York Historic Environment Record

Shop and flat. c1880, with C20 alteration and restoration in 1991. Cream brick in Flemish bond with cast-iron shopfronts; slate roof. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and attic; 3-bay front. Shopfront on Composite columns and cornice on acanthus volutes with C20 plate glass windows and door. Similar shopfront on first floor has fluted Composite columns and dentilled cornice on acanthus volutes, with three segment-headed lights. Windows on second and third floors are 3-light replacements. Rear: 4 storeys, 1 bay. Openings on ground and first floors boarded up. Canted bay window rises through second and third floors, with sashes on both floors, centre one on second floor blocked, and 4-pane window on third floor. INTERIOR: no original fittings survive on ground and first floors. From second floor, open string staircase with turned balusters, turned newel and serpentine handrail rises to attic. Front room has Doric fireplace of marble, with triglyph frieze blocks and plain mantelshelf; cast-iron fireplace has angle roundels and tiled reveals. Moulded ceiling rose and cornice, partly restored. In room behind staircase is early C20 cooking range. Room at rear has marble chimneypiece with corbelled shelf on pilasters, and tiled reveals; plain ceiling cornice and rose. On third floor, front room has fire surround with corbelled shelf, cast-iron grate with floral frieze and pansy tiles; plain ceiling cornice and rose. In middle room, painted stone chimneypiece with chamfered jambs and round-headed cast-iron grate. Back room has marble chimneypiece with corbelled shelf, cast-iron grate and tiled reveals; canted bay window with panelling below 4-pane sash.
Listing NGR: SE6023051823

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

The building at 34 Coney Street has been modernised as a result of the retail and commercial use of the ground and first floors, with the insertion of modern windows in the principal Coney Street façade and windows replaced on the rear elevation for security purposes. However, the upper floors are largely intact and well-preserved with the original layout of the living accommodation of the apartment above unchanged. Many of the decorative plaster features, fireplaces, doors and skirtings remain.

No 34 Coney Street dates to c. 1880, replacing an earlier building on a similar footprint. From the original features still retained within the building, both externally and internally, and the preserved layout on the second, third and fourth floors it would appear that it was constructed as a shop on the ground floor with additional commercial space on the first floor, above which were the living quarters for the shop owner, John C Chapman and family, and a domestic servant. To the rear, the presence of the book press in the outbuilding suggests that this building was also in use as part of the premises.
By the turn of the century, John Chapman and his new partner, John Wilson), were also supplying typewriters which were a relatively new innovation introduced to offices during the late 1880s and 1890s. A single typewriter was an expense equivalent to a modern
family car. It was at this time, at the turn of the 20th century, that John Wilson’s young family moved into the apartment above.
The Chapman and Wilson branding was retained until the 1950s, although Mrs Wilson appears to have outlived both John Chapman and John Wilson and resided alone in the apartment above from at least the 1920s. This may account for the survival of many of the
original features and layout having been retained until the premises was sold on in the late 1950s as an outfitters. By this time, the upper floors were used purely for staff facilities and storage purposes, mainly restricted to the first and second floors. Again, this lack of use of
the upper floors has allowed for the retention and preservation of many original fittings and features.
The building retains many of the original windows, and the doors survive in the apartment.

The original layout of the accommodation can also still be understood, with the deep skirtings and more elaborate plasterwork and fireplace in the front room of the second floor suggestive of a main reception room which could be entered directly from the stair way opposite from the first floor commercial space. Within the centre of the second floor, but with the access tucked away from guests’ view around the corner on the north landing, was the kitchen and two pantries which are still extant and retain many of the features such as the floor tiles, range, cupboards and windows to maximise the natural light. The room to the rear of the kitchen may have served as a more private reception room or a dining room.
On the third floor were the bedrooms. The garret on the fourth floor was very plain in decoration and is likely to have been the domestic servants’ quarters. (Lanpro Heritage Statement submitted with planning application in 2021).