York Historic Environment Record

See 2024 heritage statement for recent images, floor plans and detailed description of all floors.



House, now shop. 1748, altered, subdivided and partly raised at rear c1830; altered further with new shopfront in C20. For Ralph Yoward. Orange brick in Flemish bond with painted stone dressings; prominent dentil and modillion cornice of timber; pantile hipped roof with brick stacks.

EXTERIOR: 3-storey 5-bay front. First floor windows are 1-pane sashes with painted stone sills and triple keyed flat arches of rubbed brick. Three second floor windows are 6-pane sashes similarly treated; fourth window altered to 16-pane sash. Raised second floor band. Original rainwater goods at right of centre with fine hopper embossed with cherub head, dated 1748, initialled RY; at right end, fluted inverted bell rainwater head. Rear: round-arched staircase window with radial glazed sashes: other windows are 6- and 16-pane sashes with segmental arches. Raised brick bands. Plain cornice to original part with dated and initialled rainwater head; paired modillion cornice to additional floor.

INTERIOR: ground floor: rear left room has plain fireplace with pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice shelf; moulded ceiling cornice. Triple-keyed round arch on pilasters with Greek key mouldings to soffit leads to stairhall. Stairhall and stairwell lined with sunk panelling below moulded dado rail; stairhall cornice enriched with egg-and-dart mouldings.

Main staircase to second floor has open string, cantilevered treads, underside shaped and scrolled, column balusters, alternately plain, fluted and twisted, and serpentine moulded handrail, wreathed at foot around turned newel on shaped curtail step. Round-headed staircase window in Gibbs surround. Bottom flight of secondary staircase altered; upper flights to second floor have close string, turned balusters, square newels and ramped-up moulded handrail.

First floor: panelled landing with dentilled ceiling cornice; one doorcase has pediment, one dentilled cornice hood. Large front room: doorcases are eared with double doors of raised and fielded panels; walls panelled above dado rail with applied egg-and-dart plaster mouldings; dentil and modillion cornice. Fluted Corinthian pilasters flank chimneypiece with voluted eared fire surround, acanthus frieze and moulded cornice shelf: eared and lobed overmantel panel with corner rosettes, in surround of shell and flower drops and arabesques with garlanded top panel surmounted by pediment broken by shell. Same feature without fireplace repeated in opposite wall. Rear left room: two reeded doorcases with paterae and cornices; enriched cornice with ball mouldings. Rear right room: cast-iron fireplace with fluted jambs and frieze with paterae and garlanded vase in centre panel. Second floor: several doors are of 6 raised and fielded panels, some on L-hinges. Centre front room has three fluted doorcases with corner lozenges, one with 3-panel cupboard door.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 119). Monument 117; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 119



Listing NGR: SE6051151877

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

House, Nos. 18, 19, was built not later than 1748 for Ralph Yoward, attorney, who was receiver of the archbishop's rents. It was divided into two tenements c. 1830 and extensively refitted, the ground floor of the S. part being converted to a shop. Later a shop front was put in the N. part. In 1963 the S.E. angle was rebuilt.

The house is of three storeys above a basement. The front was originally symmetrical, of five bays with a central entrance. The second floor is marked by a plain plat-band, and the window arches, of rubbed, gauged brickwork, are interrupted by double key-stones. At the eaves, a timber cornice projects boldly. A fine rainwater head bears the date 1748 with the initials of Ralph Yoward. At the back the N. part has been heightened by the addition of a fourth storey of c. 1830. The storeys are divided by brick strings and there is a large round-headed window lighting the stairs. The other windows have segmental heads.

The original entrance hall, now lost, led to the main staircase at the back of the house and to the servants' staircase placed transversely to the S. and now approached by an entrance passage taken out of the S. front room. The N. back room was refitted in the early 19th century with a reeded cornice and a new fireplace. The main staircase, approached through an archway enriched with Greek key pattern, has cantilevered treads with scrolled decoration beneath and carved balusters, originally three to a tread, of which every alternate one has been removed. In the 19th century the staircase was extended up to the second floor in a copy of the original and using the balusters taken out from below. The bottom flight of the servants' staircase was rebuilt c. 1830; the original staircase remains above and has close strings, square newels and turned balusters with square knops to the lower flight and round knops above.

The basement, under the N. part of the house, contains a front room with a large fireplace which was evidently the original kitchen, a central entrance lobby originally approached from a passageway down the N. side of the house, and rooms behind. To the S., the servants' staircase originally descended from ground-floor level, but has since been removed.




NMR Information: 613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060485 18-19 COLLIERGATE, 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.

Blue Willow Heritage, 2024, 18-19 Colliergate HER ST (Unpublished document). SYO3086.