York Historic Environment Record

House, now offices. 1752, restored 1975. Probably by John Carr for Robert Heworth; restored for York Civic Trust. MATERIALS: front of orange brick in Flemish bond, with quoins and dressings of stone; doorcase of painted stone; rear and returns of buff brick in English garden-wall bond. Timber cornice and brick stacks to hipped tiled roof.

EXTERIOR: basement and 3 storeys; 5-bay quoined front. Flight of steps to front door of 8 raised and fielded panels in doorcase of engaged Ionic columns supporting entablature and reconstructed pediment. Windows to basement, ground and first floors are 12-pane sashes, on second floor squat 6-pane sashes, those on ground, first and second floors with sill bands. All have flat arches of gauged brick with stone keyblocks. Raised bands to ground and first floors. Prominent dentil and modillion cornice returned on left side. Rear: Venetian staircase window with radial-glazed central sash in round arch flanked by narrow sashes with stone lintels. Other windows correspond to those on front, with gauged brick arches without keyblocks. Broad brick band to each floor, and to eaves beneath plain cornice on brackets. Right return: two levels of tall unequal sash windows towards rear.

INTERIOR: ground floor: entrance hall has eared doorcases with dentilled cornices; walls covered in plain sunk panelling with moulded cornice; plain stone fireplace. Front room to left fitted with fine plaster ceiling removed from Bishophill House, Nos 11 & 13 Bishophill Senior (qv). Fluted Ionic screen with bayleaf frieze and entablature leads to stairhall. Staircase with open string, turned balusters and serpentine handrail, wreathed at foot around bulbous newel rises to first floor in open well fitted with moulded dado rail. Staircase window of fluted Doric pilasters and entablature with dentil cornice. Most rooms retain moulded dado rails, cornices and chimneypieces.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 212).
Listing NGR: SE6068151948

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

Peasholme House, a substantial free-standing house of three storeys and basement, was built as a speculation in 1752 by Robert Heworth, carpenter, who in March 1752 acquired from Elizabeth and Richard Mosley 'a dwelling house with stables . . . outhouses, gardens and orchards', and in September of the same year mortgaged the 'new built dwelling house, stable, outhouses, gardens' etc. The house was let as a school from 1872 until its sale in 1884 to furniture removers, who erected a warehouse across the front of it. After a period of dereliction, the warehouse was demolished and the house restored by the York Civic Trust in 1975. Peasholme House is one of the most distinguished houses in the city and may owe its design to John Carr, with whose other houses it has features in common.

The front elevation, of five bays, has plat-bands at the floor levels and one joining the sills of the first-floor windows; at the eaves is a timber cornice with dentils and modillions. At the angles are stone quoins with alternate stones projecting. Flat arches over the windows have stone keys. The central doorway is flanked by attached Ionic columns; these carried a pediment which was completely destroyed and replaced by one of modern design. The back has brick plat-bands and no stone dressings; the bands are not repeated on the ends. Inside, most of the rooms have original moulded dado rails, cornices and fireplace surrounds; the entrance hall and the E. room on the first floor are more elaborately treated: the doorcases have eared architraves and cornices; the ceiling cornices are enriched and the walls have plain sunk panels. The opening from the entrance hall to the stair hall is flanked by Ionic columns carrying a full entablature with enriched frieze. The main staircase has an open string and turned balusters carrying a wreathed handrail, and is lit by a Venetian window with fluted Doric pilasters. The secondary staircase has close strings and square newels. A new staircase, from first to second floor, has been put in over the entrance hall. In 1975 a decorated ceiling from Bishophill House was re-erected in the E. room on the ground floor.

Monument 417; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 212

NMR Information

Full description

(SE 60675192 - sited from HHR map)

ST SAVIOUR'S PLACE 5343 (south side)

Peaseholme House

SE 6051 NE 17/521 14.6.54

2.
Circa 1752. Architect, probably John Carr. Well restored (1975). Brick with stone dressings; 3 storeys and basement; 5 sash windows with flat brick arches and stone keyblocks; long-and-short quoins
at sides with alternate blocks projecting; stone band at 1st floor and sill band at 1st storey; central doorcase flanked by engaged Ionic columns supporting a renewed pediment; dentil and modillion eaves cornice; hipped tile roof. Well restored interior with good staircase, decorative wood and plasterwork, including decorated ceiling in the east room on the ground storey which was brought here (1975) from Bishophill House, Bishophill Senior (q.v.). The warehouse which formerly masked the front elevation was demolished as part of the 1975 restoration. (RCHM Vol V, Monument 417).

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p304 City of York, June 1983.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF061112 PEASHOLME HOUSE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

People and Organisations
Architect JOHN CARR 1752 Principal architect practising in the north of England in the later Eighteenth Century.
Person of historic interest/notable pers ROBERT HEWORTH 1752 1752

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

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