York Historic Environment Record

Two houses, now doctors' surgery and shop. Built in 1769 by Robert Clough. Altered in early C19 and C20. Brick in Flemish bond with some painted stone dressings. Slate roof.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys plus attic and 7 bays. The facade has a plinth, a storey band above the ground floor, and a dentilled modillion gutter cornice. The windows are glazing bar sashes (the glazing bars a C20 restoration) with rubbed brick flat arches and projecting sills. The ground-floor windows have panelled external shutters. There are 4 flat-roofed attic dormers. The ground floor of No.26 (the 2 right-hand bays) contains a C19 shopfront with timber pilasters and fascia, and a doorway recessed between 2 plate-glass windows. To its left the 5th bay contains an early C19 Tuscan pilaster doorcase with entablature and cornice hood, an overlight with glazing bars, and a door with 6 flush panels. The 2nd bay contains an original doorcase of engaged Tuscan columns, triglyph frieze blocks, fanlight, and open dentilled pediment. To the right of the doorway is a snuffer. At the right of the facade there is a rainwater downpipe with a lead hopper dated '1770'. Chimneys in front of ridge to left and right and near centre.

INTERIOR: No.26 was recorded by RCHM as containing an original staircase and ceiling cornices. No.28 is said to have rococo plasterwork in a ground-floor room and in the saloon above, and a roundel with Gothic cusping above the staircase. The staircase is said to have turned balusters with large plain umbrella-shaped knops. Some original fireplaces and some later ones inserted by Thomas Wolstenholme.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 74). Listing NGR: SE6016452331

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

Houses, Nos. 26, 28, were built in 1769 by Robert Clough, bricklayer and master builder of York, and the first occupants, in 1770, were Francis Smyth Esq. and Col. Robert Prescott. The houses were very well finished; notable among the fittings is the ceiling to the first-floor saloon in No. 28, probably executed by Robert Clough III, plasterer and son of the builder, baptised 1736. The front windows have been reglazed with large plate-glass panes and a shop front has been inserted in No. 26. The houses are not of equal size. No. 26 occupies three bays and No. 28 four bays. The original entrance to No. 28 remains, and at the side of it is a contemporary extinguisher. At the back round-headed windows light the staircases of both houses, and both have a small projecting closet wing, three storeys high.

Inside, No. 26 has lost many of its ground-floor fittings in conversion to a shop but the original staircase remains. On the first floor many of the fittings were replaced in the mid 19th century but an original fireplace remains. Throughout the house there are good 18th-century ceiling cornices. In No. 28 one of the front rooms on the ground floor and the saloon above have ceilings decorated with rococo plasterwork. Over the staircase the ceiling has a roundel with Gothic cusping. Amongst the fireplaces are later insertions by Thomas Wolstenholme; one includes a figure panel which also appears in overdoors at Bootham Lodge (57) and Garrow Hill (147). Some of the rooms have enriched ceiling cornices. The staircase is original and has turned balusters with large plain umbrella-shaped knops.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 74. Monument 128

NMR information

Full description
(SE 60165234-O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. GILLYGATE 5343 (south-east side) Nos 26 and 28

SE 6052 SW 13/236 14.6.54

II*

2. 1769. Later alterations. Brick; 3 storeys; 7 renewed sash windows with flat brick arches; plain band above ground storey. No 26 has an early C19 shop front with modern glazing and plain pilaster doorcase with entablature and cornice hood, and No 28 retains the original doorcase of engaged Tuscan columns, triglyph entablature, plain segmental fanlight and open dentil pediment; link extinguisher to right of doorway. Interior: that of No 26 largely altered but No 28 has a good
staircase and decorative plaster ceilings in 2 front rooms. (RCHM Vol. IV, Monument 128.)

Sources
1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest p. 108 City of York, June 1983
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF060588 26 GILLYGATE, 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.