144, 146 AND 148, MICKLEGATE

A house, now shops and flats, dating to the late 17th century, likely incorporating the remains of an earlier building. It was remodelled and subdivided in the early 19th century, raised and re-roofed later, with mid-19th century shopfronts added, and altered in the 20th century. The front and rear wings are of orange mottled brick in a random bond, with limestone quoins and shaped kneelers to the wings; the rear extension and wing gables are of dark red brick. The roof is slate, with brick stacks. Originally designed with an H-plan layout.

The front of the building has a three-storey, five-window facade. The shopfronts feature plain pilasters and fascias, a moulded cornice, grooved and corbelled brackets capped with rounded gablets, and glazed shop doors. An upstairs access door, consisting of two panels with an overlight, is located to the left of centre. The first floor has 12-pane sash windows with sills and flat arches of gauged brick. The second floor windows, of six panes, are pivoting and have sills.

Number 144 contains an altered staircase, approached from number 142, that rises from the first to the second floor. It has an open string, slender turned balusters and swept moulded handrail. The first-floor landing has a moulded cornice and two enriched doorcases with carved rosettes. A subdivided front room on the first floor also has a moulded cornice and panelled window reveals. On the second floor, two rooms retain painted cast-iron fireplaces with foliage trails and scalloped mantle shelves.

In numbers 146 and 148, a round arch on pilasters with moulded imposts and a panelled soffit leads from the ground floor to a rear stairhall, which has a door of six raised and fielded panels. The staircase rises from the ground to the second floor and has a close string, stick balusters, chamfered newels and small ball and pedestal finials. A rear room on the first floor retains full-height panelling on two walls, a York range, moulded cornice and a cased transverse beam. Two rooms on the second floor retain painted stone fireplaces with basket grates; doors are two-panelled, and a blocked window is visible in the gable wall of the front room to the left. This house may incorporate remains of the first brick house to be built in York, known in the early 17th century as 'le read-brick house'.