Houses: Hungate-Low Ousegate

Hungate-Low Ousegate

High Petergate, see under Petergate Hungate

Hungate curves S. from St. Saviourgate towards the Foss, but it has been much altered since 1950 by the formation of The Stonebow and the building of the Telephone Exchange. It was recorded between 1161 and 1184 as 'Hundegat(e) in Mersch' or 'the dogs' street in the marsh', and was also called Merske Street. Excavations in 1950–1 showed that the site of the Telephone Exchange had been a Roman quay and then a pre-Conquest flood bank, with gradual mediaeval reclamation of the marsh beside the Foss (Arch. J., cxvi (1959), 51–114). The church of St. John the Baptist, near the S. end of Hungate, was disused by 1519 and sold in 1550. Much of the W. side of the street bounded the grounds of the Carmelite Friary (22), established here by 1295. In 1427 the mention of selions, presumably of arable, in Hungate in St. John's parish, indicates that the area was still open ground. By 1840 the street had become a slum, lined by poor tenements, cleared in 1936.

Jubbergate

Jubbergate first appears c. 1200 as Bretgate and by 1280 was called 'Joubrettegat' — 'the street of the British (Bretons?) in the Jewish quarter' — apparently to distinguish it from the other Bretgate, now Navigation Road, in the Walmgate area. The part of the street N.E. of its junction with Peter Lane was known as High Jubbergate and that to the S.W. as Low Jubbergate.

(240) White Rose Cafe (Plate 117) is now a free-standing building in the market place, though the position was originally, before the destruction of the adjoining properties, at the end of Jubbergate at the junction with Newgate and Little Shambles. It is of timber-framed construction, two-storeyed with attics, and formed of two originally distinct structures. The N.W. block, at the corner of Newgate, with a pantiled roof, was built in the 14th century as a two-bay range spanning 18 ft. The upper floor is jettied on the N.W. and S.W. sides and supported at the angle by a large dragon-post which is actually formed of two pieces, post and bracket, jointed together. The framing is of widely-spaced studs and is characterised by concaveshaped downward braces on the first floor, with additional straight, upward braces on the gable-end wall. The first-floor posts do not have jowled heads and the intermediate one on the S.W. wall has two blocked mortices for braces up and down, suggesting an original internal partition below the central truss. The N.E. wall is a modern reconstruction. An attic floor was inserted later and the roof construction is modern with no evidence of the original form.

The S.E. block, roofed with plain tiles, was built in the early 17th century and itself consists of two parts which may not be exactly contemporary. The larger one is a two-bay range with a span of 20 ft. and has distinctly higher floor levels than the earlier block; the first floor is jettied on the S.E. and S.W. sides and the gable also to the S.W. The attic floor is original and there is a cellar. To the N.E. and placed transversely is a narrow range with a span of 11 ft. and which is three full storeys high. It consists of three unequal bays and contains a modern staircase in a position where original floor joists have clearly been removed; the N.E. and S.E. walls of this part are of modern brick. The 17th-century framing is of fairly closely-spaced thin studs and has long straight, downward braces, sparingly used. The roof construction is not visible internally but clasped-purlins can be seen on the gable-ends. A large brick chimney-stack had fireplaces to each side, serving both ranges of the S.E. block on all floors, but the only original one visible is in the attic, with a plain chamfered four-centred arch. The whole building was extensively restored in 1928–33 (Brierley and Rutherford, architects) when many timbers were trimmed or replaced with new work; all the windows are modern and also the internal fittings, though a plaster cornice in 18th-century style in the large first-floor S.E. room may have an original basis.

King Street

King Street, continuing the line of Coppergate from Nessgate to King's Staith, is the mediaeval Cargate or Kergate, a name first recorded c. 1200 and meaning 'marsh street'. In the 16th century it was sometimes called Hatter Lane and later was First Water Lane. It was rebuilt in 1851 and renamed: the picturesque timber-framed houses, known from illustrations, were entirely removed. They had become notable slums 'occupied by the poorest and most disorderly part of the population'. The fact that a tenth of those who died in the cholera epidemic of 1832 lived in the three Water Lanes was a spur to their rebuilding.

King's Court (Monuments 241–244)

King's Court is a name now confined to a few properties on the S.W. side of King's Square. These were described in 19th-century and earlier deeds as in Coninggate, presumably a corruption of Coning garth, and the name was retained when the rest of the area became known as King's Square (see below). The name 'Kuningesgard' or King's Court, first recorded c. 1270 and Latinised as 'curia regis', presumably refers to a pre-Conquest palace of the Danish kings. This was perhaps centred on the remains of the S.E. gateway of the Roman fortress, approached by a former wide green between Colliergate and the Shambles. The S. side was occupied by shops called Le Marcery in 1430 and by the property known as Hellekeld, 'the dark well', probably the predecessor of Pump Court.

(241) House, No. 2, of three storeys and cellars, substantial and double-fronted, with a separate outbuilding behind, was built by Thomas Weatherill, who was granted a 99-year lease in 1775. By 1812 it was the Star and Garter Inn and later the Old Turk's Head. In the 19th century the house was extended at the back and joined to the outbuilding, which was turned into a bar. The front had a central doorway with semicircular fanlight, flanked by engaged timber columns carrying an open pediment. An additional doorway had been added at the N. end. The windows were graduated in size, and the sills of the first-floor windows were joined to form a continuous band.

The entrance was originally straight into the larger of two front rooms; the staircase, with original turned balusters, arose behind the smaller room. Some of the fireplaces retained original iron grates and timber surrounds. Demolished.

(242) House, No. 3, of three storeys, was built in the late 16th century as a timber-framed structure gabled to the street, five bays in depth. In the 17th century a large brick chimney-breast was inserted in the central bay. It was extensively altered in the mid 19th century: the gabled front was replaced by a brick elevation, roofed parallel with the street, and an elliptical spiral staircase with moulded and turned balusters was put in beside the chimney-breast. Much of the timber framing was then plastered over, but some remained exposed, especially in the back rooms. The roof over the rear two bays survived little altered, with common rafters, kerbprincipals under the collars, and two purlins each side. Demolished c. 1957.

(243) House, No. 4, timber-framed and of 15th-century date, is of three storeys gabled and jettied to the street, and four bays in depth. On the first and probably the second floors there were originally no structural partitions internally. In the 17th century a large chimneybreast, with staircase alongside, was built in the second bay, dividing the house into two rooms on each floor. The fireplaces in this chimney-breast had chamfered brick jambs and wooden lintels, but were altered in the early 19th century to smaller openings with hob-grates. The staircase, little of which survives, has splat balusters and square newels. The roof is of crown-post construction with collar-purlin and collared rafters. The house was built against No. 5 King's Court, utilising the N. wall framing of that house as its S. wall, whilst No. 3 King's Court (242) in turn was built against it on the N. side, using the same technique. Taken down and rebuilt 1963.

(244) Nos. 5, 6, two separate buildings, occupy the site perhaps to be equated with that called Hellekeld, 'the dark well', in 1376 and 1505 (Raine, 43–4; SS, CXX (1912 for 1911), 9, clxxxvi (1973 for 1969), 225–6).

The front building, parallel to the street, was a four-bay three-storey, timber-framed structure with at least a first-floor jetty on the front elevation, which had been remodelled and refaced in brick in 1755, and had 19th-century ground-floor shop windows. Rebuilt in brick in 1951, the new building retains the modillioned and dentilled cornice, and copies the second-floor band, sash windows and enriched rainwater head, inscribed H R 1755 for Hugh Robinson (YCA, E94, ff. 230v– 231), of the 1755 remodelling. Internally the ground-floor ceiling joists and two ceiling beams with mortices for braces up from posts survive, as does an inserted corner fireplace.

The rear building, which runs back at right angles to the front, is a 16th-century, three-storey, timber-framed structure, six bays long, divided by an approximately central row of posts into two aisles each with a roof gabled at each end. Restored in 1951, the surviving framing is fragmentary. The S.W. side elevation to Pump Court is jettied on each floor and has moulded bressummers. The ground floor, from a surviving fragment, had a sill-beam, downward braces and studs. Nothing survives on the first floor, but the second floor has downward braces from all principal posts, full-storey intermediate posts, and an interrupted middle rail with studs above and below. The S.E. wall, built against an existing front building, had no infilling except in its gables, and the N.E. wall, set on a low sill wall, has close studding. Internally, the central posts rose through three storeys to a transversely thickened head which supported cambered ties. The three surviving tie-beams have assembly marks and peg-holes for principal rafters only. The roof has been renewed. Indications of a few internal partitions survive. The N.W., N.E. and S.E. walls have upward braces at the second floor, and the central posts have upward braces, axial on the ground and first floors, transverse on the second. Other braces are inconsistently placed and must have been inserted to counter the marked settlement of the building. A stone-walled basement, under the whole front building and one-and-a-half bays of the rear building, has a scarfed axial-beam supported by massive oak posts set on reused column stones.

King's Square (Monuments 245, 246)

King's Square, at the S.E. end of Petergate, took on its present appearance only after the demolition in 1937 of Holy Trinity or Christ Church. Previously that church and its churchyard, although several times reduced in size, occupied most of the present square. In 1627 Duke Gill Hall, 'heretofore called the King's Court', lay on the N.E. side of the square in the angle with St. Andrewgate. Houses on both sides were often regarded as being in Petergate and the use of the name King's Square is first attested c. 1780.

No. 1, see Nos. 85, 87, 89 Goodramgate (202).

(245) House and Shop, No. 2, three-storeyed and of two bays, dates from the second quarter of the 19th century. It has a shop front with pilastered surround to the doorway on the ground floor, and two hung-sash windows with segmental arches of common bricks on each floor above.

(246) House, No. 5, three-storeyed, timber-framed and of one bay, roofed parallel to the street, is probably the 'new builded house' of Richard Hutton, erected between 1587 and 1593 (YCA, B29, f. 108; Wills, xxv, f. 1487). In the mid 18th century it was refronted in brick, and a three-storey brick wing of equal width was built at the rear. Above a modern shop front, the elevation is rendered and has two hung-sash windows to each floor; the roof is pantiled. Inside, very little of the framing survives.

King's Staith (Monuments 247–249)

King's Staith, York's principal riverside quay since mediaeval times, extends S.E. from Ouse Bridge to the former boundary of the Franciscan Friars' property. The name, meaning 'the king's landing place', may be connected with royal visits to York in the 14th century, but was not usual until the 17th century. The three Water Lanes, now King Street, Cumberland Street and Friargate, led onto the Staith. A public washing place, 'the Pudding Holes', lay at the S.E. end. The Staith was extended beside the Friars' Walls in the 17th century and heightened in 1774. The steps down to it from Ouse Bridge, known in the mid 15th century as 'Salthole grese' and later as the 'Grecian steps', were replaced at the building of the new bridge.

(247) King's Arms, p.h., No. 1, of two storeys and attics, stands at the corner of King Street (formerly First Water Lane). It has walls of brick, stone and timber framing, all externally rendered, and tiled roofs. It was built in the early 17th century, the apparent absence of original partitions and heating suggesting, on this river-side site, a commercial use. J. Farington's view of the old Ouse Bridge, made in 1783, shows the building with exposed rubble walls and framing. There was a thorough modernisation in 1898, which included new doors and windows, and the rear wing which faces King Street was probably entirely rebuilt. It was modernised again in 1973–4, when the old name was reinstated, having been known previously as the Ousebridge Inn. The thick ground-floor walls on the S. and W. sides, of brick and reused mediaeval stone, were probably built because of the frequent flooding in this area. The N. and E. walls were originally framed, but later rebuilt in brick. The framed first floor is three bays long and jettied on the S. and W. sides, with a dragon-beam at the S.W. corner. The original lime-ash floor in the upper storey survives under later boarding. All partitions and fittings are of the 19th century, or later. In the attic are roof trusses with clasped-purlins (Fig. 7q).

(248) House, No. 7, of three storeys in brick on a high stone basement, now solid, was built in the second quarter of the 19th century on a steeply-sloping site. The original entrance was at the rear, and a passage led to a transverse staircase. The ground-floor rooms contain moulded cornices.

(249) Cumberland House, No. 9 (Plate 138; Fig. 91), of two storeys with basement and attic, has brick walls with stone dressings. It was built c. 1710 by William Cornwall, tanner and brewer (Sheriff 1700, Lord Mayor 1712, 1725), and was occupied by the Duke of Cumberland on his return from Culloden in 1746. It was restored in 1950 and later.

On the W. elevation, the basement is above ground; it is faced with magnesian limestone and has a doorway with shouldered lintel between round-headed openings. The upper storeys, of five bays, are in brick with stone quoins and there is a moulded string-course at first-floor level and bold modillioned timber cornice at the eaves. The central window to each floor is emphasised by stone surrounds; the upper one also has an apron below. The plainer S. side, facing King Street, has the ground floor stuccoed below a simple plat-band and a small later eaves cornice; the stucco suggests that the lower part of the elevation has been remodelled. The entrance doorway has a bolection-moulded eared architrave between panelled pilasters with heavy console brackets, and a curved pediment (Plate 159). A deep recess in the middle of the N. side has been filled in. Original dormer windows are finished with curved timber pediments.

There is no communication between the house and the basement, which was presumably built as a quayside store. On the ground floor, in the middle of the S. side of the house, the dining room has a stone-flagged floor, suggesting that it was originally the entrance hall. Two reception rooms at the front, of unequal size, are both lined with bolection-moulded panelling. In the smaller room the fireplace is flanked by panelled pilasters (Plate 178); in the larger room the overmantel has more elaborate panelling, with carved volutes, and to each side are round-headed niches framed by pilasters (Plate 171). The main staircase has panelled ends to the steps, turned and twisted or fluted balusters, and newels in the form of columns (Plate 191); the ceiling above has a large oval feature (Plate 167). The service end of the house, to E., had a secondary staircase, now removed, with close strings and square newels (Plate 190). To N. is a modernised kitchen and to S. a small room with a 19th-century fireplace; further rooms to E. are modern. On the first-floor landing, doorways are flanked by pilasters and have arched heads. Two large rooms have been formed by the removal of partitions; one facing S. was originally three rooms and one facing W. was two, all with moulded cornices. Three fireplaces retain original bolection-moulded surrounds.

Lady Peckett's Yard

Lady Peckett's Yard runs S.E. from Pavement and is connected to Fossgate by a lane at right angles. The present name, from Alice Peckett, wife of the Lord Mayor of 1701, who died in 1759, was used by 1782 and originally referred to the open space into which the lanes led. Their earlier names may have been Bacus gail (the N.W.–S.E. lane) and Trichour gail (that leading to Fossgate), first recorded in 1312 and 1301 respectively and meaning Bake-house and Cheat's Lanes. One of these may also have been called Osmond Lane in 1410. See also Monuments (311) and (312).

Lead Mill Lane

Lead Mill Lane runs from Fishergate Postern to George Street (the former Fishergate), beside the churchyard of the demolished St. George's church. Although this is an old lane, marked on all plans of York after 1610, no name is recorded for it until after 1852. It received its present name from the white and red lead manufactory of Charles Liddell and Co., established by 1816 and closed by 1838.

Lendal (Monuments 250–254)

Lendal, the continuation of Coney Street from St. Helen's Square to Museum Street, was originally known as Old Coney Street ('Aldeconyngstrete' in 1381–4) but had received its present name by 1641 ('in strato Sancti Leonardi anglice Lendall Street'). This is apparently a contraction of St. Leonard's Lending (landing) Hill. The water-gate of St. Leonard's Hospital stood near the N.W. end of the street. Until 1538 the S.W. side was largely occupied by the grounds, extending to the Ouse, of the Augustinian Friary (21), founded in 1272. The most notable building is the Judge's Lodging (250) of c. 1720, built on or near the site of St. Wilfrid's church, demolished between 1550 and 1587. The main post office of York has occupied a building on the S.W. side of Lendal since about 1710.

N.E. side:

(250) The Judge's Lodging, No. 9 (Plates 113–115; Fig. 92), was built by Dr. Clifton Wintringham between 1711, when he came to York, and c. 1727 when it was illustrated on Cossins' map. According to Drake it stands on part of the old churchyard of St. Wilfrid's. The house stands detached, compact and tall, unlike any other in the city. A small two-storey service wing was added to the S.E. in the 18th century. It became the Judge's Lodging in 1806 and the service wing was extended from two bays to five, and later in the century a third storey was added to the whole wing. At the N. corner of the house is a boundary stone marked St. W. Inside, many of the rooms retain panelling with a variety of mouldings (Fig. 93).

The house is of three storeys, raised on a basement, and is of brick with some stone dressings under a double-span tiled roof. The front (Plate 113) has a wide central bay projecting slightly in front of narrower side bays, all defined by plain brick pilasters; the top storey is treated as an attic with stringcourses below and above. The central entrance is now approached by two 19th-century flights of steps, which replace an original single flight. The doorway is set in a stone centre-piece, with flanking windows forming a Palladian motif with Ionic columns; the arch over the doorway has a large key-block, carved with a bearded face, and over all are heavy festoons of fruit under a simple moulded cornice (Plate 113). Both the central windows above have stone architraves. The other elevations are plainly treated and the added wing has plain hung-sash windows and a central doorway with semicircular fanlight in the open pediment of a timber door-case.

The entrance hall (Plate 115) has the side walls divided by Corinthian half-columns under a full entablature. The Dining Room and Breakfast Room (Plate 115) are lined with fielded panelling under full entablatures and have pilasters flanking the fireplaces. The study is also panelled. A little room in the W. corner now contains a modern staircase, leading up from a small added modern entrance. The main staircase (Plate 115), which only rises to the first floor, is oval on plan and has oak balusters in the form of Ionic columns. The stairs are lit by a Palladian window with Ionic pilasters between the lights carrying a full entablature (Plate 114). The ceiling has a central panelled area bordered by groined coving. On the first floor groined plaster vaulting forms the ceiling to the corridor (Plate 115). The front bedroom is lined with bolection-moulded panelling above a dado of sunk panels, reused or partly reconstructed. The Drawing Room has simpler panelling of applied mouldings. Most of the rooms have original fireplace surrounds, many containing good early 19th-century iron grates. The secondary staircase has close strings and simple turned balusters. On the second floor, the ceilings have unusually large coves. The basement rooms, including the kitchen, are covered by three-centred vaults. They have been much modernised.

(a) Front Bedroom.

(b) Study.

(c) Drawing Room.

(d) Breakfast Room.

(e) Dining Room.

(251) Range of houses, Nos. 13–23 (odd), of two storeys and attics in brick, has a dated rainwater head of 1766. It consists of two 18th-century buildings with a common cornice of dentils and brackets of late 18th or early 19th-century date. On the ground floor are six shops, with modern fronts in a late 18th-century style. There is a straight joint in the brickwork of the upper floor between the two properties. The windows of the left-hand building are grouped, four and two. The right-hand building is of lighter-coloured Flemish-bonded brickwork and has five sash windows, all with flat gauged rubbed brick arches and stone sills. There are three rainwater pipes with decorated heads. The roof is of Westmorland slate, with modern dormers. The rear elevation is completely modern. Inside, few original fittings remain.

S.W. side

(252) House, No. 8 (Plate 6), which stands on part of the site of the Augustinian Friary (21), is narrow, three-storeyed, and mainly of the second quarter of the 19th century but incorporates remains of the 17th-century Lendal House, which was occupied by Sir Richard Osbaldeston and later by Sir Thomas Widdrington, Recorder (died 1664), and then by Sir Thomas Rokeby (Davies, 45). In 1704 it was bought by Thomas Barstow and part of it remained in his family's possession for a hundred years, but part was apparently sold to Alderman Baines soon after 1704 (see Nos. 10, 12, 14). The ground floor has been modernised for a shop.

The 17th-century remains are of two lofty storeys. The side wall to N.W., which fronts onto an alleyway, has the lower part faced with boldly rusticated brickwork. An original chimney between front and back rooms was removed c. 1950; heavy stop-chamfered beams and plain floor joists remain. The roof includes 17th-century timbers, reset.

(253) 'The Boat House' and Stable, behind No. 8, are both of two storeys in random-bonded brickwork, with pantile roofs of late 18th-century date. They were leased to William Hill, who ran Lendal ferry from April 1845 (YCL, Pedigree of Hill Family). Considerable modern alterations have been made to the house, and the adjoining stable range is used as a boat repair workshop. The S. end of the stable is built on part of the river wall of the Augustinian Friary (21).

(254) Houses, Nos. 10, 12, 14 (Plate 6; Fig. 94), were built c. 1714 as a substantial pair, of three storeys with basements and attics, by Henry Baines, alderman (Lord Mayor 1717, 1732) (see No. 8), and are shown in a drawing by Samuel Buck before 1725, and also in the margin of John Cossins' map of c. 1727. Later, No. 14 was occupied by John Goodricke, the astronomer, who died in 1786. The building was converted to shop and business premises in the 19th century, and further conversion of the lower part of the N. W. house (No. 12) from a shop to bank premises was carried out in 1959. The offices above (No. 10) have been occupied since c. 1880 by the successors in practice to the 18th-century architect John Carr, now Messrs. Brierley, Leckenby, Keighley and Groom. During the 1959 work in the basement of No. 12, moulded stone jambs of a 15th-century doorway were uncovered, probably fragmentary remains of the Augustinian Friary (21) which stood on the site.

The houses are each of four bays (Plate 6). A pedimented stone porch with Tuscan columns dating from the late 18th century replaces the original entrance to the Baines' house. Above the ground floor the walling is of fine Flemish-bonded brickwork with deep plat-bands at each floor, surmounted by a dentilled eaves cornice, a replacement probably dated to 1774 by a lead rainwater head. The square-section lead fall-pipe, secured by brackets decorated with a cartouche between two columns, is of early 18th-century date (Plate 181). All windows to the upper storeys have segmental arches of rubbed bricks; those to the first floor were widened slightly in the 19th century. The back elevation was originally of eight bays but the W. corner has been recessed and some modern single-storeyed additions adjoin the N.W. house. The basement is above ground. There are plat-bands of oversailing courses at each floor level and all the segmental arched openings have red brick dressings: the deep brick parapet has a moulded stone capping. Both end elevations have curved gables rising above adjoining buildings.

The interiors have been greatly altered, especially at the ground floors, but the N.W. house retains the original staircase with turned balusters, ramped handrail of oak and matching dado; each step has a marked overlap and has panelled soffits and ends (Plate 191). The ceiling above has leaf and paterae enrichment to the coved surround (Plate 167). The saloon, occupying the full width of the front, was refitted in the late 18th century in the 'Adamesque' style, including window architraves, ceiling and cornice, and a fine entrance door in mahogany with enriched surround (Plate 163). The second floor is reached by a 19th-century staircase. The attics have lime-ash floors. In No. 14, some of the rooms retain original fielded panelling. The original stair to the first floor has been removed: that to the second floor is similar to the lower staircase in No. 10. In the basement of No. 12 is a staircase with splat balusters (Fig. 11g).

Little Shambles

Little Shambles, leading off (Great) Shambles at the N.W. end and formerly continuing to the end of Jubbergate, was truncated by the creation of Newgate Market in 1955. Its name is first recorded in 1373. The hall of the Butchers' Guild stood in an area called Gail Garth at the end of Little Shambles. It was demolished in c. 1813 and the site is now occupied by the market.

(255) House, No. 1, of three storeys and timber-framed, with a pantiled roof, was built in the 15th century but has been heavily restored. It has a gabled street front, with both upper floors jettied out, and was probably originally two bays deep. The original crown-post roof structure has been entirely replaced, except at the gable-ends.

Little Stonegate (Monuments 256–258)

Little Stonegate, so-called since 1810, is the former Swinegail or Swinegate, taking a right-angled course from Stonegate to Swinegate (the former Patrick Pool). Its line is said by Raine to be due to the former churchyard of St. Benedict. The old name, first mentioned in 1276, is from pigs sold or kept near the market place. Ebenezer Chapel (26), on the S.W. side, was built for the Primitive Methodists in 1851 but became a printing works in 1901.

N.E. side

(256) House, No. 2 (Fig. 95), of three storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of brick in Flemish bond, and slated roofs. It is probably the house built between 1804 and 1823 by John Thompson (Chester Record Office, EEB 9448).

On the front to the street are twin arched entrances, one for a passage leading direct to a rear yard, the other to the house doorway, which is deeply recessed and has panelled reveals. The first and second floors each have two original sash windows in flush frames. The interior is mostly original, but the single ground-floor room has been opened out towards the N.W. and incorporated into the modern restaurant adjoining. The upper floors each have two rooms at the front; the staircase, which is placed behind, is top-lit because of a building immediately to the rear, and has square balusters.

(257) Houses, Nos. 8, 10, of brick, were built as a pair c. 1820–30, three storeys high with pantiled roofs, and with a central through-passage serving a two-storey brick workshop block at the rear. Each house has a transverse staircase between front and back rooms.

S.W. side:

(258) House, No. 1, of two storeys, has a front wall of 18th-century brickwork in Flemish bond, but has otherwise been completely modernised.

Low Ousegate (Monuments 259–266)

Low Ousegate, divided from its continuation of High Ousegate by the crossing of the main N.W.–S.E. street, shows little sign of its antiquity. It was formerly much narrower and there were houses standing between St. Michael's church and the street frontage; one of these houses was rebuilt in 1734 to widen the junction with Spurriergate, and in 1769 the S.E. side of the street was set back. In 1810–20, during the reconstruction of Ouse Bridge, the whole of the N.W. side, which had consisted of timber-framed houses (Cave, Plate 4), was demolished and rebuilt further back to double the width of the street. A drawing for the new bridge by Peter Atkinson junior (Brierley, Leckenby, Keighley and Groom) shows a design for the facade of a range of houses and shops on this side, but though the buildings erected bear a general resemblance, being four-storeyed and each two bays wide, they may not necessarily have been designed by that architect. No. 2, immediately beside Ouse Bridge, has recently been rebuilt.

N.W. side:

(259) Houses and Shops, Nos. 4, 6, 8, a pair, are of stock brick in Flemish bond. The windows have hung sashes in flush frames, but most of the glazing bars have gone.

(260) Houses and Shops, Nos. 10, 12, a pair, are of facing brick in Flemish bond, but No. 10 has been overpainted. The windows have hung sashes in recessed frames and flat arches of gauged brick. Between the shop fronts is a central doorway with moulded architrave and half-round fanlight with radial glazing bars.

(261) House and Shop, No. 14, of facing brick, is very similar to Nos. 10, 12, but the windows are of slightly taller proportions.

S.E. side:

(262) House and Shop, No. 1, was built probably between 1810 and 1820 when Ouse Bridge was rebuilt. It is of three storeys and a basement, which gives a four-storey elevation over the lower river bank. There is a plain three-bay elevation, with sashed windows above a modern shop front, to Ousegate, and a five-bay elevation, with round-headed windows lighting the central secondary staircase, towards the river. The main staircase, in the middle of the building, has stone steps rising round an open well.

(263) Houses, Nos. 3, 5, are contemporary with No. 1 and of the same height but comprise four storeys where No. 1 has three. They have plain brick fronts above modern shops.

(264) House, No. 7, was built in the first half of the 18th century but incorporates early 17th-century panelling. When Ouse Bridge was rebuilt in 1810–20, the approach roads were heightened, and the front of the house, originally of three floors with attics, was rebuilt, lining through with Nos. 1, 3 and 5, with floor heights related to the increased height of the new pavement, and short flights of steps linking the front rooms to the original staircase. At ground level, the original staircase and chimney-breasts have been removed to form a modern shop interior.

The front, of white-washed 19th-century brickwork, is four storeys high, with two hung-sash windows to each floor above a modern shop front, and a slate roof supported by a modillioned cornice. The rear is of three storeys, partly masked by a modern single-storey extension, with a closet wing rising to first-floor level. The 18th-century brickwork incorporates a projecting band between first and second-floor levels. The plan consists of single rooms at front and rear on all floors, with chimney-breasts backing onto a transverse staircase. Cornices and fireplaces are of 19th-century date, but early 17th-century panelling has been reused in the first-floor back room and at the head of the stairs. The staircase, with turned balusters and a close string, dates from the first half of the 18th century.

(265) House, No. 11 (Fig. 96), with ground floor converted to a shop, comprises a front block of three storeys with attics, facing the street and built at the beginning of the 18th century, with a projection at the back, containing a staircase, which joins it to a three-storey block, rebuilt in the 19th century and incorporating an earlier timber-framed structure, probably 17th-century. The front block was refronted in 1776, the date on a rainwater head, and contains two rooms on each floor with corner fireplaces, now blocked. The front room on the first floor is lined with bolection-moulded panelling. The staircase has close strings, square newels and turned balusters. The rear block has one room on each floor, with intersecting ceiling beams, mostly plastered over, and some other fragments of framing.

(266) House, No. 13, single-fronted, of three storeys and attic, was built in the first half of the 18th century. The front elevation has been drastically altered. Inside, the two lower floors have been gutted for commercial use. The top floor retains the original plan of front and back rooms with fireplaces backing against a central transverse staircase, as well as some original fittings.