York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Nos.15-25 and premises adjoining on corner of Southgate BLAKE STREET. Row of three houses and outbuildings attached at rear; now shops and business premises. Houses dated 1773 on rainwater heads; C19 and C20 alterations and shopfronts. Outbuilding dated 1766 on rainwater head, later partly incorporated into shop at Nos 19, 19A and 21. For Thomas Haxby, musical instrument maker.

MATERIALS: houses of orange-brown brick in Flemish bond, No.21A painted; original timber doorcase to No.17; timber cornice and brick stacks to hipped slate roof in two ranges parallel to street. Outbuildings of orange-brown brick in Flemish bond, part rendered; slate and plain tile roofs.

EXTERIOR: 4 storey, 6-bay front. Doorcase to No.17 has plain pilasters with imposts, frieze and cornice on beaded consoles: 6 fielded panel door in round-arched architrave with fluted impost band: frieze and spandrels enriched with festooned paterae. Windows are of various types, some casements, some 1-pane sashes, some 4-pane sashes: on third floor, squat 4- or 6-pane sashes. First floor windows have sill band, others painted sills; all have flat arches of gauged brick. Inverted bell rainwater head, dated and initialled TH, at each end of modillion cornice. Outbuildings 2 storeys and 3 storeys. 2-storey part has 6-panel door within passage linking it with No.15; outside doorways closed by boarded doors: on first floor, board lifting door to left, to right 20-pane fixed light window. Pyramidal roof has two roof lights. 3-storey part incorporated into No.21 has 2- and 3-light casement windows with transoms. Raised bands to first and second floors carried over at first floor from 2-course brick band on lower building. To right of eaves, inverted bell rainwater head dated 1766, initialled TH.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM records original staircases, from first-floor upwards, with turned balusters with square knops, and square newels above, all with moulded handrails. Various original 6-panel doors and simple fireplaces.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 109; York Historian: Haxby D and Malden J: Thomas Haxby of York (1729-1796): York: 1978-: 43-55).
Listing NGR: SE6017452010

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


Range of three houses, Nos. 15–21 (odd), of four storeys, with brick walls and slated roofs, was built by Thomas Haxby, musical instrument maker, in or shortly before 1773 (YCA, E96, f. 86). Each house was planned with a central transverse toplit staircase between front and back rooms. On the second floor, each front room was originally divided into two small bedrooms, and many others have since been partitioned for offices. The ground floors have been gutted for use as shops.

The front elevation, in Flemish bond, is six bays wide. The windows diminish in height on each successive storey, have flat arches of rubbed brick, and are joined by a continuous sill-band on the first floor; only a few sashes retain glazing bars. Nos. 15, 17 has an original door-case with arched fanlight, but otherwise there are modern shop fronts on the ground floor. At each end is a dated rainwater head, TH 1773. On the rear elevation, the windows have elliptical arches. Inside, the original staircases remain from the first floor upwards and have typical turned balusters of the period with square knops; up to the second floor, the flights have cut strings and, above that, close strings with square newel-posts. Other fittings include moulded architraves, doors of six fielded panels, and moulded cornices to some rooms. Several fireplaces have been removed and those which remain are of fairly simple character.

A separate three-storey brick building behind Nos. 19, 21, with rainwater head, TH 1766, was probably used as a work-shop.

Monument 74; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 109

NMR Information:
613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey
BF060364 15-21 BLAKE STREET, 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.