York Historic Environment Record

Ebenezer Primitive Methodist Chapel, now printing works. 1851, altered 1901. By JP Pritchett. Front of rusticated stone and white brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; rear of orange-brown brick in English garden-wall bond; pantile roof with brick stack.

EXTERIOR: semi-basement and 2 storeys; 6-bay front, outer bays breaking forward slightly. Outer bays have 4-leaf panelled folding doors beneath entablatures: windows between are 30-pane fixed lights with iron glazing bars. On first floor, outer bays have round-headed radial-glazed windows in round-arched ashlar surrounds with imposts. Remaining first floor windows and those on second floor are 12-pane sashes in fasciated architraves, with sill bands on both floors. Prominent moulded eaves cornice returned at each end.

INTERIOR: staircase at right end has cast-iron balustrade of geometric panels, turned newels and ramped-up handrail. Staircase at left end re-uses C18 balusters. The Chapel was sold for a printing works in 1901.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 52; Royle E: Nonconformity in C19 York: York: 1985-: 14). Listing NGR: SE6024951982

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

NMR Information

(26) Former Ebenezer Primitive Methodist Chapel, now No. 3 Little Stonegate, is of brick with stone dressings and has a pantiled roof. Designed by J. P. Pritchett, architect, and opened for worship on 13 November 1851, the cost was £2,274. It is said to have accommodated 1,000 persons (VCH, York, 414). It replaced the Grape Lane Chapel (28) nearby and was the most important Primitive Methodist chapel in York until 1901 when it was sold for £2,000 for use as a printing works, which still continues.

The front elevation, of white brick, is of two storeys above a semi-basement faced with rusticated ashlar stone. It is six bays wide, the bay at each end projecting slightly and containing a doorway at ground level. The windows have moulded stone architraves; those on the first floor in the end bays, which light staircases, are distinguished by being wider and round-arched. The rear elevation is of red brick and very plain.

In spite of many years of commercial use, the interior is fairly well preserved. In the chapel, a gallery supported on iron columns remains though all the seating has gone; the staircase at the N.W. end (Fig. 11x) continues to an upper gallery, which has an iron balustraded front. The staircase at the S.E. end has reset mid 18th-century balusters. Below the chapel was a Sunday School room in the semi-basement.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 5, Central. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1981.

NMR Information

An inventory of nonconformist chapels and meeting-houses in the north of England 1994 by Christopher Stell p190

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060237 RICHARDSON'S PRINTING WORKS, 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, 2003, Little Stonegate (Unpublished document). SYO2946.

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