Yorkshire Insurance Company And Railings Attached To Front

This is an office building, constructed between 1846 and 1847, with later alterations. It was designed by G.T. Andrews for The Yorkshire Insurance Company. The building is constructed of ashlar sandstone, featuring rusticated quoins. It has a shallow pitched hipped slate roof with alternating segmental and triangular pedimented dormers, topped with conjoined ashlar cornice stacks.

The front of the building is five bays, with a sixth bay at the right end providing an archway to Breary's Court. The ground floor features a plinth band, with obscured basement windows behind iron grilles. A central porch features squat Doric columns on tall pedestals supporting a full entablature, leading to double doors within a panelled architrave. The first and second floors have unequal 15-pane sash windows, with those on the ground floor set within eared architraves with cornice hoods and moulded sills on consoles. The second-floor windows are similarly framed, with alternating segmental and triangular pediments. A shallow balustrade sits beneath the centre window. A moulded first-floor band runs along the façade, topped by a prominent dentil and modillion cornice. Inscribed on the frieze is “YORKSHIRE INSURANCE COMPANY ESTABLISHED MDCCXXIIII”. The right-hand bay has a round arch on the ground floor, with a rusticated soffit, and a single 15-pane sash window above.

The Lendal front has three storeys and a basement, also with five bays. Ground-floor windows are obscured; the left-hand bay has a four-panel door and overlight, and the remaining bays contain unequal 15-pane sashes. The windows on the first floor are 12-pane sashes, and those on the second floor are unequal 9-pane sashes. All windows above the basement have moulded sill bands. The front railings have turned balusters with spear tips and furled bud finials.

The original interior remains largely intact. The main staircase has a cast-iron balustrade with a vine scroll design. The principal ground floor office has round and square Doric columns, panelled plaster walls, and a moulded cornice, along with original mahogany counters, panelling, and doors. The former Board Room on the first floor features panelled walls, a plastered ceiling cornice and rose, and a fine 18th-century style marble fireplace with Ionic columns. Another room has door and window architraves enriched with pellet mouldings and lion mask paterae. The building is further distinguished by cast-iron railings.