York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.75 The Adam's House LOW PETERGATE. House, now shop. Dated 1772, converted to shop later. For the Dean and Chapter. Orange-brown brick in Flemish bond on slate veneer plinth; timber shopfront, doorcases and cornice; slate roof with stone copings and brick stacks: rooflight at rear.

EXTERIOR: 3-storey 4-window front. To right, door of 6 raised panels and patterned radial fanlight in round-arched architrave are recessed in panelled reveal of original doorcase with pilaster jambs, fluted impost band and dentilled cornice on attenuated grooved brackets. Replica door and doorcase inserted in blocked former carriage arch to left. Both doors approached by flights of moulded steps. 3-light shop window has similar surround with plain entablature. Windows on first floor are 12-pane sashes with painted stone sill band; on second floor, squat 6-pane sashes with painted stone sills: all have flat arches of orange gauged brick. Dentilled and modillioned moulded cornice, returned at right end, has dated inverted bell rainwater head, surmounted by the elephant crest of Dean Fountayne. Rear: staircase sash window with Gothick glazing. Other windows are various sashes, squat on second floor, with cambered arches. Some windows blocked.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM record principal and secondary staircases with turned balusters. First floor front room has fireplace with side scrolls and frieze enriched with paterae and fluting; moulded cornice. Many other rooms retain original cornices and fireplaces.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 187). Listing NGR: SE6034652085

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

The Adams House, No. 52, of three storeys, cellars and attics, was built for the Dean and Chapter in 1772. This date is on a rainwater head under the crest of Dean John Fountayne, an elephant proper. The 'large new house' cost £1,353. 8s. 10d. and was leased in 1775 to John Smith, verger, who let it to Silvester Richmond (YML, W2, f. 82). The ground floor has been converted to a shop and a former carriageway has been closed in to provide an entrance to it; otherwise the house has been little altered. The through-carriageway provided access to the Deanery, which stood behind the house.

The front elevation, of brick with a stone plinth, has a continuous sill-band to the first-floor windows; at the eaves is a wooden block cornice with dentils. The original entrance, with semicircular fanlight under a pediment, has been matched by a similar entrance in the blocking of the carriageway. Between them is a shop window made in similar style. Above, the hung-sash windows are set under flat arches of gauged brick. At the back the eaves cornice is of oversailing brickwork; the staircase window is round-headed, with arched glazing bars.

Inside, the ground floor has been somewhat altered. The main staircase has open strings and turned balusters, the secondary staircase similar, but simpler, balusters and close strings. On the first floor the saloon, at the front, has moulded chair-rails and cornice, and a fireplace with side scrolls and frieze enriched with paterae and fluting. Many of the other rooms retain original cornices and fireplaces of simpler design, with fluting a prominent motif.

City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 187. Monument 340

NMR Information

Full description

(SE 60345208-O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. LOW PETERGATE 5343 (north-east side)

No 52 [formerly listed as No 75 (The Adam's House)]

SE 6052 SW 27/481 14.6.54

II* GV

2.
1772. Brick; 3 storeys plus attic; 4 sash windows with flat brick arches; sill band at 1st storey; stone plinth; dentil and modillion eaves cornice; good doorcase on right-hand side with light cornice and open pediment on reeded pilaster consoles, and radial fanlight with enriched glazing bars; similar facsimile doorcase inserted in former carriage entrance to left of shop front, which is of similar style. Rainwater head dated 1772 with elephant crest of Dean John Fontayne. Interior retains many original features including staircase.
(RCHM Vol. V, Monument 340.)

Sources
1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p188 City of York, June 1983
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF061025 THE ADAMS HOUSE, 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.

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