Numbers 1, 3 And 5 And Wall Attached To Rear Of Number 1

Numbers 1, 3 and 5 Blake Street and Wall Attached to Rear of Number 1

Number 1 is a shop, while numbers 3 to 5 are shops with residential accommodation above. All three buildings share a continuous façade on the north-east side of Blake Street in York. To the rear are reused limestone walls displaying 12th-century tooling. The structures date from the 16th century, with 17th-century interior features, early 18th-century remodelling and extensions, and further alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Construction and Materials

The buildings are timber framed, refronted in red-brown and orange brick laid in Flemish bond. Rear wings are partly timber framed and partly brick in various bonds. The roofs are tiled with brick chimney stacks.

Layout

The front range comprises three retail units. Number 1 occupies almost the full depth of the building, while number 3 is a double-width room. Behind numbers 3 to 5, wings extend back at an angle to the front range. The front range has a roof parallel to the street with one ridge stack over number 1 and one end stack at the right end of number 3. Number 5 has a hipped roof running at right angles to the street. Rear ranges have roofs mainly at right angles to the front, at a variety of pitches, with further stacks.

Front Elevation

The front elevation has two storeys with eleven windows at first floor level, including two that are blocked. At ground floor level, number 1 has a 20th-century shop front of pilasters supporting a blind box and flat moulded cornice, with a plate glass window and glazed door to the left. Number 3 has a triangular pedimented doorcase with steps up to a door of six raised and fielded panels, with a radial fanlight over a moulded transom. Two windows to either side are single plate glass lights with painted stone cills. Number 5 has a plate glass window in a moulded surround with a cornice over grooved consoles, with a six-panelled door at the right end leading to a side passage.

At first floor level, there are three six-over-six sashes to the left, four eight-over-eight sashes to the centre, and two six-over-six sashes to the right flanked by blind windows. Most have flat arches of orange gauged brick, and all are unhorned. There are raised brick bands at first floor level and at the base of the brick stone-coped parapet. A rainwater head is inscribed "BB 1765".

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation has a gabled timber framed wing to number 1 with a jettied first floor and brick infill. A second timber framed gable, not projecting as far, is divided between numbers 1 and 3. To the rear of number 3 are flat-roofed single-storey extensions beyond a brick gable wing which has two first-floor brick extensions with mono-pitched roofs. Number 5 has a long rear wing in brick extending the full length of the plot and enclosing the rear courtyard.

A boundary wall of reused Magnesian limestone, approximately two metres high and twenty metres long, is attached to the rear of number 1, with a further section to the rear of number 5. It has 12th-century diagonal tooling and probably dates to the 16th century.

Interior: Number 1

The ground floor of number 1 consists of the retail unit with a store and service rooms behind. This area is without visible original features. External stairs at the rear lead to the first floor, which contains two rooms with partial painted square wainscotting (panelling), early 17th century but possibly reused and with a number of later interventions. There is a fireplace in the front room. Wooden stairs lead to the roof space, with timber framing visible to the external wall, some with lath and plaster infill, and turned wooden balusters and handrail on the inner side. The front roof, parallel to the street, contains a small blocked dormer and does not extend beyond the front pitch. The rear gable roof structure has two bays with the single visible truss having a clasped purlin construction. The tie beam is above the floor level of the roof space, showing the top of the timber framing from below. To the rear, the floor is higher and the rafters appear more recent. To the front, the side walls are raised above the rafters with timber framing. Heavy rafters and some braces are visible, with brick infill.

Interior: Number 3 Ground Floor

Number 3 contains the remains of a timber stud partition wall between the central door and the room to the left, with a 17th-century moulded door frame. This room has moulded beams forming a frame at a different angle to the walls of the room. Behind is a hallway to the left with plaster Greek key mouldings, and a late 17th-century staircase with open string, column-on-vase balusters to each stair, and a moulded ramped handrail wreathed at the foot. Retail areas, stores, and facilities extend to the rear and include a blocked full-height window with panelled shutters to the rear. Number 5 is without original features on the ground floor and has been opened out with steel beams supporting the ceilings throughout.

Interior: Numbers 3 and 5 First Floor

The first floors of numbers 3 and 5 are interlinked. The front range of rooms, from the left, has a store with corner fireplace with fluted surround, an office with a fireplace with a fluted surround and evidence of a former dividing wall from front to back, an office fully lined with square wainscoting incorporating two doors and a bolection moulded fireplace, an office with a bolection moulded fireplace, and an end office with a corner bolection moulded fireplace. The wall between these two rooms is a partition of timber planking. To the rear of the first office is the stairwell with a strong room off to the left and access to the attic. To the right of the stair is a large irregularly shaped room with cornice, plain fireplace, and a large window to the rear. To the right is a circular space with a domed ceiling and overlight, decorated with a painted frieze; originally a stairwell. Behind is a corridor leading to a partitioned room with cornicing and then to 20th-century workrooms. There are secondary staircases in the rear parts of the building.

Attic

The attic space in number 3 contains fragmentary timber framing including a jowled post, a small corner fireplace, and a window to the rear. The exposed roof structure shows a double gable within the rear-facing gable and a wooden drain arrangement. The main roof to the front shows evidence of multiple phases and alterations, including steel beams above number 5.

Historical Development

This row of buildings has a long and complex history reflected throughout the fabric. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England report, "City of York: The Central Area" (1981), details the suggested phasing of the structure, beginning with a 16th-century timber framed building occupying the major part of numbers 1 and 3, extended in the early 17th century to the rear to include the main staircase. The panelled rooms with square wainscotting also date to this period. In the second quarter of the 18th century, number 5 was added to the right-hand end of the group, possibly incorporating some remains of an earlier timber framed building. At this time, possibly contemporaneously with the construction of the Assembly Rooms opposite, the front of the group was remodelled and rebuilt in brick with a new roof. It seems likely that the alignment of the street was also altered at the front of numbers 1 and 3, to provide a wider entrance to the Assembly Rooms, leaving the timber coffered ceiling in number 3 on its original alignment. Further internal alterations have taken place throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and further extensions added to the rear. At the time of the listing description (2006), the interior of numbers 3 to 5 was being further remodelled to provide residential accommodation on the first floor.