York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Nos.70, 71 AND 72 LOW PETERGATE. Row of tenements; now shops and flats. c1500, early C17 remodelling as 3 houses with rear wings added; further alterations and extensions in late C18, early C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: timber-frame; front of No.56 cut back and refaced in orange brick in Flemish bond; fronts of Nos 58 and 60 rendered; all rendered at rear. Tiled and pantiled roofs with brick stacks; half-hipped dormer with 2-light casement window to No.58, 2-pane roof light to No.60.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys: No.56 has jettied first floor, Nos 58 and 60 jettied first and second floors; No.58 has attic: 2 windows to No.56, 1 window each to Nos 58 and 60. No.56 has altered C19 shopfront with full-width deep boxed fascia: glazed door flanked by shallow 3-light canted bay window on shaped brackets to left and divided plate glass window to right: at right end, door of 6 raised panels leads to through passage. First and second floor windows are 16-pane sashes with narrow painted sills and painted channelled wedge lintels. Modillioned moulded cornice. No.58 has C20 plate glass shopfront with 6-panel door.

First and second floor windows are canted oriels with 12-pane sashes. Moulded entablature and cornice. No.60 has a 3-light bowed shop window with moulded cornice on each side of glazed and flush-panel door: glazed and raised-panel side passage door at left end. First and second floor windows are tripartite bows with large pane sashes, and 'Britannia' firemark to second floor. Console eaves cornice. Rear: No.56 has gabled rear wing and massive stack with exposed brick fireplace and blocked oven on ground floor. One first floor window is 16-pane sash; on second floor, 2x9-pane casement window to left, 9-pane fixed light to right. No.58 has gabled wing with ground floor obscured by later alterations and 12-pane sash on second floor. No.60 has gabled wing with glazed and panelled door and 9-pane window on ground floor, 4-pane sash on first floor, 2x9-pane casement on second floor.

INTERIOR: No.56: ground floor: timber-framed partition wall exposed in side passage. Shop retains painted stone fireplace with basket grate in bolection moulded surround and moulded cornice shelf. First floor: front room fireplace has enriched sunk-panel jambs, frieze of garlands and urns, and plain shelf: moulded plaster overmantel incorporates Stuart Arms between arabesque and strapwork panels. 2-panel cupboard door on H-hinges to right. Early C19 staircase to second floor has close string, stick balusters, turned newels with bulbous bases and moulded flat handrail. Second floor: doors from landing include C17 square-panel cupboard door on H hinges, three early C18 2-panel doors, one on butterfly hinges re-used in later frame, and one 5-panel door to rear room.

Front room divided by stud partition wall. Small room has round headed grate in simple moulded fireplace. Back room has duck's nest grate in plain fireplace with moulded shelf. Staircase to attic has close strings, bulbous balusters on vase bases, square newels with half balusters attached and moulded flat caps, and heavy moulded handrail. Attic: stud partition wall between front rooms. Re-used original plank doors. No.58: ground floor: entrance hall has moulded cornice: moulded round arch on imposts, now blocked by C20 door, to stairhall. Shop has blocked corner fireplace in panelled surround with eared moulded overmantel panel; enriched moulded cornice. Close string winder staircase to attic has concave-sided stick balusters, turned newel and serpentine moulded handrail. First floor: moulded cornices to landing and back room: front room has cased beams with enriched soffits and moulded dado rail. Second floor: corner fireplace with C19 grate in C18 plain moulded surround in back room: timber-framed walls visible in cupboard off rear room. Attic: two re-used square-panel doors on cockshead hinges. No.60: timber-frame including studded partition walls substantially intact. Winder staircase from first to second floors has serpentine handrail and moulded dado rail. On second floor, door to rear room is plank with pegged on panels. Two altered crown posts survive in front range attic.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 189). Listing NGR: SE6036552063

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

Houses, Nos. 56, 58, 60, were built c. 1500 by Alderman John Stockdale and are mentioned in his will of 1507 as his new house in Petergate (TE, iv, 257). They form a three-storeyed timber-framed range, five bays long, with the upper floors jettied on the street front but not at the rear. Partitions between each bay suggest five original tenements but in the early 17th century the whole range was divided into three houses and two internal chimney-stacks were inserted, possibly by 1630 when the property, leased to Robert Waller, was described as a 'messuage divided into tenements, late of John Stockdale' (YML, S3(5)b, ff. 106–7). Other alterations at the same period include the insertion of attic floors and addition of timber-framed extensions at the rear in the form of a single gabled range to each house. Those added to Nos. 58 and 60 are contemporary with each other and of two storeys and semi-attic; that of No. 56 is of three full storeys and attic and may be a little later in date. No. 56 was refronted in brick in the early 19th century and about the same time more additions were made, in brick, at the rear of Nos. 58 and 60.

The front elevation has modern shop fronts. The two upper storeys of No. 56 are of brick in Flemish bond and have flushframed sash windows and a moulded dentil cornice. The jettied upper storeys of Nos. 58 and 60 are rendered and have canted or segmental bay windows of 18th or 19th-century date. The roofs of Nos. 56 and 58 are plain-tiled, No. 60 pantiled. The timber-framed rear elevation is also rendered, with a large brick chimney-stack to No. 56. Some framing is visible inside. The surviving front walls have posts with downward bracing and the first-floor jetty has a moulded bressummer, exposed during repairs in 1974. The cross-walls have downward bracing to the front posts and upward to the rear. The original rear wall has upward bracing from posts to wall-plate. The 17th-century rear additions have unbraced framing. The roof trusses have crown-posts supporting collar-purlins.

In each house the staircase is placed beside the chimney-stack. The top part of the staircase in No. 56 is of the late 17th century, with bulbous balusters, square newels, moulded handrails and close strings. All the other staircases are of later date. No. 56 contains, on the first floor, a 17th-century plaster overmantel with an achievement of the Stuart royal arms and there are several 18th-century fireplaces and doors. Inside No. 58 is a ground-floor room with early 18th-century fielded panelling and enriched cornice and on the first floor an overmantel with floral drops. No. 60 has a first-floor room with early 18th-century panelling in two heights.

Monument 343. City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 189

NMR Information

Full description

(SE 60375206-O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. LOW PETERGATE 5343 (north-east side)

Nos 56 to 60 (even) (formerly listed as Nos 70, 71 and 72)

SE 6052 SW 27/923 14.6.54

II* GV

2. Circa 1500 with later alterations. Timber frame; 3 storeys; the upper storesy of No 56 with early C19 brick facing and those of Nos 58 and 60 rendered; overhangs at 1st and 2nd floors; moulded bressummer at 1st floor; 2 flush sash windows; 2, C18 oriel windows and one C18 box window with C19 glazing bars. No 56 has a later modillion eaves cornice and massive lateral chimney at rear with blocked external oven, and altered late C19 shop front. No 58 has a modern shop front and No 60 a pair of bow shop windows with modern glazing. The interiors retain some early features including early C18 panelling in a ground storey room of No 58 and in a 1st storey room of No. 60. An upper room of No 58 contains a notable C17 plaster overmantel
with the Stuart Royal Arms.
(RCHM Vol. V, Monument 343.)

1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p189 City of York, June 1983.

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF061029 56-60 LOW PETERGATE, 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.