York Historic Environment Record

Late C17 in origin; remodelled in early C18, when front range was added; subdivided and altered c1812; further alteration in C20. Original house possibly for Anthony Wharton; alterations of c1812 by Peter Atkinson junior.

MATERIALS: front of orange-red brick in English garden-wall bond, with painted and plastered eaves band; modillion eaves cornice of painted timber; coped left gable, and brick stacks at rear of tiled roof. Rear wings of orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with added 3rd storey to wing behind No.37 of mottled brick in irregular bond; pantile roofs; C17 openings had flat arches of gauged brick.

EXTERIOR: front of 2 storeys and attic; 5-windows. Paired shopfronts on ground floor. Left one has plain pilasters and dentil cornice, rising to gablet at left end over 4-panel upper floor entrance door beneath blocked overlight: glazed double shop doors recessed between half-canted plate glass shop windows. To right, shopfront of sunk panel pilasters with modillion cornice and plain fascia board: door of 8 raised and fielded panels with overlight to left, and margin-glazed shop door with patterned fanlight between small-pane windows. First floor windows are 12-pane sashes with slender glazing bars and flat arches of gauged brick. Three flat topped dormers with 2x6-pane sliding sashes, and one roof light, to attic. Rear: wing to Nos 33 and 35: 3 storeys, 1 window gable wall. Open doorway with divided overlight leads to through passage. C20 windows on each floor, attic one in altered opening with pilaster jambs. 3-course raised band to first floor, and moulded brick cornice beneath attic, both returned along wing at rear of No.37. Wing to No.37: 2-storey 2-window return, with 3-storey 4-bay block to left. 2-storey part has blocked C17 oval window in brick surround on ground floor left; other windows small-pane sliding sashes, with inserted hung sash on first floor. Portion of parapet survives above eaves cornice. 3-storey part has left of centre door of 6 panels in glazed screen, beneath half-elliptical fanlight patterned with vine leaves and rinceaux in wrought-iron. Ground and first floor windows altered; those on third floor 4-pane sashes with cambered arches, left end one blocked.

INTERIOR: No.33 on first floor: front room fitted with full height raised panelling, and moulded cornice, subdivided by sunk panelled partitions. Blocked chimney breast with rinceaux frieze and blank overmantel framed in plaster moulded garland of roses. Panelling and overmantel bolection moulded. C17 fittings survive in rear room, including 3-panel door on original hinges, full height panelling and moulded cornice. Blocked fireplace with overmantel flanked by dwarf pilasters with moulded imposts; similar pilasters form jambs to altered window. Altered staircase around square newel retains late C17 column-on-vase balusters and heavy moulded handrail in attic. Hob grate in plain fireplace in front room. Studded partition wall to rear room. No.37, ground floor: glazed and panelled screen at rear of front room, in fluted frame with lion mask paterae. Stairhall flanked by Doric column and pilaster. Open string staircase with hollow-sided stick balusters, serpentine moulded handrail, wreathed at foot around turned newel. Balustrade continues around stairwell on first floor. Radial-glazed staircase window beneath round arch on fluted pilasters with moulded imposts. First floor front room: marble fireplace with angle roundels, no grate; moulded skirting and dado rail, fluted frieze beneath moulded cornice, and ceiling rose of acanthus leaves; panelled reveals to door and window openings. Rear wing: late C19 firegrate in angle fireplace, and hob grate in plain surround in huge chimney breast; back room has hob grate. Third floor back room has oversize plaster frieze on a deep shelf carried on timber pegs and cast-iron brackets, depicting Greek processional figures, playing musical instruments. Hob grate in plain fireplace. Peter Atkinson junior lived at No.37 for about 15 years from 1812; later it was occupied by Sir William Stephenson Clark, Surgeon, and Lord Mayor of York 1839. (City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 74-75).
Listing NGR: SE6004151614

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

House, Nos. 35, 37, stands on the site of a mediaeval stone house on which, by 1282, husgable of 2d. was paid, indicating that it occupied a double plot (YCA, c.60, m. 5/23). The freehold of Hugh de Selby, Mayor of York in 1230, the property passed in 1274 to the Clerevaus (Clervaux) family and in 1336 to Sir Geoffrey le Scrope. In 1275 there were two cellars beneath the hall and a part only, on the W. side, let to the owner of the adjacent property, had a frontage of 25 ft. and a depth of 80 ft. Behind the principal house were subsidiary houses and a garden. (YASRS, lxxxiii, Nos. 526–9, 531, 533–7, 540–2, 552, 554–5; YCA, E.20A, ff. 62–62v.). Early in the 16th century the owner was John Beane, Sheriff 1538–9 and Lord Mayor 1545 and 1565, who saved the nearby church of St. Martin from demolition. By the marriage of Beane's daughter Mary in 1554 the property ultimately descended to the family of Wharton and Anthony Wharton (c. 1653–1703) probably built part of the existing building. His daughters Mary (d. 1776) and Margaret (d. 1791 aged 94), known as 'Peg Pennyworth', lived there. The front part of the house was built in the early 18th century. By 1812 the house had been acquired by Peter Atkinson junior, the architect, who divided it and himself lived for some 15 years in the larger portion, No. 37, letting No. 35 to John Bellerby. By 1829 the larger part was occupied by Thomas Hands, cabinet-maker, and Atkinson had leased No. 37 to William Hargrove, proprietor and editor of the York Herald. This W. moiety was from 1843 the home of the famous surgeon, Sir William Stephenson Clark, Lord Mayor 1839 (d. 1851).

The 17th-century part of the premises forms an L-shaped block set some way back from the street, the wings extending E. and S. In the early 19th century Atkinson added a third storey to part of the S. wing, rearranged the accommodation and constructed a new staircase hall in Regency style to the rear of the 18th-century house.

The street front is of two storeys and five bays in width. The whole ground floor has been converted to shop premises with modern fronts. At first floor are five tall sash windows under arches of rubbed gauged brick. The eaves have been remodelled with a modern cornice.

At the back the S. elevation of the E. wing of the 17th-century building (Plate 54) had three openings to each of the main floors, and in a gable an attic window framed by brick pilasters. In the E. wall of the S. wing a new entrance (Plate 151) was made in the early 19th century and most of the windows were altered but a small oval window is original (Plate 51). There are moulded brick bands and part of an original brick cornice and parapet.

Inside, two first-floor rooms are lined with panelling, of the 17th and 18th centuries respectively, the latter with bold bolection mouldings. The roof to the 18th-century building is carried on trusses with angled principals of a type usually associated with very boldly projecting eaves.

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 63.

Information derived from the NMR
BF060802 35-37 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.