Houses: Shambles-The Stonebow

Shambles-The Stonebow

Shambles (Monuments 418–445)

Shambles, a narrow street running S.E. from King's Square to Pavement, results from the infilling of a more open area, perhaps after 1086 when the district is first mentioned ('in macello'). Booths still existed in 1100 but by 1240 the street had the name of Haymongergate and was later called Nedlergate (1394). In 1426 both these alternatives and the more usual name of the Great Flesh Shambles, eventually abbreviated to the Shambles, were used. There is a continuous tradition of occupation by butchers: in 1798 nineteen and in 1830 twenty-five out of eighty-eight listed in the city had shops here. Now only two butchers' shops remain. St. Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a butcher, lived in a house in the Shambles. The churches of Holy Trinity and St. Crux, at either end of the street, were demolished in 1936 and 1887. The picturesque appearance of the ancient jettied houses almost meeting across the cobbled roadway now attracts tourists and the sellers of antiques, souvenirs and luxury goods. The buildings on either side have been generally restored by the city since 1950. However it is only within the past fifty years that this street, the last survivor of other equally picturesque, though more squalid, York lanes, previously demolished without protest, has been thought either remarkable or attractive.

E. side:

(418) Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, are a group of three-storey houses of varying dates, modernised in 1970–1 to give a series of separate shops with a single suite of offices above.

No. 1 is of two dates. To E., a small two-storey two-bay timber-framed structure is of uncertain date but perhaps of the 14th century. Its upper floor is jettied towards King's Square, and the dragon-beam and joists with shaped ends, carrying this floor, remain exposed. To W. is a three-storey building of the second half of the 18th century. A room on the first floor is lined with reused 17th-century panelling, and has a window and overmantel flanked by Ionic pilasters.

No. 2, built in the first half of the 18th century, originally had three hung-sash windows to each upper floor but was altered in the 19th century.

Nos. 3, 5, formed a symmetrical pair of early 19th-century houses, one of which was the Shoulder of Mutton p.h. in 1820 (YCA, E97, f. 98). The original transverse staircases between front and back rooms remain.

(419) House, No. 6, narrow and of three storeys, was built in the third quarter of the 18th century. The front elevation is of mottled brick, with dark red dressings to the quoins and the windows. The ground floor is taken up by a shop front and both upper floors have one hung-sash window with flat arch of gauged brick, that on the first floor five courses deep and that on the second floor hidden in part by the timber modillioned cornice. The rear elevation has been refenestrated and in part rebuilt but the original doorway remains.

The house is only one room deep with the staircase at the back rising parallel to the street in one flight with winders between floors. The original Chinese fret balustrade, with ramped handrail, is almost identical to that in No. 78 Low Petergate (351). An original fireplace with typical Adamesque decoration remains in the first-floor room.

(420) House, No. 7 (Fig. 136), was built in the late 15th century. It is of three storeys, with the upper floors jettied towards the street under the end gable, and carried on moulded bressummers. The building was of five bays, divided into three rooms, and was shortened at the rear by half-a-bay in the 18th century. Much of the original framing remains or can be inferred from mortices. The main posts have projecting shoulders under the main cross-beams of each storey and many of the beams and wall-plates are enlarged at one or both ends. The intermediate framing is of simple studwork, with studs placed 1½ to 2 ft. apart and with upward and downward braces. Some of the original 'wall-tile' infilling remains. There were originally partitions between the second and third and the third and fourth bays. Part of the fourth bay is occupied by a brick chimney-breast, inserted in the 17th century. An original fireplace with four-centred head and stop-chamfered jambs remains on the first floor. Constructional evidence shows that the house was erected in a space between two existing buildings.

The roof is of collared-rafter type with cambered tie-beams. The front three trusses have crown-posts carrying a collarpurlin with a longitudinal brace at each end (Plate 130). The other two trusses have queen-posts on the tie-beams. Restored 1961.

(421) House, No. 8 (Plate 124; Fig. 136), built in the first half of the 15th century, is timber-framed, of three storeys with the upper floors of the gabled front jettied to the street. The jetty of the second floor was raised in the early 19th century and the internal floor levels altered. The original building was two bays deep, forming one room on each floor, and behind it was a courtyard. The yard was built up in the late 16th century with a lower two-storeyed timber-framed block of two or more bays, a blocked five-light window with ovolo-moulded wooden mullions surviving in the S. wall. This block was curtailed to one-and-a-half bays in the late 17th or early 18th century, when a third block was built at the E. end of the messuage, probably as a kitchen, since it had a large fireplace in its N. wall with cambered and stop-chamfered bressummer.

The framing of the front block shows upward bracing with two studs in each bay, main posts with enlarged heads, and tie-beams and wall-plates with enlarged heads. The middle range has similar framing of smaller scantling, some of it unpegged. It was framed into the main posts of the front block by attached brackets. The walls of No. 7 to N. and of No. 9 to S., both without studding, and the external plastering of the corresponding stud walls of No. 8, show that the early front block of No. 8 was built before Nos. 7 and 9, and that No. 7 was built before the middle block of No. 8.

The roof of the front block is of collared-rafter construction, probably altered in the 19th century. Repaired and drastically altered 1961, when the rear building was demolished.

(422) House, No. 9 (Plate 124; Fig. 136), is timber-framed and of two storeys and attics. The front two bays, gabled to the street, were built in the 15th century. There may have been a third bay which collapsed and was replaced in the late 16th century by a roughly-framed addition of two bays. Other buildings at the back of the messuage have been demolished. A large brick chimney-breast was inserted in the 17th century, and the upper walls of the front were pargetted when the level of the first floor was raised in the 18th century.

On the street front both upper floors are jettied. Above, the walls have been refenestrated, and the first-floor jetty raised. In the gable is a crown-post supported by curved struts, and the roof is ceiled at collar level. The rest of the roof to the front range appears to have been rebuilt in the late 16th century. In the back addition the roof has been heightened and is inaccessible. In the middle of the house is a late 17th-century chimney-breast, retaining in the attic a brick fireplace with chamfered four-centred head. Restored 1955 and later.

(423) Houses, Nos. 10, 11 (Fig. 136), originally one building, are of two storeys with brick front and back walls. The original layout is obscure, but probably consisted of a two-storeyed block to the street with a 15th-century open hall of the same height at right angles behind it. This open hall still survives, but the front block was rebuilt in the first half of the 17th century. The hall was converted into two storeys and the whole building divided into two tenements c. 1730, when part of the E. end was demolished and given a brick elevation. The houses were modernised internally c. 1790, including the provision of two new staircases, and the front was rebuilt in brick in the early 19th century. The building, which was restored in 1956, was the home of St. Margaret Clitherow, executed in 1586.

The front and back walls are gabled. Internally some of the original timber framing remains and the back part retains part of the 15th-century roof. This is of collared-rafter construction with side-purlins supported by braced struts. There are also longitudinal braces from the struts to the purlins. Two staircases with Chinese fret balustrades remained until 1956.

(424) House, No. 12 (Fig. 136), of two and three storeys with attics, shows a development incorporating three periods of timber-framed building. At the rear of the site were the remains of a 14th or early 15th-century house, probably T-shaped and having a forecourt to the Shambles. In the late 15th century this forecourt was built up with a three-storeyed house, the upper storeys jettied to the street; then in the 16th century the front range of the rear block was replaced by a range of two storeys with semi-attics, abutting the rear wall of the front block. The jetties of the front range were cut back in the first half of the 18th century and replaced by a brick elevation. Considerable alterations took place in the 19th century and the whole range has been restored and modernised in recent years.

The W. front is of pale brick with red brick dressings. There are brick strings at first and second-floor levels and a moulded and modillioned eaves cornice. At the S. end is an opening to a passageway along the S. wall with an original four-centred door head at the E. end. Considerable amounts of timber framing survive on all floors. On the first floor a 17th-century chimney-breast, containing a late 18th-century grate set within a four-centred opening, had a plastered overmantel painted with a royal arms of the Stuarts with supporters and garter motto, and an illegible inscription (destroyed 1955). The second floor contained a room of two bays open to the roof with chamfered arch-braces to the central tie-beam. The roof contains principal rafters with two purlins each side.

The middle block retains only some simple framing, whilst of the rear block, the framing of the first-floor wall at the S. end and the S. wall to W. of it were the only remains, and these have been demolished in recent years.

(425) House and Shop, No. 13, timber-framed and of early 17th-century date, was greatly altered in the early 19th century when the front elevation was rebuilt in brick and an attic formed. A two-storeyed brick addition at the rear was mostly rebuilt in modern times.

The timber supports to a counter and the canopy of the original open stall are incorporated in the present shop front. Internally there are chamfered posts and transverse beams with wave stops.

(426) House and Shop, No. 14, of two storeys with dormered attic, was originally timber-framed but has been so much altered and restored that its original form and the significance of some surviving features are no longer clear.

The front elevation, now of fine red brick in Flemish bond, retains the sawn-off horizontal supports of a former counter and, above, a wooden canopy carried on the ends of joists, which project through the wall from the front room. The first-floor window has a rendered flat arch, grooved to simulate voussoirs.

Inside, exposed joists run from front to back in the front room and, in the third compartment from the front, part of a timber-framed partition wall remains. A plank and muntin partition in the attic probably surrounded an earlier stair; there is now no fixed stairway up to the attic.

(427) House, No. 19 (Fig. 137), was originally timber-framed, of three storeys, attic and cellar, with two jetties to both street and back. It was built c. 1640 and consisted of two separate blocks joined together by a narrow corridor containing the staircase, the three elements being grouped around a central light-well. In each block the wall to the light-well was of brick with contemporary chimney-breast and windows.

Early in the 18th century the rear jetties were cut back and replaced by a brick facade, and the front jetties were treated in the same way in the third quarter of the 18th century. In the early 19th century part of the light-well was incorporated into the staircasecorridor, the lowest flight of the original staircase removed, and a new staircase inserted in the rear block.

The street front is of red brick in Flemish bond with plain brick strings at first and second-floor levels. The ground floor was remodelled in the 19th century; both upper storeys have three sash windows with rubbed brick heads, all heavily restored. The rear elevation is mostly built in stretcher bond, all the sash windows having shallow segmental heads. There are brick strings at the floor levels. The original early 17th-century door to the through-passage has recently been removed and a modern extension added. Some of the windows retained their heavily ovolo-moulded glazing bars until recently.

Every room has a ceiling beam and joists, all moulded except in the ground-floor front room where they are chamfered. Some fragments of 17th-century panelling with arabesque frieze survive, now reset on the ground floor. The original staircase has bulbous balusters and heavy moulded handrail and string. It is considerably mutilated and now runs from first floor to attic. A secondary staircase of early 19th-century date has moulded newels with plain square balusters, and runs from ground to second floor in the rear block.

On the first floor each room has an original moulded brick window to the light-well, and on the second floor the rear room has an early 18th-century window in a similar position. Much of the timber framing is visible in the side walls. The attic was designed for use and the roof has principal rafters with off-set purlins.

(428) House, No. 20, of mid 18th-century date, is of three storeys built of brick; it has a central staircase between front and rear rooms.

Both front and rear elevations have first and second-floor strings, with fenestration and other detailing much altered in the 19th century. The front is built in Flemish bond, the rear in English garden wall bond.

Internally the ground floor has been modernised, the back room having originally been the kitchen. The staircase runs the full height of the house. It has a moulded handrail, close string, turned balusters with rounded knops, two to a tread, and plain newels. On the first floor the front room was remodelled in the 19th century. It has a glazed corner-cupboard of early 19th-century date and a fireplace surround and grate of c. 1840. The back room has a fireplace surround and elegant hob-grate of early 19th-century date.

The second floor has been treated in the same way with an early-Victorian fireplace and grate to the front room, and a fine early 19th-century hob-grate with moulded and reeded wooden surround in the rear room. The roof is of coupled rafters.

(429) House, No. 21 (Fig. 137), forms a separate tenement within a large T-shaped block of early 18th-century date, comprising Nos. 21, 22, 23, 23½ the Shambles and No. 1a Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate. In 1798 the house was occupied by William Jenkinson, a saddler. By 1804, and probably earlier, it was in the possession of the feoffees of St. Crux church, and the occupant was Henry Bewlay, a butcher. Afterwards it probably continued as a butcher's shop until recent years.

The two-bay front of three storeys in Flemish-bond brick is part of a continuous frontage with Nos. 22, 23 (430). Above a shop front there is a brick string at first floor, a stone band at second floor and a moulded stone cornice. The two second-floor windows have red brick dressings, but a large Victorian sash window has replaced the two on the first floor.

Internally the staircase is set centrally between front and rear rooms. It rises in three flights and has a close string, turned balusters of uniform height with round knops, and rectangular newels with attached half-balusters. The moulded handrail is ramped.

(430) Houses, Nos. 22, 23 and 23½, formed one large messuage in a block of early 18th-century date which also included No. 1a Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate to the E. and No. 21 Shambles to the N. It was bounded at the S. end by the N. wall of the N. aisle of the nowdemolished St. Crux church. No. 21 was always a separate tenement (see Monument (429)), and No. 1a Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate, if not always so, must have been separated off soon after it was built. By 1804, if not earlier, the main messuage had, with No. 21, come into the possession of the feoffees of St. Crux church, and a few years later they also acquired No. 1a Whipma-whop-ma-gate. Between 1804 and 1824 it was divided into three messuages; at the front were Nos. 22 and 23 Shambles, with which were incorporated the second floor and attic of the rear wing, leaving the ground and first floors of the rear wing as No. 1a Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate. The subdivision of No. 23 into a shop (No. 23) and a house (No. 23½) dates to the present century. The combined Shambles messuage was occupied in 1784 and 1798 by George Nathaniel Hotham, a merchant and haberdasher, and in 1804 by Miss Hotham, presumably his daughter. From 1824 onwards No. 22 was occupied by a variety of trades, whilst No. 23 was then occupied by William Thackray, a butcher, a trade which has remained there ever since. No. 1a Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate was occupied by William Palmer in 1824, then by Richard Palmer, and in 1865 by Solomon Wilkinson, all of them butchers.

Nos. 22 and 23 each has a two-bay front of three storeys in Flemish-bond brickwork, forming part of a continuous frontage with No. 21. Under the S. end of No. 23 a public passage runs through to Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate. Over the shop fronts is a brick string, with a stone band at second floor and a moulded stone cornice. The first-floor windows, two to each messuage, have red brick dressings and stone sills. Those to the second floor are similar, but one is blocked. The S. end is gabled with attic windows and chimney-stack; the second floor and gable are of red brick, built up over the stone N. wall of St. Crux.

Most of the rear elevation is masked by the rear wing, but the S. end of it contains the passage-archway with a sash window in each upper floor. At the W. end of the rear wing is a doorway to No. 23½. Above it, cutting the first-floor brick string, is a tall round-headed staircase window, and above the second-floor brick string a segmentally-headed sash window. All its elevations contain sash windows as well as several blocked windows with segmental heads.

Some of the rooms retain original panelling, cornices and doorcases, but many of the present fittings are of early 19th-century date, including decorated iron grates. The two staircases, serving Nos. 22 and 23½, are set side by side at the W. end of the rear wing. Both are of 19th-century date and have the same design of plain balusters and moulded newels.

W. side:

(431) House, No. 26, three storeys high and two bays wide, had a stuccoed front elevation and pantiled roof. It was one of two adjacent houses probably built for Alderman William Redman, Mayor 1712–3, and his son Felix Redman, free in 1705 (YCA, E94, f. 211). Its early 18th-century staircase, set between front and rear rooms, had a close string and bulbous balusters. Demolished.

(432) Houses, Nos. 27, 28, were built in the early 19th century. They are three-storeyed, with rendered brick walls and slate-covered roofs, and have been extensively altered inside.

(433) House, No. 30, of two storeys, is of brick and has a pantiled roof. It was built in the 18th century but virtually rebuilt c. 1952. On the front elevation are two first-floor windows with key-stones and a rainwater head inscribed TC 1763.

(434) Houses, Nos. 31, 32, 33, form a two-storeyed timber-framed range of tenements described in 1436 as recently built (YCA, Memo. Book B/Y, f. 79) and stand on land which had belonged to Nicholas Blackburn senior, bequeathed to his executors by his will of 1421 (Raine, 186). The jettied and plastered front elevation was altered in the late 19th century and the first floor of No. 33 appears to have been raised at that time. An original doorway with four-centred timber head survives between Nos. 31 and 32. The back wall has been partly removed but some framing is exposed on No. 31. The interior has been much altered. The roof construction, visible in No. 32, has collared-rafters supported by side-purlins carried on braced struts. Behind No. 32 there was a two-storeyed timber-framed block aligned at right angles to the main range and probably also built in the 15th century. Before demolition c. 1955 it was two-and-a-half bays long but had originally extended further to the W. Some framing remained in the S. wall which included a three-light timber mullioned window. At the rear of Nos. 32 and 33 there are now modern brick-built additions.

(435) House, behind No. 34, originally of two storeys, was situated in a narrow lane parallel with the Shambles and linked to it by several access lanes. Like No. 32, it stood on land belonging to Nicholas Blackburn senior and was one of the tenements described as recently built in 1436. It was of four or more bays, with a central two-bay open hall on the first floor and a jetty along the N.E. elevation to the lane. Prior to demolition, only the two hall-bays remained, most of the framing had been removed, and the interior had had the first floor removed and had been converted into a slaughterhouse. The hall had a cambered tie-beam, and the roof two purlins each side, the lower purlins supported by curved struts from the tie-beam and the upper ones clasped in notches in the collar. Demolished 1959.

(436) House, Nos. 35, 36 (Figs. 138, 139), partly of two storeys, partly of three, is timber-framed. The earliest part (Plate 135), set back some 13 ft. from the Shambles, is a late 14th-century two-storeyed unjettied building with an open hall on the first floor. The space in front was filled in by the addition of a front room with a jettied upper storey in the late 15th century, and in the late 16th century a long back wing, of three storeys and jettied on one long side, was built, probably replacing an earlier range. The earliest building was erected on a site belonging to Richard Barneby which by 1436 had become Minster property (YCA, Memo. Book B/Y, f. 79). The association of the building with St. Margaret Clitherow is incorrect.

The early building is divided into three unequal bays by trusses carried on substantial wall-posts, c. 26 ft. high. The ground floor, now used as a chapel, consisted of one room with opposed doorways in the front and rear walls, providing access to the jettied wing behind. A wave-moulded wall-plate survived along the N. wall until 1954. On the first floor the S. end bay formed a narrow room. The other one-and-ahalf bays formed a lofty hall with a great open truss of heavy scantling having an arch-braced cambered tie-beam (Fig. 138, section b–b), set 3 ft. from the S. partition truss (Fig. 138, section a–a). The timbers were heavily soot-encrusted. The collared-rafter roof has braced crown-posts, carrying a collarpurlin (Plate 130). Some trusses have struts to the rafters, crossing the braces, but there are no side-purlins. Along the top of the E. wall the full bay of the hall contained a range of unglazed windows with diamond-shaped mullions, and the half-bay a three-light opening with square mullions, possibly a smoke outlet. The back wing, formerly numbered 36, which contained a staircase with splat balusters (Fig. 11c), was demolished in 1954 and the rest thoroughly restored.

(437) Houses, Nos. 37, 38 (Plates 124, 135; Fig. 139), a two-storey timber-framed structure of two ranges beneath symmetrical gables to the street and three bays deep, date from the late 15th century but were extensively restored and in parts rebuilt by York Corporation c. 1950. A Northern Echo photograph, taken before restoration, shows the two gables to the Shambles but the different fenestration indicates that most, if not all, of the first-floor framing has been renewed; evidence for the internal arrangement of the building has also been destroyed. It is not now clear whether the doorway at the S. end gave direct access to the dwelling or whether there was always a common lane here with access to the dwelling being gained from the passageway. A drawing of 1832 (BM, Prints and Drawings L.B. iii 217 (29a)) shows it leading to a passage to the rear, as now.

The ground floor has modern shop fronts and at the S. end an original ogee-headed doorway (Plate 200) leads to a passage to the rear. On the jettied first floor are curved braces from sillplate to posts and intermediate studs, and the post carrying the wall-plate between the gables is double-jowled. The roof trusses have cambered tie-beams, crown-posts with collars and collar-purlins and curved braces from the crown-posts to the tie-beams. The rear elevation of No. 37 (Plate 135), now filled with brick, exhibits a similar pattern of framing; that of No. 38 is obscured by a modern extension.

(438) Slaughterhouse, behind Nos. 37, 38, was a single-storeyed timber-framed structure, perhaps of 14th-century date, containing three or more bays, of which two survived. Some of the wall framing remained, encased in later brickwork. Above straight tie-beams the roof was of crown-post type with crossed struts carrying a side-purlin. The crown-posts had enlarged heads, but there was no collar-purlin. The property can be identified as one of several, including Nos. 32 and 34, which belonged to Nicholas Blackburn senior. Demolished 1955.

(439) House, No. 39, now of three storeys to the front and of two at the back, is externally apparently of 19th-century and modern dates but incorporates a two-storey timber-framed structure of the 15th century.

The W. and E. walls of the earlier building have been destroyed by the rebuilding in brick in the 19th century but large parts of the N. and S. side walls survive and these, together with the ceiling joists and tie-beams on the ground floor, indicate a building one bay wide and at least four bays deep (see Fig. 139). Only one original roof truss, cut through in the 17th century for the insertion of a chimney-stack, remains visible; this had a steeply cambered tie-beam with braces up to a crown-post supporting a collar with no collar-purlin.

(440) House, No. 40, of three storeys in brick and with pantiled roof, was built in the early 18th century, possibly by Robert Clough, bricklayer, who obtained a lease of the property jointly with Francis Swan, carpenter, in 1708 (YML, wf, f. 64), or by the subsequent lessees, William Etty and William Mudd, carpenters, who obtained the lease in 1725 (ibid., f. 268).

The front elevation, in random-bonded brickwork, has a shop front at ground floor, a tripartite hung-sash window at first floor and a narrower hung-sash window at second floor. There is a two-course brick band at first-floor sill level and one of four courses at second-floor level. On plan, the house has one front and one back room with the chimney between them, set to one side, with the staircase against it. The lower part of the staircase has been removed. The upper part retains original turned balusters.

(441) Nos. 41, 42 (Plate 124), is a three-storeyed timber-framed building of three bays with a pantiled roof, of 15th-century date but heavily restored, situated on the corner of Shambles with Little Shambles. It is jettied out in two stages to N. and E., with the N.E. corner supported on dragon-beams. In the roof, a short crown-post clasps the collar-purlin and has braces to the tie-beam and to the collar-purlin.

(442) House, No. 43, of three bays and three storeys with shop fronts on the ground floor, was built in 1775 (YCA, E101) by William Fentiman, bricklayer, and has been modernised in recent years. The front elevation has red brick dressings to the window openings and a continuous sill-band to the first-floor windows, but the ground floor has been rebuilt. A bell-shaped rainwater head bears the initials PA SP TY, two of them probably identifiable as those of Mrs. Askwith, the occupant in 1775 (YCA, BD), and Solomon Preston, documented as a butcher in the Shambles in 1741 (York City Pollbook). The timber rainwater gutter, carried on shaped brackets, is 19th-century.

(443) House, No. 44, of 15th-century date, retains two internal timber-framed walls. In the late 18th century the jettied timber-framed front elevation was rebuilt in brick and a new staircase inserted. It was modernised and partly rebuilt in 1954.

(444) House, No. 45, is three-storeyed and was probably built in the second quarter of the 18th century. The front elevation, altered in the late 18th or early 19th century, is rendered and has one hung-sash window on each upper floor. The gabled rear wall had a small projection for closets which has been removed recently. The interior is much altered.

(445) Houses, Nos. 46, 47, at the corner of Newgate, were built c. 1740 by Benjamin Atkinson (YCA, E95, f. 246; E96, f. 8iv), haberdasher, free in 1740 and chamberlain in 1747–8, who is documented in the Shambles in 1741 (York City Poll-book). They may originally have formed a single house but were certainly occupied as two dwellings by 1801. The building, of brick with pantiled roofs, consists of a three-storeyed block on the street frontage and a wing behind, of two storeys and attics, which was probably a later addition but was rebuilt in c. 1950. The front elevation is four bays wide, has shop fronts on the ground floor and sash windows with flat arches of gauged brick on the upper floors; there is a plat-band of five courses at the second floor and a modern timber eaves cornice. Most of the interior fittings are late 19th-century or modern.

Silver Street

Silver Street, leading from St. Sampson's Square to Jubbergate parallel to Coney Street and Patrick Pool, is first named on the map of c. 1541 in the Public Record Office (York III, Fig. 1). Its N.E. side is occupied by the W. end of St. Sampson's church and its former graveyard, gradually encroached on or removed since 1336.

(446) Range of houses, on S.W. side of street, of brick with a slate-covered roof, is of two storeys and was built in 1841; it incorporated a new Police Station which remained in the building until 1892 when new premises were erected in Clifford Street (VCH, York, 466). The elevation is nine bays long, divided by pilasters with simple capitals, but has been much altered, although a few original sash windows remain on the first floor. The short front to Jubbergate has a pediment enclosing a bull's-eye, and two windows below flanked by pilasters. The interior has been converted into shops.

Spen Lane (Monuments 447–449)

Spen Lane, from St. Andrewgate to Peasholme Green, is first recorded in 1161–84 as Ispingail, 'the lane overgrown with aspens', a name sometimes corrupted in the 18th century to Penny Lane. The house of Benedict the Jew was here in 1190 and from c. 1260 to 1310 there was a small house of Friars of the Sack in the lane.

(447) Houses, Nos. 1, 2, of two storeys and attics, were a U-shaped building comprising a straight range facing Spen Lane with a back wing to N. at each end. The E. wing contained remains of timber framing, probably of the early 17th century. The main range was probably timber-framed originally but had been completely rebuilt in brick in the late 17th century. It retained an older collar-rafter roof in which some of the collars had peg-holes for fixing crown-posts but these had been removed and the roof had been reconstructed with side-purlins. The W. wing had been mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. Demolished.

(448) St. Andrew's House was built in the first half of the 18th century as a small two-storeyed dwelling with attics; it had two rooms to each floor and a small projection at the back for a staircase. In the late 18th century additions were built at the rear. The building was further increased in depth by extensions in the early 19th century, and much of the interior was refitted, including a new staircase. Considerable alterations were also made to the S.W. front by the refenestration of the first floor, the replacement of the entrance doorway and the addition of stucco.

(449) Range of four small early 19th-century tenements converted to workshop use, has most of the fenestration on the S. front blocked up with timber and a large carriageway inserted in the second dwelling from the W. A warehouse was added at the rear of the centre two dwellings before 1850.

No. 10, see Nos. 33, 35 St. Saviourgate (408).

Spurriergate (Monuments 450, 451)

Spurriergate continues Coney Street between Market Street (the former Jubbergate) and Ousegate. The name, derived from spurmakers who lived here in the late 15th century, is first recorded in 1538; previously the street was still regarded as part of Coney Street. In 1613 it was called Little Coney Street or Spurriergate. Widening of the street in 1770 to double its width and again in 1841 has reduced the length of St. Michael's church (13). As in at least six other cases in York, a narrow row of houses was built in the churchyard on its N.E. side in 1337, now represented by Nos. 22, 24 (451); another row to the S.E. has been removed. The common lane down to the Ouse still exists, though there is no longer a Fish Landing at the bottom end, as in 1567. It is joined by the short Church Lane from Low Ousegate.

N.E. side:

(450) Houses, Nos. 1–17 (odd), were of three and four storeys, with tiled roofs. No. 1 dated from c. 1730, the remainder were built as a result of a street-widening scheme in and after 1769. Nos. 3, 5 and 7 represented refronting and remodelling of timber-framed houses, but Nos. 9–17 were built on cleared sites, No. 17 by Henry Masterman (Guildhall, Parcel 344). Some of the staircases and grates were contemporary, but most of the internal fittings were of the 1820–30 period. Demolished 1959.

S.W. side:

(451) Terrace, Nos. 4–24 (even) (Plate 156), consists of eleven four-storey houses with shops on the ground floor. The frontages on this side of the street were originally set further forward, and an Act for widening the street was obtained in June 1840. Agreement for rebuilding was reached with the owners early in 1841 (YCA, B2) and on 9 August the same year it was reported to the Council that the improvement had been completed. It does not seem possible that the new houses could have been built so quickly but presumably the old buildings had been demolished and the new street line established. The houses were probably all designed the same year and built soon afterwards.

No. 4 has a narrow frontage, one bay wide, a central transverse staircase, and is distinctly lower in height than the other houses. No. 6, also of one-bay width, was designed by J. B. and W. Atkinson. The architects' drawings, dated March 1841 (Messrs. Brierley, Leckenby, Keighley and Groom) show that it was designed as a public house for Robert Brogden Esq. of Tockwith, though it is not identified as such on the 1852 OS map. Nos. 8–10 have a three-bay elevation, with a large moulded band just below the third-floor windows. The other houses have very plain fronts, with windows at uniform levels; they are of painted brick except for No. 20 which is rendered. Nos. 22, 24 are bounded at the rear by St. Michael's churchyard and have a much more restricted site, little more than one room deep. They occupy ground that was also originally part of the churchyard until built over in 1337 with houses to provide rents for the endowment of a chantry at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Stonebow

The wide street cut through in an arc from Pavement to Peasholme Green in 1955 was at first to be called Stonebow Lane after the lane on its site, which ran N.E. from Fossgate to Hungate. This lane, first mentioned in 1276 and called Whitefriar Lane in 1471, adjoined the N. wall and gateway of the Carmelite Friary, moved to this area from outside the city walls in 1295. It was named from 'le Staynebowe', 'the stone arch'. Whether this arch was a Roman structure, perhaps part of a vaulted sewer, a post-Roman bridge, or even the arched basement of a house, is unknown. At Lincoln the name refers to the S. gateway of the city.