56, 58 AND 60, LOW PETERGATE

Nos. 56, 58 and 60, Low Petergate, York

A row of three tenements, now shops and flats, dating from around 1500 with early 17th-century remodelling as three separate houses with rear wings. Further alterations and extensions were carried out in the late 18th, early 19th and 20th centuries.

The buildings are timber-framed throughout. The front of No. 56 has been cut back and refaced in orange brick laid in Flemish bond, while the fronts of Nos. 58 and 60 are rendered, with all three properties rendered at the rear. The roofs are tiled and pantiled with brick chimney stacks. No. 58 has a half-hipped dormer containing a 2-light casement window, and No. 60 has a 2-pane roof light.

All three buildings are three storeys tall. No. 56 has a jettied first floor, while Nos. 58 and 60 have jettied first and second floors, with No. 58 also containing an attic storey. The front elevation of No. 56 has two windows, with one window each on Nos. 58 and 60.

No. 56 features an altered 19th-century shopfront with a full-width deep boxed fascia. It has a glazed door flanked on the left by a shallow 3-light canted bay window on shaped brackets and on the right by a divided plate glass window. At the right end is a 6-panel door providing access to a through passage. The first and second floor windows are 16-pane sashes with narrow painted sills and painted channelled wedge lintels. A modillioned moulded cornice runs across the front.

No. 58 has a 20th-century plate glass shopfront with a 6-panel door. The first and second floor windows are canted oriels with 12-pane sashes. A moulded entablature and cornice surmount the elevation.

No. 60 has a 3-light bowed shop window with moulded cornice on each side of a glazed and flush-panel door. A glazed and raised-panel side passage door is situated at the left end. The first and second floor windows are tripartite bows with large pane sashes. A Britannia firemark is visible on the second floor. A console eaves cornice runs across the front.

At the rear, No. 56 has a gabled wing with a massive chimney stack featuring an exposed brick fireplace and blocked oven on the ground floor. On the first floor is a single 16-pane sash window, and on the second floor are a pair of 9-pane casement windows to the left with a 9-pane fixed light to the right. No. 58 has a gabled wing where the ground floor is obscured by later alterations, with a 12-pane sash on the second floor. No. 60 has a gabled wing with a glazed and panelled door and 9-pane window on the ground floor, a 4-pane sash on the first floor, and two 9-pane casement windows on the second floor.

Interior features of No. 56 include an exposed timber-framed partition wall in the ground floor side passage. The ground floor shop retains a painted stone fireplace with basket grate in a bolection moulded surround and moulded cornice shelf. The first floor front room fireplace has enriched sunk-panel jambs, a frieze of garlands and urns, and a plain shelf, with a moulded plaster overmantel incorporating the Stuart Arms between arabesque and strapwork panels. A 2-panel cupboard door on H-hinges is located to the right. An early 19th-century staircase to the second floor features close strings, stick balusters, turned newels with bulbous bases and a moulded flat handrail. On the second floor, doors from the landing include a 17th-century square-panel cupboard door on H-hinges, three early 18th-century 2-panel doors (one on butterfly hinges reused in a later frame), and a 5-panel door to the rear room. A stud partition wall divides the front room. A small room contains a round-headed grate in a simple moulded fireplace, while the back room has a duck's nest grate in a plain fireplace with moulded shelf. The staircase to the attic has close strings, bulbous balusters on vase bases, square newels with half balusters attached and moulded flat caps, and a heavy moulded handrail. The attic contains a stud partition wall between the front rooms and reused original plank doors.

No. 58 has an entrance hall on the ground floor with a moulded cornice and a moulded round arch on imposts (now blocked by a 20th-century door) leading to the stairhall. The shop features a blocked corner fireplace in a panelled surround with an enriched moulded overmantel panel and enriched moulded cornice. A close string winder staircase to the attic has concave-sided stick balusters, a turned newel and a serpentine moulded handrail. The first floor has moulded cornices to the landing and back room, with the front room containing cased beams with enriched soffits and a moulded dado rail. On the second floor, a corner fireplace with a 19th-century grate in a plain moulded 18th-century surround is located in the back room. Timber-framed walls are visible in a cupboard off the rear room. The attic contains two reused square-panel doors on cockshead hinges.

No. 60 retains substantially intact timber-frame including studded partition walls. A winder staircase from first to second floors has a serpentine handrail and moulded dado rail. The door to the rear room on the second floor is a plank door with pegged-on panels. Two altered crown posts survive in the front range attic.