Galtres Chambers

Galtres Chambers is a building located in York, dating from 1906, originally designed for shops and offices. It features orange brick in English garden wall bond, with faience that resembles ashlar and faience dressings. The roof is made of Westmorland slate and has brick stacks with faience cornices. The building is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style.

The exterior consists of a three-storey, six-bay front, which is divided by quoined pilaster strips, with the right end bays canted at the corner. The gabled entrance bay includes a doorcase with sunk-panelled pilasters, a moulded modillion cornice, and a semicircular open pediment that has an oversized dropped keyblock. The entrance features a recessed glazed door and screen within a hollow-chamfered architrave, flanked by single fixed light windows that have Art Nouveau glazing and moulded sills.

Above the entrance, the windows are paired sashes, with one pane on the first floor and twelve panes on the second floor. The gable is treated as an open pediment with a mutule cornice and dropped keyblock, which is adorned with a relief moulded cartouche that contains the building name, along with a date panel that has a semicircular hoodmould.

The shopfronts on either side of the entrance have been altered to include plate glass, set between faience pilasters with moulded imposts and poppy head frieze blocks. The upper floor windows consist of tripled one-pane sashes, which are taller on the first floor than on the second floor. All windows have moulded sill bands, with first-floor lintels featuring cornices enriched with egg-and-dart mouldings, while the second-floor lintels are formed by a moulded impost band that aligns with the pilaster strips.

The corner bays rise into keyed semicircular gables, which are topped with ball and pedestal finials and enclose sunk roundels filled with moulded festoons. The bays to the left of the entrance have a plain frieze and a mutule cornice. The interior has not been inspected. This building is included for its group value, situated at a key location at the junction of Castlegate and Coppergate.