York Historic Environment Record

House, now flats. c1780; renovated and new wing added 1978. By Thomas Atkinson, architect, for his own occupation. Front of pink-cream mottled brick in Flemish bond on high stone plinth, with doorcase and cornice of stone, and dressings of vertically tooled stone: rear of red brick in stretcher bond. Stone coped slate roof with brick stacks.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic; 5-bay pedimented front. Central rusticated doorcase with moulded pediment on carved consoles set within shallow elliptical arched recess has door of 2 incised, 2 sunk panels beneath moulded fluted impost band and elliptical fanlight with wheatear glazing bars. Central window on first floor has shaped architrave with moulded cornice. Ground and first floor windows are 12-pane sashes with slender glazing bars and stone sill bands. Attic windows are 2- and 4-pane horizontal sliding sashes of 2 lights, with stone sills. All windows except first floor centre one have segmental brick arches. Moulded cornice to gable pediment contains cross-glazed oculus in moulded surround encircled by carved festoon suspended from scallop shell. Rear: 3-storey gable. Left part obscured by C20 wing. Segment-arched doorway in centre and 2-storey inserted bay window to right. Bay windows are tripartite; round-arched staircase sash window over doorway. Louvred roundel in gable end.

INTERIOR: RCHM records various simple contemporary fireplaces and 2 stone cantilevered staircases, the main one with cast-iron balusters and mahogany handrail.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 201-202). Listing NGR: SE6053351999

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

House, No. 20, is substantial, three-storeyed, and of the late 18th century. The style of the front is similar to work designed by Thomas Atkinson. Atkinson is known to have purchased land in St. Andrewgate and was recorded as living in the street in Bailey's Northern Directory in 1781; it can therefore be considered probable that No. 20 was designed by Thomas Atkinson for his own occupation.

The house was economically constructed with walls of common brickwork with a minimum of architectural decoration and the interior appears to have been very simply fitted. The five-bay front is finished with a pediment with a stone cornice. The sills of the windows to the two lower storeys are joined to form narrow string-courses. The central entrance, set in a shallow arched recess, has a rusticated stone surround arched over a low fanlight under a pediment supported by consoles; the central window above has a stuccoed surround and cornice. The other windows have plain brick arches and reveals. Within the gable is a circular light with moulded surround and festoons to each side. At the back a two-storey bay window has been added; the pediment crowning the back elevation is more simply finished than that on the front, and the side elevations, where not concealed, are quite plain. The plan is simple, with the main stair placed in the rear hall between the two back rooms and a secondary staircase between front and back rooms to the W.

Inside, the N.W. front room has recesses fitted with shelving against the W. wall and below the ceiling is a simple cornice; some of the rooms retain simple fireplace surrounds and castiron grates. Both staircases have cantilevered stone steps; the principal one has cast-iron balusters carrying a mahogany handrail of roughly circular section. The balusters are simple, of hollow-sided square section.

Monument 383; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 201-202

NMR Information

Full description
(SE 60535200 - O.S 1/2500, 1962)

1. ST ANDREWGATE
5343

No 20

SE 6052 SE 14/498 14.6.54
SE 6051 NE 17/498

II*

2.
Late C18. Probably designed by Thomas Atkinson and for his own occupation. Brick on stone plinth with stringcourse at middle sill level; 3 storeys; 5 sash windows with cambered heads, the central window at 2nd storey with moulded architrave and reeded cornice; central doorway with segmental head and fanlight, and rusticated architrave with pediment on consoles; moulded eaves cornice; pediment spanning the whole front having bulls-eye in the tympanum with wreath and flanking swags. Unoccupied and under restoration when inspected (1978). (RCHM Vol V, Monument 383).

Sources

1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p284-85 City of York, June 1983.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF061065 20 ST ANDREWGATE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

Architect THOMAS ATKINSON 1770-1790 Leading architect in Yorkshire during reign of George III.

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

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