York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.69 LOW PETERGATE. House, now part of school. c1725 with late C18 portico; wings rebuilt and further alterations c1866 and later in C19. For John Shaw, Proctor of the Court at York.

MATERIALS: front and wings of orange brick of two dates, in Flemish bond at front, in stretcher bond at rear; stone plinth; porch, doorcase and cornices of painted timber; tiled main roof and slate hipped roofs to wings, with brick stacks.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic; 5-bay main range with centre bay and 1-storey porch projecting, flanked by 2-storey projecting wings. Pedimented Doric porch in centre has door of 6 panels in fluted surrounds with paterae and radial fanlight, in round-arched architrave with moulded imposts. First and second floor windows in main range are tall 18-pane sashes; in attic, 2-light casement windows in pedimented dormers. Moulded first floor band of painted stone across main range and wings; Doric eaves entablature to main range. Wing to left has 6-panel door with overlight in link bay with main range. Both wings have narrow 8-pane sash windows on both floors of returns; paired 1-pane windows at head of gable walls; all have painted stone sills and flat arches of gauged brick. Gable walls have semicircular blind arch of brick above first floor band. Both wings have moulded timber cornices.

Rear: 2 storeys and attic; 5-bay front between polygonal end bays with pointed octagonal roofs of fishscale slate. Original windows unequal 15-pane sashes with painted stone sills and flat arches of gauged brick. Right end bay has glazed and panelled door; both have 1-pane sashes. Raised first floor band, moulded string over second floor windows and moulded timber eaves cornice continue across main front and end bays.

INTERIOR: ground floor. Front left room has marble fireplace with reeded jambs and frieze and corner roundels. Right front room lined with full height raised and fielded panelling incorporating 3-panel cupboard door; enriched dentilled cornice; panelled window reveals; marble fireplace with colonnette jambs. Left rear room has dentilled dado rail; moulded cornice. Right rear room has door and window architraves of flutes and rosettes; door of 6 panels in similar surrounds; enriched dentilled cornice; panelled window reveals; marble fireplace with fluted surround and angle rosettes. Entrance hall: 5 doorcases with corniced overdoors and 6-panel doors; fluted Corinthian distyle in antis screen with entablature leads to stairhall.

Main staircase has cantilevered treads, panelled beneath, with turned and entwined balusters, and serpentine handrail swept at foot on shaped curtail step. Stairwell has parallel dado panelling with acanthus volute at foot. On half-landing is reset door made up of six C16 carved panels. First floor. Landing has plaster ceiling of two classical figures with child. Close string open well staircase to second floor has bobbin balusters, turned newel and serpentine handrail. Front left room, now incorporating small centre room, fitted with 2 heights of raised and fielded panelling and moulded cornice: small room has blocked corner fireplace; larger room C19 chimneypiece. Front right room has three walls of raised and fielded panelling in 2 heights; panelled shutters. Rear left room has three walls of raised and fielded panelling in 2 heights, moulded cornice and skirting; panelled window reveals. Rear right room has fireplace of fluted Corinthian columns, architrave enriched with vine trails, shaped shelf, and basket grate with anthemion side pieces: moulded skirting and cornice; panelled window reveals; 6-panel doors.

(Bartholomew City Guides: Hutchinson J and Palliser DM: York: Edinburgh: 1980-: 167; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 189). Listing NGR: SE6037352054

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

House, No. 62, now part of the York College for Girls, was built c. 1725 by John Shaw, Proctor of the Court at York, on part of the site occupied in the 17th century by the Talbot Inn (Drake, 319; Hargrove, iii, 376–7). It is large and of brick, with the main part set back from the street and side wings coming forward. A sketch of c. 1800 shows two wings, one with a gabled end (YCL, Evelyn Coll. No. 195), but both were rebuilt after 1850. A pedimented portico was added to the central entrance c. 1770 and in the 19th century was reset in front of an added porch. Corinthian columns forming a screen in the entrance hall are also of c. 1770. Turrets were added to the back in the late 19th century. The house has been occupied as a school since the late 19th century and by the York College for Girls since 1907. It now intercommunicates with adjoining buildings and modern additions.

The S.W. front to Petergate has a main block five bays wide, with the centre bay projecting slightly. The first floor is marked by a plain plat-band, and at the wall head is a deep Doric entablature with triglyphs irregularly spaced to follow the windows below. The portico, reset in front of the later porch, has Roman Doric columns, fluted frieze and pedjment. Tall hung-sash windows are set under flat arches of gauged brick. The dormer windows have pedimented gables. The back is also five bays wide and the top of the wall was heightened or rebuilt in the later 19th century with a timber cornice in 18th-century style.

The interior is well finished but has undergone some alteration in the removal of partition walls and the refitting of rooms. Some of the rooms retain original panelling, but the back room to S.E. was refitted in the late 18th century. Fireplaces were mostly replaced in the 19th century. The main staircase is of unusual design: each of the cantilevered steps carries three balusters, one having an entwined spiral stem and the main part of each treated as a column with capital and base, with square cornice above and square sub-base below, and a turned urn feature at the bottom. At the foot of the panelled dado is a rich carving of scroll and acanthus leaves. The ceiling above the staircase has a central feature illustrating in low relief Aesculapius and Hygieia with a child. The secondary staircase was rebuilt in the 19th century around a square well; it has close strings and turned balusters. Reset on the half-landing of the main stair is a door made up with six 16th-century carved panels (Plate 197) originally in the house of George Gale, in the Bedern. Gale, a goldsmith, was Sheriff 1532–3 and died 1556. The panels show, in low relief: (1) St. George and the dragon; (2) bearded man carrying knapsack, within inscribed border; (3) head of man wearing hood, within roundel; (4) arms of Gale surmounted by helm and crest; (5) double grape-vine; (6) bearded head within roundel.

Monument 344. RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 189

NMR Information

Full descriptio

(SE 60385205) York College for Girls (NAT)

1. LOW PETERGATE 5343 (north-east side)

No 62 (York College for Girls) (formerly listed as No 69)

SE 6052 SW 27/475 14.6.54

II* GV

2.
1725 and later. Brick; 2 storeys. Set back with side wings projecting to street, which were rebuilt late C19 5 sash windows iwth flat brick arches; stone band with flat brick arches; stone band between storeys; centre bay (one window) breaks forward and now contains the entrance which now projects
to street by the addition of a C19 porch; semi-circular headed doorcase with radial fanlight and Roman Doric portico, fluted frieze, dentil cornice and pediment; full Doric entablature at eaves; moulded wood eaves cornice; 3 pedimented dormers; slates. Two storey projecting side wings in keeping with the original. The interior retains original features including notable staircase beneath decorated plaster ceiling. (RCHM Vol. V, Monument 344.)

Sources

1 Ordnance Survey Map. OS 1:2500 1962.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p190 City of York, June 1983.
3 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF061032 YORK COLLEGE FOR GIRLS, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

RCHME, 1981, City of York Volume V: The Central Area (Monograph). SYO65.

York Archaeological Trust, 2008, 60 Low Petergate (Unpublished document). SYO2328.

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