The Palm House

LANCASTER

SD4861 WILLIAMSON PARK 1685-1/5/320 The Palm House 18/02/70 (Formerly Listed as: WYRESDALE ROAD Palm House in Williamson Park)

GV II

Palm house, now butterfly house. c1909, damaged by fire 1949 and restored c1985. By Belcher and Joass. Brick on sandstone plinth, with timber and metal glazing bars, and painted render and timber columns and entablature. Rectangular plan, with a convex hipped glass roof. West facade symmetrical, with rusticated brick end piers, and 3 bays to each side of an open semicircular porch of 6 Tuscan columns. The bays are separated by similar columns and contain windows with glazing bars. The Doric entablature has urns above each column. An attic, above the main cornice and below the glazed roof, has circular glazed openings in each bay, separated by pilasters, and a central Diocletian window. Within the porch the front wall has 3 tall glazed openings, the central one wider and containing the double doors, which project forwards under a segmental pediment. Both return walls are of 5 bays, with similar columns and entablature. HISTORY: the Palm House was one of the improvements to Williamson Park which Lord Ashton offered to pay for in 1904. It stands opposite the entrance to the Ashton Memorial (qv), which formed the main element of the scheme and which was opened in 1909. (Ashworth S: The Lino King: York: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SD4895161326