York Historic Environment Record

House, now apartments. 1837 with some C20 alterations. Designed by JB and W Atkinson. For Thomas Laycock Esq. Grey brick with stone dressings. Hipped slate roof.

EXTERIOR: 2 and 3 storeys. The entrance facade, facing east, is divided into 3 bays by paired brick giant pilasters with stone bases and caps. The left-hand bay is of 2 storeys, with 2 glazing bar sash windows on each floor. The narrower central bay has a C20 casement window with glazing bars at 1st floor level above the porch. The right-hand bay has 2 glazing bar sash windows on the ground floor, with a small sashed window to their left. The upper windows have been altered to correspond with the internal 3-storey arrangement at this end of the house. At both first and second floor level there are 6-pane sash windows. The ashlar porch has 2 Ionic columns in antis, and an entablature with cornice and blocking course. The side walls have round-headed windows within brick panels. The eaves of the main roof project, and the roof has a central balustraded flat surrounding a lantern light, with brick chimneys at each corner. Further chimneys on side walls.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM records good quality original plasterwork and fittings including cantilevered stone staircase with cast-iron balustrading and curved landing with 2 composite columns to windows. Entrance hall has arched recess and moulded ceiling; vestibule has pilasters, niches and domed oval openings. First floor has arcaded gallery around oval light well, with pilasters and round arches.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 69-70).
Listing NGR: SE6068850969

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

Fishergate Hosue was built in 1837 for Thomas Laycock Esq. to the designs of J.B. and W. Atkinson; it cost £4,500. Drawings preserved in the office of Messrs. Brierley, Leckenby and Keighley include a plan dated 1937, not exactly as built, another plan of the gorund floor, also dated 1837, marked 'now erecting', corresponding almost exactly to the existing house, and a plan of the first floor dated 1840 marked 'erected'. The house forms a solid rectangular block mostly of two storeys but partly of three, faced with white brickwork, with two low wings to NE and NW enclosing a service courtyard. The elaborate design of the cntral light-well is remarkable. The plan appears to be derived from Sir John Soane's plan for Tyringham.

The E. front is divided into three unequal bays by brick pillasters with simple stone capitals. The central porch has Ionic columns in antis. The fenestration was originally all in two storeys although the staff rooms inside to the N. were arranged in three storeys. The windows have been altered to correspond with the internal arrangement. The S. side has the lower storey masked by a modern addition, only one round-headed window being visible; on the first floor three flat-headed windows are flanked by round-headed recesses. The W. elevation is divided by pilasters matching those to the E., with the central part projecting. Some additional windows have been put in the ground floor. On the S. side three round-headed windows in a central projection light the staircase. The roof rises from widely projecting eaves to a central flat surrounded by a stone balustrade with a chimney-stack at each corner, and enclosing a lantern light. The service wings, which include stables and coach-house, are built of red brick; the coach-house has two segmental-arched openings, now blocked, and the windows in the range opposite are set in corresponding segmental-arched recesses.

The entrance hall has arched recesses in the side walls, some containing doorways, and a ceiling decorated with raised mouldings and rosettes. The inner hall has in the centre an oval opening in the ceiling to admit top light from the lantern above; to N. and S. are vaulted spaces with niches in the W. wall. The principal rooms on the ground floor are sub-divided by modern partitions and only one fireplace remains, having a mantelshelf carried on shaped and carved brackets. The staircase to the N. has thin cantilevered treads and iron balustrading; it rises in two flights with a segmental landing, opening between columns with scrolled and foliated capitals to a further small landing lit by round-headed windows.

On the first floor there is an arcaded gallery around the central light-well, which is surrounded by modern iron balustrading. Eight bedrooms and dressing-rooms have moulded plaster cornices but fireplace surrounds have all been removed.

The service quarters in the N.E. part of the main block are in three storeys served by a back staircase rising round an open well and having close strings, square balusters and turned newels. The two wings enclosing the courtyard have been much altered internally in conversion to offices.

NMR Information

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060549 FISHERGATE HOUSE, 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.