York Historic Environment Record

House, now shop and office. c1700, probably with earlier origins; altered c1985. Orange brick in Flemish bond with painted tile shopfront; timber cornice to pantile roof with brick coping and end stacks, one rebuilt.

EXTERIOR: 2-storey 5-window front. Glazed shop door between plate glass windows. First floor windows are 8-pane sashes with painted stone sills and segmental arches. Raised brick bands below and above first floor windows, that below broken by shopfront. Moulded dentil and modillion eaves cornice, returned at right end, with inverted bell rainwater head dated 1783.

INTERIOR: entrance hall has moulded and keyed round arch on pilasters, fluted on hall side and with panelled reveals to stairhall. Panelled staircase rises around open well from ground to first floor. Staircase has open string, panelled treadends, column-on-vase balusters and moulded handrail ramped-up to column newels: parallel dado panelling ramped up to fluted pilaster newels. Blocked doorway in bolection-moulded architrave at foot of stairs. Renewed round-headed radial-glazed staircase sash flanked by fluted Corinthian pilasters, one renewed.

First floor: plaster ceiling over staircase in moulded enriched cornice with circular centre panel and foliate spandrels. Large front room fitted with bolection-moulded panelling in two heights beneath moulded cornice. Blocked fireplace and panelled overmantel flanked by Ionic pilasters supporting enriched moulded cornice. To left, round-arched semicircular niche with shaped shelves on moulded brackets. To right, door of 8 raised and fielded panels to earlier staircase in keyed round-arched architrave. Small front room panelled in applied mouldings above dado rail: bold cornice with guttae over triglyph frieze. Eared fireplace in moulded surround rising in centre to cornice shelf, with broken pedimented overmantel panel flanked by foliated volutes.

Roof: ceiled above collar: three cranked principal rafter trusses visible.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 237-8).
Listing NGR: SE6077951588

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

House, Nos. 68, 70, was a substantial, well-fitted dwelling of the early 18th century. It incorporated in a partition wall, now removed, some timber framing from an earlier building. Two shops were formed in the ground floor in the late 19th century and these gave way to one new shop c. 1965, but the original domestic plan and fittings remain in the back part and upstairs.

The house is of two storeys with attics and cellar. The front has five windows across the upper floor, set under segmental arches, above which the wall sets forward slightly. A rainwater head on the front is dated 1783. The house is planned with two large rooms at the front and two smaller rooms with an openwell staircase between them at the back. The staircase is approached through a panelled and pilastered archway and has turned newels and balusters and panelled ends to the stops. Opposite the balustrade is a panelled dado with fluted pilasters opposite the newels. The staircase is lit by a large round-headed window, flanked by fluted Corinthian pilasters. Above is an enriched ceiling cornice. The principal room on the first floor is lined with bolection-moulded panelling in two heights, with dado rail and cornice; the upper panels are alternately rectangular and round-headed. The modern fireplace is flanked by Ionic pilasters and to one side is a round-headed niche with display shelves. The E. back room was refitted in the mid 18th century; above the dado, panels are simulated by mouldings planted over plain boarding. The fireplace has an original eared surround and the overmantel is flanked by foliated scrolls under a broken pediment; the designs are based on Batty Langley's The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Design (1745).

City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 237-8

NMR Information

Full description
(SE 60775159 - O.S 1/2500, 1963)

1. WALMGATE
5343 (north-east side)
Nos 68 and 70

SE 6051 NE 17/634 19.8.71 II* GV

2. Early C18. Brick; 2 storeys; 5 renewed sash windows; rainwater head dated 1783. The interior has good original features including staircase with turned newels and balusters, and a fireplace and
decorative plasterwork in the upper front rooms. The ground storey altered and with modern shop front. (RCHM Vol V, Monument 516).

Sources
1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p357 City of York, June 1983.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14/03/1997

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF061928 68 AND 70 WALMGATE, 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, p237 (Monograph). SYO65.

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

2021, 68-70 Walmgate (Unpublished document). SYO2671.