57 And 59, Micklegate

The listed building comprises two town houses at 57 and 59 Micklegate, York. They were built in 1783 and the ground floor was restored in 1946-47. The front is of orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with stone bands, a stone basement, timber doorcases, and a projecting eaves cornice featuring dentils and modillions. Brick stacks rise from a hipped slate roof. The town houses follow a traditional plan with a service passage.

The exterior presents a three-storey, three-window front. Each end features a doorcase with panelled pilaster jambs, a moulded frieze, and a dentilled cornice resting on volute consoles. The left-hand doorcase has a wheatear drop below. The doors are of six raised and fielded panels, each beneath a patterned fanlight recessed within a round-arched, milled architrave. The doorcase entablature extends across the ground floor as a plain band above a 20th-century replica Venetian window with small panes. First and second-floor windows are 12-pane sashes with flat arches of gauged brick, and a sill band on the first floor, with stone sills on the second. A raised band runs above the first floor. An inverted bell-shaped rainwater head with fleurs-de-lys clamps is located at the right end of the eaves cornice. The rear elevation shows segmental arches to first and second-floor windows, and a brick dentil eaves band. A dated rainwater head features the initials WA.

The interior ground floor consists of stone-flagged entrance and service passages. Two round arches, supported on sunk panelled pilasters with milled necks and moulded imposts, separate the entrance passage from the stairhall. A reconstructed staircase rises from the ground to the second floor, featuring a cut string, slender turned balusters (two per tread), a moulded handrail, a ramped-up and wreathed foot, and a column newel on a shaped curtail step. An inserted elliptical arch leads into the front room, which has an enriched modillion cornice, and an original fireplace with sunk panel jambs, a moulded dentil cornice shelf, and a cast-iron grate. The frieze on the fireplace is enriched with milling, festoons, and arabesques. The rear room also has two inserted elliptical arches and a dentilled cornice. The first floor front room incorporates moulded skirting, a dado rail with milled enrichment, and a moulded cornice. Doors and windows have moulded and milled decoration to their architraves, while window reveals have sunk panels with composition foliar decoration. One fireplace features fluted pilaster jambs, a milled architrave, a frieze moulded with garlands and figures in applied composition, and a milled and moulded cornice shelf. The rear room’s fireplace possesses sunk pilaster jambs enriched with a lion mask and pendant mouldings, possibly of applied composition, a beaded and fluted frieze, and a moulded cornice shelf. The second floor stairwell has a dentilled cornice beneath a coved ceiling with a top light. Plain continuous round arches lead to the front and back rooms.