25, Blake Street

Two houses, built in the late 18th century, are located at 25 Blake Street, York. The Blake Street facade dates to 1785, with later 19th-century alterations and a shopfront. The Stonegate facade was altered in the early 19th century, with a mid-19th century shopfront, and further altered in the 20th century when the two houses were combined into a single shop.

The Blake Street house is constructed of red-brown brick in a Flemish bond pattern. It has a timber shopfront, an eaves cornice and a slate hipped roof with brick stacks. The Stonegate house is of orange-brown brick in a Flemish bond pattern with orange brick dressings. Its roof is hidden behind a parapet with stone coping.

The Blake Street front is four storeys and a basement, with five bays. The shopfront is framed by panelled pilasters, imposts and carved consoles. It features glazed doors and a cast-iron arcade with two round arches, squat columns with foliate capitals, tall pedestals, and spandrels decorated with shells and foliage. The shop entablature continues above, with paired consoles at the corners. Raised and fielded panel doors with overlights are present, along with plate glass shop windows of two lights with transoms and roller blinds. Cellar openings are protected by ornate cast-iron grilles. Windows on the first floor are two-light casements, on the second floor are single-pane sashes, and on the third floor are squat four-pane sashes. All windows have flat arches of gauged brick, with the second and third-floor windows having painted stone sills. A dentilled and modillioned eaves cornice runs along the top. A one-bay return to Stonegate repeats the main front openings with a single light shop window. The Stonegate house is three storeys and an attic, with a two-window front. Its shopfront is framed by plain pilasters and an impost beneath a dentilled cornice on grooved brackets. A blocked shop door is to the left of a plate glass window with colonnette mullions. Below are ornate cast-iron grilles covering the cellar openings. On the first floor is a shallow tripartite bow window with a fluted frieze and a slight cornice to the left, and a segment-arched tripartite sash to the right. Second-floor windows are 12-pane sashes with cambered heads. An altered attic, extending to the left and forming a parapet, contains a lunette window with a squat six-pane sash and a semicircular arch of gauged brick. All upper floor windows have painted stone sills.

The interior contains a steep winder staircase with open strings, shaped treadends, stick balusters and a serpentine handrail. The Stonegate house originally featured a top-lit staircase with turned balusters.