York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Nos.15, 17 AND 19 BLOSSOM STREET. Two houses, later chaplains' residence; now part of convent and Pastoral Centre. No.19 rebuilt 1837 incorporating remains of mid and late C18 house; remodelled and combined with rebuilt No.21 in 1845-47; C20 alterations and extensions. Mid C19 remodelling by GT Andrews for the Bar Convent. Red brick in Flemish bond with some stone dressings. Slate roof.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and 7 bays. The facade has a stone plinth and a dentilled and modillioned cornice gutter, and the brickwork of the 2nd floor differs in colour from that below. The windows are glazing bar sashes with rubbed brick flat arches. The left-hand window on the ground floor has external shutters with 3 raised and fielded panels to each leaf. The 1st and 3rd bays contain low blocked cellar openings, and the 7th bay contains 2 cellar openings. The 2nd and 6th bays contain doorcases with engaged Doric columns, fanlights, and doors with 6 recessed panels. The left-hand doorway has short iron railings to its external steps. Chimney at right in front of ridge. Ridge chimneys with truncated caps at left, between 3rd and 4th bays, and between 6th and 7th bays.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM records that fittings include C18 open string staircase with turned balusters and handrail wreathed at foot on turned newel; re-used doors and doorcases c1760; other fittings including doorcases with fluted surround and angle roundels are c1837. No.21 has staircase with cast-iron balustrade.

(RCHME: City of York: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 63; 124). Listing NGR: SE5971151375

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

NMR Information

BF060376 19 BLOSSOM STREET, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

No. 19, is on the site of an older house rebuilt in c. 1760, and in 1761 occupied by William Thornton, clockmaker (YCA, E.94, f. 34v.); of this house some external walling at the rear, the staircase and some doors, remain. It was later tenanted by William Green, esq.; in 1781 it was sold to Mrs. Ann Aspinall, Superior of the Bar Convent (E.94, f. 235); and William Hotham (Alderman from 1792; Lord Mayor, 1802 and 1819) was tenant from 1791 until his death on 8 August 1836 (Skaife MS.).

There was work on the house in 1791–3, but details are not available. The architect was Thomas Atkinson; John Prince was paid for bricks, plaster and work; Richard Hansom was responsible for carpentry, Mr. Croft for lead and glass, Mr. Haxby for ironwork, Mr. Smith for painting, Mr. Rusby for slates, and Mr. Fothergill for fixtures (Bar Convent Archives, 7 B 2(4)). A bill presented by Richard Hansom, specifically for this house, mentions work on the staircase, including a centre for a Venetian window, cutting a way for the stairs and hipping a roof over it, and various cornices (7 B 2 (8)).

In c. 1815, the front of the house was taken down and rebuilt by Thomas Rayson (receipt dated 17 May 1821, 7 B 3(11)). A plan of the house by J. B. and W. Atkinson, dated August 1834, was doubtless a prelude to the alterations of 1837, to produce a residence for the chaplain (7 B 9 and 7 B 10). Richard Hansom provided staircase wainscotting and repaired bannisters (7 B 9(2)); took out front windows and refitted the sashes and shutters, removed the door-case, and provided a new front and a back staircase (7 B 10(1) and (3)). Richard Dalton provided bricks, lime and cement (7 B 9(5)); Matthew Walker did plumbing and glazing (7 B 9(6)) and in particular was paid 'for 10 windows in front glazing Best, for glass 12 squares each containing 213 feet', a description of the present windows in the lower two storeys. James Haxby provided ironwork (7 B 9(8)); Michael Taylor stonework, such as thresholds, sills and slips for fireplaces, and also four fireplaces (7 B 9(15)). Perhaps the most interesting payments are to Judith Jennings for plasterwork (7 B 9(7)), the details describing many of the cornices and features still existing.

A lithograph of Blossom Street by Monkhouse of 1846 shows the house as still of two storeys, and indicates that a pair of windows to N, shown in the 1834 plan, had been replaced by one (probably in 1837) and that the doorway to S. must have been moved in 1847, when the staircase was inserted at that end. In that year G. T. Andrews added a third storey: work was carried out by William Shaw, joiner (7 B 14(3)), and John Ellis, bricklayer (7 B 14(5) and (6)); Henry Buckley provided window sills, moulded string, chimney pieces and hearth stones (7 B 14(7)); Matthew Walker did roof work in lead; Richard Knowlson plastered; and John Henry Cattley put best Bangor slates on the roof with copper nails. The house may have been divided at this time and the S. end combined with No. 21, newly built (1845), the new staircase being provided to give access to this complex; its iron balusters are characteristic of G. T. Andrews's work.

The front to Blossom Street, of six irregularly spaced bays, is of good quality red brick with a stone plinth, moulded and modillioned cornice, and a Welsh slate roof, hipped to S. At ground floor, the doorways each have two engaged, fluted columns with moulded caps and bases, supporting an entablature with plain frieze and moulded cornice; over the doors are radial fanlights. The doorway to S. was reset in 1847 and is not aligned with the windows above. The sash windows have flat rubbed brick arches and stone sills, and six windows at first floor are similar. Although the second storey was an addition of 1847, the brick and windows match up well with those below, but the windows are not quite so tall. No. 21 has a single window to each storey and is entered from No. 19.

The back of No. 19 shows the different builds clearly, the 18th-century work being in red brick and the additions of 1847 in large buff brick. To N., running through two storeys, are two red brick pilasters (c. 1760), between which is an infill of later brick with sash windows (1847). Against the second bay is a modern annexe, blocking a round-headed stair light at first floor. A projecting third bay, of late 18th-century brick, is lit at each floor by a large sash window with slightly segmental arch and thin stone sill.

At the top of the first floor is a coping of stone flags on projecting blocks, representing the top of the house of c. 1760; in the recessed part, a lower band produces the effect of a parapet. The second floor is all of large brick of 1847. A fourth bay, slightly recessed and refaced from top to bottom in 1847, has at ground floor a doorway, cloaked by a one-storey annexe, with a sash window to S., both of c. 1760, reused. To S., again, a fifth bay, brought forward in 1847 to align with the back of No. 21, contains a large round-headed stair window with hung sashes and small marginal panes.

The interior fittings include doors and doorcases of c. 1760 and a staircase of the same date with cut string and turned balusters with plain umbrella-shaped knops spiralling at the bottom over a heavy newel similar in form to the balusters. Many of the fittings are of 1837, exemplified by a doorway in the stair hall. The S. staircase, of 1847, has cast-iron balusters.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972. Monument 44

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

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