York Historic Environment Record

House and Shop, No. 1, and No. 38 High Petergate, stands at the corner of the two streets with the main elevation facing Petergate. It was built in the 15th or early 16th century as a three-storeyed timber-framed range, four bays long, and in the late 16th century a fourth storey or attic was added. The elevations to Petergate and Minster Gates were rebuilt in brick in the late 18th century, and in 1804 the property was described as 'part rebuilt and divided into two houses' (YML, w1). Subsequently in the early 19th century the ground floor was altered and a range of shop windows inserted, probably for John Wolstenholme, bookseller, who was one of the occupants (Directories, 1816, 1823).

The four-storeyed street fronts are in Flemish bond and have sash windows with recessed frames; on the seven-bay wide Petergate elevation the central windows on the first and second floors are emphasised by moulded wood architraves and also by a pediment on the first floor only. On the short Minster Gates frontage and half of that facing Petergate is an early 19th-century unified shop front, consisting in all of six windows and three doorways, separated from each other by pilaster strips rising up to shallow enriched brackets. Above the windows are semi-elliptical tympana with fluted spandrels, and surmounting the shop front, at the angle of the two elevations, is a carved representation of Minerva, reclining and resting her arm on a pile of books.

On the back elevation the framing is rendered and there are later additions in brick, including two large chimneys. Inside, the framing is cased but the bay arrangement is readily apparent; on the upper floors, spine-beams are offset towards the front, indicating that jetties have been cut back. Some framing of the rear wall is visible in an attic room of No. 3 Minster Gates (272), including the original wall-plate and part of the late 16th-century heightening, with ogee braces. One room on the second floor has early 17th-century panelling and a fireplace overmantel with arched panels and fluted attached columns. Other fittings, of later date, include some 18th-century fielded panelling on the first floor and three staircases, of the early and late 18th and early 19th centuries, respectively.

'Houses: Market Street-New Street', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 5, Central (London, 1981). Monument 271

NMR Information

Full description
(SE 60295211-O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. MINSTER GATES 5343 (north-west side)

No 1

SE 6052 SW 27/361 14.6.54

I GV

2.
Includes No 38 High Petergate. C15 or early C16 with later alterations. Late C18 brick to earlier timber frame; 4 storeys; 2 sash windows. The longer return side to High Petergate has 7 sash windows with the central window at 1st and 2nd storey emphasized in moulded wood architraves, that at 1st storey with pediment; dentil and modillion eaves cornice. On the ground storey, including part of the return side, is a good early C19 shop front of 6 windows defined by panelled pilasters rising to a deep frieze which contains, above the pilasters, paired consoles with acanthus ornament and lion masks and, over the windows, segmental fanlights framed in lead ornament and set in large blind segmental pancels with reeded spandrels. The angle has a reeded column with acanthus capital and is surmounted above the light reeded cornice by a sculptured reclining figure of Minerva with her arm resting on a pile of books; 2 doorcases with rectangular enriched fanlights. No 38 High Petergate has
a small early C19 shop front with shallow bay window. The interior is much altered and the framing cased, but retains 2, C18 staircases, one early C19 staircase and some fielded panelling at 1st storey.

(RCHM Vol V, Monument 271).

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p223 City of York, June 1983

BF060850 1 MINSTER GATES, YORK File of material relating to a site or building.

BF112229 Miscellaneous photography for the Architecture of Shopping project Job number 2K/03894 (Fox Umbrella Shop, 118 London Wall, City of London) is in BF108792.Level 4 extents totals include missing prints which are recorded at level 5 but not at level 4.5.The file also contains the following miniature format film prints: MF00/0105/28 (location unknown); MF99/01282/12 (Oundle) and MF00/0125/23 (Totnes).The file also contains a file print which has been added to the CMU spreadsheet, reference FF83/00087 which is believed to be 93 London Road Reading.The file contains a copy neg, AA035322, from the J. Parkinson Collection of Woolworth shops which has been identified as being a store in Canterbury.

RCHME, 1981, City of York Volume V: The Central Area (Monograph). SYO65.

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