85, 87 AND 89, MICKLEGATE

The terrace at 85, 87, and 89 Micklegate is a group of three tenements dating back to around 1500. A wing was added to the rear of number 89 between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and another in the 18th century to number 87. Late 19th-century shopfronts were introduced, with restoration work carried out around 1961. Originally, the buildings were likely built as rentals for Holy Trinity Priory.

The construction is timber-framed with wall-tile infilling, although much of the infilling has been replaced with brick. The front is rendered and whitewashed, while the rear wings are built of red and orange-red brick in a random bond pattern. The buildings have a tiled roof and brick stacks. The front of the terrace has six bays and is three stories high, with a first-floor jetty on the left end supported by a cast-iron Doric column. Shopfronts have been incorporated on the right side of the upper access doors, with number 85 featuring a glazed and panelled door and plate glass window below a fascia board supported by grooved brackets. The upper access doors consist of six raised and fielded panels with divided overlights. Upper floor windows are mainly of two lights, with eight-pane top-hung windows on the first floor and six-pane casements on the second floor. Bressumers supporting the jetty feature embattled mouldings replicating original, defaced details. A rainwater head dated 1961 is positioned between numbers 85 and 87. Gable ends display exposed crown post roof trusses. A rainwater head dated 176? is re-used on the right return gable.

Inside numbers 85 and 89, the timber-frame is largely complete, showing braced, jowled posts, studding, and offset spine beams on all floors, including stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. On the first floor of number 89, the front room has a marble chimneypiece with a moulded cornice shelf, while rooms in the rear wing have painted stone fireplaces set within moulded timber surrounds, featuring plain friezes and moulded shelves. The second floor of the front range has two original doors—one with three panels and one with two panels using a butterfly hinge. Exposed studding is visible in the gable wall on the first and second floors of the front range. On the ground floor of number 87, the front room (now a shop) shows detectable studding in the rear wall and has a coffered ceiling with a moulded transverse beam and offset spine beams. Access to the upper floors of number 87 is currently restricted, but records indicate an almost complete framing system, including a boxed-in straight staircase from the first to second floor and a fireplace with a stone surround in the rear room on the first floor.