York Historic Environment Record

Fire station and house; now flats. 1845, converted to residential use c1973. By GT Andrews. For The Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Co. Ground floor of orange-cream brick in stretcher bond and painted stone; first floor of orange brick in Flemish bond; timber modillion cornice to slate roof with brick stack.

EXTERIOR: 2-storey 5-window front. Openings to three fire-engine houses, now blocked, flanked by Tuscan pilasters supporting entablature with prominent moulded cornice. Recessed front doors at each end flank 18-pane sash windows in engine-house blocking. First floor windows are 12-pane sashes with orange gauged brick arches, over stone sill band.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 202). Listing NGR: SE6057652063

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

No.44 was built in 1845 as the fire station of the Yorkshire Fire and Lie Insurance Company. Designed by G.T. Andrews. Converted to housing in 1970s. Two storeys of brick. The front is divided up by four Doric pilasters.

Yorkshire: York and the East Riding By Nikolaus Pevsner, David Neave p.230

Former Fire Station, No. 44, was built in 1845. The Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company, founded in 1824 and operating a fire service from Eyre's coach-house in Petergate, in 1826 or 1828 set up its own fire station in New Street (present No. 8 (288)), from which it operated two engines. In 1830 York Corporation transferred its fire establishment to the company. The St. Andrewgate property was bought in 1845 for £390; G. T. Andrews was paid £52. 15s. for his work in designing the buildings and superintending the works, which cost £1,055. 13s. The main building housed the 'new large Size Improved Carriage Fire Engine . . . Painted Blue picked Red and varnished . . . Writing on each side of Engine in Gold Letters, shaded, EBOR and in front YORKSHIRE FIRE & LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 1845'. Much of the maintenance work was to be done on the premises, but the horses were housed elsewhere. In 1875 the privately-owned fire service was abandoned and the 'Yorkshire' made over to the Corporation all their engines and plant, with free use of the St. Andrewgate Fire Station and cottage for seven years, an option to purchase, and a contribution towards the expenses of the Corporation Brigade. About 1889 the Corporation built its own station in Clifford Street, and the St. Andrewgate building was used by the Company as its stationery store. It was sold in 1973 for residential use.

The front elevation is of two storeys. Piers with attached Doric pilasters frame three wide openings for the horse-drawn fire engines and two side doorways beneath rectangular fanlights leading to passages along the boundary walls. The pilasters support a continuous entablature. The main openings were later blocked with brick panels containing large windows. Above are five evenly-spaced sash windows with recessed frames and flat-arched heads of gauged brickwork, and a continuous stone string-course at sill level. Over the windows is a deep plain stucco entablature with shaped brackets supporting the cornice of the slate roof. The upper storey extends over the front part of the building only. The rear of this block is of brick, with irregularly-spaced sash windows above the roofs of the single-storey extension, which is top-lit, of two bays, and had a double gable with a low central doorway flanked by sash windows. The door was later blocked and replaced by a new entrance under the left-hand sash window. Gable barge-boards project on the purlin ends.

The ground plan consists of two side passages flanking a single space for the engines, which is partly obstructed by a rounded stair-well. The beam supporting the back wall is supported at mid-point by a cast-iron column with a capital characteristic of Andrews. The upper floor, reached by two flights of stone steps with cast-iron balusters, comprises four main and two subsidiary rooms.

A contemporary cottage at the rear is of two storeys, each of two rooms, with a straight staircase. It is of rendered brickwork with a pantiled roof.

Monument 388; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 202

NMR Information

BF061074 44 ST ANDREWGATE, 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 (Monograph). SYO65.

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