York Historic Environment Record

House, now students' residence. c1835; alterations and extensions of late C19; further alterations in C20.

MATERIALS: yellow-grey brick in Flemish bond on stone plinth, with white brick extensions; rear in orange-brown brick in English garden-wall bond: ashlar porch; some guttering is timber on paired modillions, some cast-iron; slate roof has central lantern with hipped roof and timber bargeboarded gables. Verandah of timber posts and cast-iron latticed panels with glazed pent roof.

EXTERIOR: 2-storey 5-bay front, 2 bays in centre and to left projecting: to right, 2-storey 3-bay wing with 1-bay extension. Tuscan porch with entablature projects in centre and has glazed and panelled double doors beneath keyed flat arch: above, 3-light square bay window projects over porch. On ground floor to left of porch are 3 tall narrow windows, on first floor one standard sash; at left end, there is inserted window with flat arch on ground floor and shortened blind 12-pane sash on first floor. All have stone sills and are 1-pane sashes except for first floor end left window. To right of porch, ground floor windows are C20 3-light casements, on first floor 1-pane pivoting windows. Wing retains 12-pane sashes with stone sills and flat brick arches on ground floor. One similar survives on first floor, with two altered to canted oriels with 1-pane sashes: right end extension has C20 2-light window.

Rear: 2-storey 5-bay front, 2 centre bays projecting beneath half-hipped roof: 2-storey service wing at left end. Ground floor of main house fronted by full width verandah: beneath, openings have been altered to French doors flanked by windows. On first floor, except for unequal 9-pane sash at left end, windows are C20 casements and top-hung lights. Eaves project boldly on massive paired brackets. Left return: narrow centre bay flanked by gabled bays with bargeboards on oversize brackets, the left one pedimented with eaves cornice on the same brackets. Left bay has square bay window on ground floor; right bay is full-height canted bay window: both have French doors flanked by windows. Except for C20 3-light casement window in centre of first floor, all windows are 1-pane sashes.

INTERIOR: ground floor. Entrance hall has 3 reeded doorcases with corniced overdoors of diamond latticed panels flanking raised central bobbin-like motif. Staircase to first floor has balustrade of twisted balusters alternating with arabesque panels, and light serpentine handrail wreathed at the foot around turned twisted wooden newel on a shaped curtail step: stairs are panelled underneath and have diamond latticed treadends. Large reception room with canted bay window has doorcases of flutes and paterae with lion masks in frieze blocks: corniced overdoors incorporate panels of plaster moulded classical figures: inner faces of doors are of 6 bordered panels. Dado rail is of flutes and paterae; acanthus cornice is enriched.

2-storeyed inner hall is top lit by rectangular lantern. Doorcases are fluted with attached paterae, doors of 6 beaded panels. Moulded round arch to passage. First floor. Landing has reeded round arch with attached paterae to inner hall gallery. Doorcase to first floor reception room similar to those in entrance hall. Doorcase to room over porch is reeded with corniced overdoor of diamond lattice centre panel flanked by elongated volutes. Ceiling has plaster leaf cornice. Upper level of inner hall is enclosed by cantilevered gallery with balustrade of square section railings with Greek key terminals. Three openings are fluted round arches with attached floral paterae on angle blocks: other doorways are corniced. Coved ceiling is coffered with bands of rosettes in foliage springing from paired console brackets. Lantern articulated by squat pilasters, at the feet of which are palmette antefixae. First floor reception room has door and window cases moulded as bound fasces with laurel garlands in frieze centre panel and end blocks: door is of 6 panels bordered in bead mouldings.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1975-: 75-6).
Listing NGR: SE6170750980

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

Garrow Hill, Thief Lane, now a hostel for nurses of The Retreat, was built as a large private house in the early 19th century; it is probably the house occupied by Henry Bland, banker and partner in the firm of Messrs. Swann, Clough & Co., from 1828 (Directory) till his death in 1835 (YG 14/2/1835). In 1836 Thomas Barstow was living there, having moved from Blossom Street, and the house remained in his family till 1927. The house has been somewhat altered externally with the addition of a large bay window on the E. side and the alteration of some of the windows to take modern casements in place of the original hung-sashes. Internally some of the rooms have been sub-divided but many of the original high quality fittings remain.

The house is of two storeys with walls of white brick and low-pitched roofs covered with slates. The main part of the house is a large rectangular block built round a central hall, lit from a lantern projecting above the main roofs. The entrance on the N. front has an added porch with stone Tuscan columns and entablature. The eaves on this side are of very slight projection. On the S. side and to the E., where there are two gables, the roofs have a wide overhang supported by paired brackets. To the W. two projecting wings enclosed a courtyard. The N. wing contained the kitchen and is little altered; the courtyard has been partly roofed over to form a dining hall and the S. wing, which formerly comprised storerooms only, has been drastically altered. The staircase in the entrance hall has elaborate iron balusters. A number of doorcases are original and of unusual design; panels in the overdoors can be identified as being from the moulds of Thomas Wolstenholme.

'Houses: De Grey Street-Heslington Road', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 4, Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse (London, 1975), pp. 69-76. Monument 147.

NMR Information
BF060660 GARROW HILL, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

RCHME, 1975, RCHME Volume 4, Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO2424.

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