Dorothy Wilsons Hospital And Attached Cottage

Dorothy Wilson's Hospital and attached cottage is an almshouse and schoolroom with schoolmaster's house located in York. The almshouse was built in 1765 and extensively rebuilt in 1812; the schoolmaster's house dates to 1805. The buildings were modernised in 1958. The complex was built for the Trustees of the Dorothy Wilson Charity.

The almshouse front and left return are constructed of orange brick in Flemish bond on a painted stone plinth, with the rear of brown-cream mottled brick in English garden-wall bond. The front and left return have raised chamfered quoins. Two cornices and dressings are of painted stone, and the building features a timber doorcase. The hipped slate roof has a moulded cornice with corner scrolls and brick stacks.

The schoolmaster's house is of grey-cream brick, laid in Flemish bond at the front and English garden-wall bond at the rear, with a slate roof incorporating a skylight and brick stack.

The almshouse is of two storeys and attic with a five-bay front, where the three centre bays break forward. An attached one-storey wall to the right contains a panelled side door beneath a round arch with voussoirs on moulded imposts. The centre bay openings on the ground floor are recessed beneath arcaded arches of voussoirs on an impost band. The centrepiece doorcase has sunk-panel pilasters with moulded imposts and cornice, containing a six-panel door and radial fanlight within a round-arched architrave. Ground and first floor windows are sixteen-pane sashes with keyed arches of voussoirs and painted stone sills. Above the door, a blind niche beneath a round arch of voussoirs on moulded imposts contains an inscription recording the laying of the 1812 foundation stone. Above a massive moulded cornice returned across the left front, attic windows are sixteen-pane sashes with flat arches of rubbed brick. In the centre, a reset panel records the foundation in 1719 of Dorothy Wilson's Charity for the "Maintenance of ten poor Women as also for the instruction in English, Reading, Writing and Clothing of twenty poor Boys for ever".

The three-bay left return has windows similar to those on the main front, one of which is blind, and an inverted bell rainwater head.

The rear comprises three storeys and six bays. The left half is covered by a one-storey, three-bay projecting schoolroom, whilst the schoolmaster's house projects to the right. Between the schoolroom and house, steps with a serpentine handrail on square-section balusters and turned standard lead to a glazed and panelled door with overlight beneath a pent porch. The schoolroom has unequal twenty-pane sash windows with painted stone sills and channelled wedge lintels. Almshouse windows are sixteen-pane sashes beneath segmental arches on the first floor and cambered arches on the second floor. A radial-glazed staircase window has a painted keyed round arch of voussoirs on imposts and painted stone sill. A tall extruded stack stands in the right end bay. Timber guttering on paired modillions features, to the left of centre, an inverted bell rainwater head.

The schoolmaster's house is of two storeys and three bays with a full-height added porch in the centre. The front door is six-panel beneath a divided overlight within the panelled porch, with a small four-pane sash window with segmental arch on the first floor. To the right of the porch is a twelve-pane sash, with a blocked window opening to the left. First floor windows are unequal nine-pane sashes with flat arches, all having painted stone sills. The rear is of two storeys with two windows repeating those on the front, plus a six-pane ground floor window. Three circular tie rod plates are visible.

Internally, the almshouse contains a rebuilt staircase that reuses cast-iron stick balusters and a ramped-up moulded handrail. A former Committee Room at the rear of the first floor, entered through a round arch on sunk-panel pilasters with moulded imposts, is now subdivided but retains a reeded cornice with roundels, a plain fireplace and shelf. A number of panelled room and cupboard doors survive throughout the building.