The Masons Arms

The Masons Arms is a public house dating from 1935, designed by James Knight of Rotherham for Biscomb and Ferrey. It stands on the west side of Fishergate in York. The building is constructed of ashlar at ground floor level, with the first floor of panels of brown brick laid in a stretcher bond, with some diagonally, and features applied timber framing. The roof is slate, with brick stacks.

The two-storey front has six unequal bays, with a slightly jettied first floor; the right end bay is recessed, and the centre bay projects, topped with a bargeboarded gable that extends over a canted oriel window on the first floor. Flat-roofed porches with moulded doorways and panelled double doors are located in the recessed areas flanking the central bay. The ground floor windows are largely mullioned – a central five-light window, a right-end two-light window, and two others with five timber mullioned and transomed lights. The first-floor oriel window has five lights, with other windows being single or four-light mullioned designs. All windows are casements with top-hung lights and leaded panes. Oversize corbels flank the jetty at each end of the building; one displays the Five Lions of York, the other the White Rose of York. A painted glass pub sign depicting the tools of a mason is located beneath the oriel, and three painted wooden shields display the arms of the Yorkshire ridings.

The bar interior features a fireplace and panelling that were salvaged from the Castle prison gatehouse, constructed around 1830 and demolished in 1935. The fireplace has a stone arched surround within a carved wooden chimneypiece, the arch being four-centred and springing from colonnette shafts with moulded bases and capitals. The surround is flat-arched with two tiers of sunk panelled octagonal shafts. A shaped candle ledge is corbelled out from the mantelshelf. The grate is elaborate, cast with crocketed and gabled tracery. The bar is lined above dado level with wainscoting of sunk panelling with four-centred heads.