York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: House in Judges Court occupied by offices of....and Lee CONEY STREET. House with front steps and railings, now offices. Early C18 with earlier origins; later C18 and C19 alterations. MATERIALS: front and both returns of incised stucco, rear of painted Flemish bond brick; painted and rendered chamfered plinth, and chamfered quoins and dressings of painted stone: timber boxed gutters on paired block brackets. Brick stacks on double span slate roof, gabled at right side behind flat parapet, and hipped at left. Stone steps with cast-iron railings.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, basement and attics; 3-bay front, 2 further bays to right masked by abutting rear wing of Nos 28 and 30 (not included). Basement windows in chamfered plinth are squat 8-pane sashes on each side of front steps. Steps lead to central front door of 6 raised and fielded panels with radial fanlight, in keyed and fasciated round arch on plain pilasters with moulded imposts. Flanking windows are 12-pane sashes with sills. First floor windows are 4-pane sashes with sills; gabled dormer with 2-light casement window to attic. Raised first floor band, returned on left side. Front steps with stepped-up flat handrail on square section railings, wreathed at foot around turned standard on shaped curtail step. Rear: basement and 2 storeys; 5 windows. Spiral stair to left of centre leads down to basement door. Two windows are blocked, the rest various sashes with painted sills and vestigial brick arches. Right return: basement, 2 storeys and attics; irregular fenestration. 12-pane sash windows flank inserted window on ground floor: on first floor, 4-pane sashes flank inserted 9-pane fixed light: left attic has 2x6-pane window, right one 9-pane fixed light. Fragment of 1-course brick string at ground floor impost level.

INTERIOR: cellars are brick-vaulted. Ground floor: rooms to right have bolection moulded doorcases. Both rooms are panelled: rear room has fine chimneypiece with fireplace of columns, triglyph frieze and cornice shelf; overmantel of panelled pilasters. Main staircase to first floor has close string, turned balusters and square newels with moulded ramped-up handrail and panelled dado to stairwell. Lower flights of secondary staircase renewed: upper flights have turned bulbous balusters and splat balusters to attic. Other rooms on upper floors have bolection moulded fireplaces. At rear left of first and attic floors, timber-framed partition walls are exposed. Roof constructed of re-used timbers. From mid C18 to 1806, the house was used as Lodgings for Assize Judges.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 123).
Listing NGR: SE6023451843

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

(133) Judges' Court, behind Nos. 28, 30, a house of two storeys, basement and attics, has walls of brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the very early 18th century but may incorporate part of a yet earlier structure around the S. corner room, where the walls have a slightly different alignment. The rear range of Nos. 28, 30 Coney Street is built against the S.W. front of the house and, though modern, it was preceded by an earlier range (map by Alfred Smith, 1822) which must have been standing when the house was built, as the exposed front is a three-bay entity, with a central doorway. By the mid 18th century it had become the Judges' Lodgings and continued in this use until 1806, when a larger house in Lendal (Monument (250)) was acquired; it was also let furnished to suitable families 'except at the Times of The Assizes and Races' (advertisements in, for example, YC, 17 Feb. 1767, 4 May 1779). It was announced to be sold in 1819 (YG, 12 June 1819) and in 1841 became the Minister's House for the New Street Wesleyan Chapel (30), which abutted it at the N. corner; it is now used as offices. A number of good original fittings remain, though some alterations were made in the 19th century.

The exterior is mostly covered with 19th-century rendering and has a high plinth containing basement windows. The front, S.W., elevation, partly obscured by the rear wing of Nos. 28, 30 Coney Street, has windows of the original proportions but with later sashes. The central round-arched doorway has a 19th-century moulded archivolt and is approached by a flight of stone steps of the same date. Stucco quoins at the W. corner may not be original but they obviously precede the general rendering of the walls, with which they are now flush. The rear elevation is of five bays but some of the windows have been altered; towards the S.E. end is a low addition. The two side elevations are rather plain with a few windows, some of them modern. The S.E. side has twin gables, but the roof is otherwise hipped with a flat in the central valley, 19th-century box gutters on paired brackets, and gabled dormers.

The front entrance leads into a porch with two inner doorways which are part of 19th-century alterations that reduced the size of the entrance hall. An alcove on the S.E. side of the hall has a large moulded cornice and contains two doorcases with bold bolection mouldings. The room in the E. corner is lined with bolection-moulded panelling above and below a dado rail and has a corner fireplace with surround consisting of plain columns carrying a full entablature with triglyphs in the frieze; the overmantel has two panelled pilasters on enriched scroll brackets. The S. corner room is earlier in style, with wall panelling in four heights. The room over this on the first floor has a large bolection-moulded fireplace, but most other rooms have early 19th-century fittings. The main staircase, rising out of the hall, has close strings, substantial turned balusters, square newel-posts and moulded, ramped handrail; on the wall opposite is a panelled dado. The back staircase has been removed below the first floor; the flights up to the attic have turned bulbous balusters, with splat balusters at the top around the well. In the attic, one room has a bolection-moulded fireplace.

City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 123

NMR Information

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060508 JUDGES COURT, 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.

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