headed margin-glazed light on second floor; squat 8-pane sashes on third floor. All windows except round-headed one have flat arches of brick.

INTERIOR: not inspected. (City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 74).
Listing NGR: SE6004851617

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

Cromwell House, Nos. 27, 29, 31, occupies a site of considerable historical interest. In the 13th century the house belonged successively to William and Thomas Fairfax, and to the latter's son Bego who, in 1280, sold the property to Master William de Muro, called 'de Skeldergate'. By 1290 it belonged to the Staveley family and in 1310 a life interest was sold to John de Hothum, afterwards Bishop of Ely. Hothum and the Staveleys conveyed their interests to Sir Geoffrey le Scrope in 1317–22, when the property consisted of a messuage, three cellars, four cottages and gardens extending back to Fetter Lane. The Scrope family held the freehold for several generations (YASRS, lxxxiii (1932), Nos. 526–9, 531, 533–5, 537, 540–4, 546, 552, 554–5). By the 18th century there were two houses on the site, in 1790 occupied by Thomas Prince, merchant, in the W. moiety, and by Thomas Cave, copperplate printer. Between 1800 and 1805 the two tenements had been reunited, and in 1823 the rating assessment was raised (YCA, E.95, f. 84v.; Rate Books; Directories). For a long period the property belonged to Messrs. Theakston, Robinson & Co., druggists.

The present house seems to incorporate remains of an older building, notably a bold moulded dentil cornice and small-paned sash windows to the top stage, but otherwise all visible features belong to a general remodelling of c. 1860.

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 62

Information derived from the NMR
BF060801 THE CROMWELL HOTEL, 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.