York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.40 GOODRAMGATE. Pair of houses; now restaurant and shop. Early C18 with C19 and C20 alterations and extensions; C20 shopfronts. Front of orange-brown brick in Flemish bond to No.55, rendered to No.57A; timber cornice and shopfronts; hipped pantile roofs with brick stack.

EXTERIOR: 3-storey 5-window front. No.55 has small-pane shop window and door with divided overlight: No.57A has glazed double door recessed to left of plate glass window. Shopfronts flank plain passage opening, now closed by iron gate. On first floor, No.55 has two 12-pane sash windows with flat arches of gauged brick and 2-light casements on second floor. No.57A has three 1-pane sashes on both floors, taller on first floor, in plain raised surrounds with painted sills. Heavy moulded and modillioned cornice extends full width of front. Rear: through passage has round-headed rear arch with moulded keyblock. No.55 has inserted bow window opening on to passage. Ground floor of No.57A obscured by extensions to adjacent property.

INTERIOR: No.57A only inspected: it has close string staircase with turned balusters and flat moulded handrail ramped up to square newels with attached half balusters survives between first and second floors. RCHM records similar staircase to No.55. No.57A is a new addition to the list.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 140). Listing NGR: SE6048652074

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

57a converted into commercial/retail use but is currently vacant (2016). As set out above, the upper floors of the building have been converted into residential use, with the exception of the first floor front room to Goodramgate and the stair lobby.The property has a three bay rendered frontage with sash windows on the upper floors and a heavily moulded and modillioned cornice which extends across the full width of nos.55 and 57a. It has a modern 20th century shopfront.

The plan form of the building was historically comprised of a front and rear room on each floor, separated by a transverse staircase. The ground floor of the building is open plan although the historic divisions between the front and rear rooms are visible in the remaining supportive structure. The rear rooms of the upper floors have been incorporated into the residential conversion and are now disconnected from the front room of the building which is accessed from a ground to first floor modern 20th century staircase which is not of special interest. There is a surviving 18th century staircase from the first floor upwards. The interior of the building has been extensively altered and the majority of historic features removed. The first floor room retains some features of historic interest including an 18th century moulded door architrave and panelled reveal, and a moulded cornice. The ground floor is a modern shop unit with no features of architectural or historic interest.
The significance of the building is principally attributed to its age, appreciable from the main elevation to Goodramgate and the historic features that survive in the upper floors.

The building plan has been altered, but there are fragmentary remains which enable the former historic plan to be understood and the dividing wall between 57a and 57 remains. The legibility of 57a as a former house is manifested in its domestic proportions and evidenced on the upper floors where the proportions of the front rooms and architectural features such as doorways and the staircase remain. Externally, the building is not clearly legible as a house but its age can be appreciated and the frontage contributes to the character and appearance of Goodramgate and its role within the Central Historic Core Conservation Area.

55-57 Goodramgate Heritage Statement

196) Houses, Nos. 55, 57, of three storeys, have walls of brick and pantiled roofs. They were built in the second quarter of the 18th century as a pair on a U-plan, formed by a front range with wings of unequal length projecting to the rear, separated by an open passage. Each house has a single room in the front range and, in the wing behind, a transverse staircase and one or two rooms, but in both houses the ground floors have been wholly altered.

The front elevation is five bays wide of which three, forming part of No. 57, are rendered and have a modern shop front continuous with the adjoining buildings. No. 55 is in Flemish bond and has dressings of red brick to the windows and the band at second-floor level. Only the two first-floor windows retain glazing bars and on the ground floor is a modern window, inserted in 1964. The rear wings are in stretcher bond and have hipped roofs. On the second floor of No. 57 are two windows with Yorkshire sashes and leaded lights. Inside, the original staircases survive in both houses only at the upper floors; they have close strings and turned balusters with square knops.

Monument 196; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 140

NMR Information

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

BF060636 55-57 GOODRAMGATE, 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.

2016, 55-57 Goodramgate HER ST (Unpublished document). SYO1874.

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