The Wealden Hall

The Wealden Hall, located at 49 and 51 Goodramgate in York, is a former shop and office building dating back to around 1500. It underwent restoration and had new shopfronts installed, along with an extension to the cross wing, between 1930 and 1931 by the architects Brierley and Rutherford. The building features a timber frame with plaster or rendered infill, and part of the hall has been restored in orange brick using English garden-wall bond, with the extension in stretcher bond. The roofs are covered with pantiles and have rebuilt brick stacks.

The exterior includes a front range that is two bays wide, part of a four-bay range shared with No. 47. The Wealden Hall itself is a four-bay structure located behind the front range. It is three stories tall, with the front displaying an exposed timber frame. The first and second floors project out, with the second floor jetty lowered on the left end to create an oriel window supported by renewed coved brackets. The first floor features a jetty plate that is moulded and embattled. The ground floor has a rebated passage opening beneath a porch and two shopfronts with glazed and panelled doors and plate glass windows.

On the upper floors, the windows are square latticed casements, with two lights on the first floor, six lights in the oriel, and three lights on the second floor. A post on the first floor has a plastered head dated 1700, initialled IAT. The Wealden Hall itself has a two-storey front with a two-bay hall flanked by one-bay crosswings, both of which have jettied first floors. The left wing features a board door in a shouldered opening and two two-light casement windows on the first floor, while the right wing has mullioned windows on the ground floor and a transomed window on the first floor. The hall boasts two full-height mullioned windows, one with six lights and the other with three lights, and has coved eaves to the oversailing wall plate. The windows have square lattice glazing, and the mullions are diamond-section.

Inside, the framing is complete but has been heavily restored. The Wealden Hall is a rare example of a medieval building type typically found in the southern part of England, and it represents a notable example of early 20th-century restoration by the significant local architects Brierley and Rutherford.