Garforth House And Railings Attached At Front, Garden Wall Attached At Rear

Garforth House and Railings Attached at Front, Garden Wall Attached at Rear

This is a town house, now in office use, with attached area railings at the front and a garden wall enclosing the rear. The building stands on the north side of Micklegate in York and dates to 1757, with late 19th-century alterations. It was probably designed by John Carr for Edmund and Elizabeth Garforth. The house was formerly known as St Margaret's School.

The front elevation is constructed of orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with a painted stone doorcase and rusticated quoins. Stone dressings include a triglyph frieze beneath a moulded dentil cornice. The rear is of pink and cream mottled brick in English bond, with orange-red brick dressings and a moulded dentil cornice. The roof is double span slate with stone coped gables, brick kneelers and brick end stacks.

The building is of double pile plan and rises to basement and three storeys. The five-bay front has the three centre bays quoined and pedimented, breaking forward slightly. At the left end, two steps lead to an open-pedimented Doric doorcase with a six-panelled raised and fielded door beneath a radial fanlight in a round-arched architrave. All windows are sashes: 12-paned on the ground and first floors, 9-paned on the second floor, all with flat arches of rubbed brick. Ground and first floor windows have sill bands; second floor windows have painted stone sills. Raised bands run at first and second floor levels. The pediment encloses a keyed radial-glazed oculus in a moulded surround. The rear elevation has three storeys with basement and attics across five unequal bays. On the ground floor of the right end bay, a former window has been altered to a part-glazed door. Above it is a Venetian staircase window with a radial-glazed centre sash. At the left end, a round-arched radial-glazed secondary staircase window is similarly positioned. Other windows are 12-pane sashes on the ground floor, 4-pane sashes on the first floor, and unequal 9-pane sashes on the second floor. Rainwater goods include a shaped hopper, dated, and stamped with the initials EEG and the Garforth crest.

The wrought-iron fittings include lamp brackets of scrolls, tendrils and wheatear drops flanking the doorcase, spearhead-tipped area railings on a low moulded plinth approximately 1.25 metres high and ramped to follow the street slope, and early 19th-century window guards to two second floor windows. The garden wall at the rear is approximately 4 metres high, constructed of pink mottled brick in English garden-wall bond with a flat stone coping and projecting pilaster buttresses, raked up in places.

Interior

A series of vaulted cellars extends beneath the ground floor, one retaining an altered kitchen fireplace. The ground floor entrance hall, staircase hall and central passage preserve original stone-paved floors with marble inserts. All retain enriched moulded skirtings and cornices of acanthus modillions and rosettes. A round-arched opening on sunk panelled pilasters with moulded imposts and bases, all enriched, leads from the entrance passage to the stairhall and central passage.

The cantilevered main staircase rises from ground to first floor with fluted column balusters, three to a tread, a serpentine moulded handrail wreathed at the foot around a turned fluted newel on a shaped curtail step, and matching enriched dado panelling. In the central passage are two doorcases with enriched architraves, pulvinated friezes carved with acanthus, and dentilled pediment overdoors; the doors, recessed in panelled reveals, are six-panelled raised and fielded work, all enriched. A third pedimented doorcase with plain architrave and pulvinated frieze leads to the service passage. Two round arches on sunk panelled pilasters with moulded imposts and bases open from the service passage: one leads to the secondary stairhall with moulded skirting and egg-and-dart cornice. The open string secondary staircase rises to the attics with column balusters, two to a tread, a turned newel and ramped-up handrail.

The front room has moulded skirting and dado rail, panelling above, and an enriched modillion cornice over a frieze decorated with arabesques, shells and a female head. Panelled window shutters survive, and pedimented doorcases with pulvinated friezes flank a marble fireplace with a panelled overmantel. All panelling is raised and fielded. In the room at the right end is a plain fireplace with an original basket grate with thistle side panels. The larger back room has a late 19th-century painted fireplace between segment-arched recesses, one containing a later doorway, and a moulded dado rail. Both rooms retain panelled shutters.

A Corinthian order Venetian window to the main staircase is set beneath a shallow round arch filled with a cartouche bearing the Garforth arms amongst rococo plasterwork flowers and leaves. Similar plasterwork ornaments the arch spandrels, beneath a stairwell cornice of acanthus modillions and rosettes, and the ceiling is moulded into panels with flowers, fruit and foliage. The secondary staircase window is round-arched, with an eared and shouldered architrave and sunk panelled reveals.

On the first floor, at the head of the secondary staircase, a round arch on sunk panelled pilasters and reveals, with moulded imposts and bases all enriched, leads to a passage. Moulded pilaster bases continue as skirting to the passage. Enriched passage doorcases feature carved pulvinated friezes, modillion pediments and six-panel doors of raised and fielded panelling in similarly panelled reveals.

The front rooms at each end have moulded skirtings, fielded dado panelling beneath moulded rails, and enriched cornices. Both feature carved wood fireplaces with marble slips, relief moulded friezes, possibly of applied composition, and moulded cornice shelves. The subdivided middle room has plainer fittings and, beyond an inserted partition wall, a fireplace carved with egg-and-dart mouldings. The rear saloon has a pedimented doorcase with a six-panel door in a panelled reveal, fielded dado panelling and moulded rail, and a modillion and rosette cornice, all enriched. The painted fireplace features egg-and-dart enrichment. The rococo plasterwork ceiling displays grapes, musical instruments, floral garlands and leafy fronds.

The second floor landing features an elliptical arch on sunk panelled pilasters and reveals. The landing and central passage have moulded skirting and cornices, and passage doors are six-fielded panels recessed in similarly panelled reveals. In all rooms, moulded skirtings, cornices and fielded panel shutters survive. At the front, both end rooms retain fireplaces with eared surrounds and Art Nouveau grates. Beyond an inserted partition wall in the middle room is a plain fireplace with a pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice shelf. At the back, an original fireplace with fluted jambs and a plain moulded shelf survives in each end room. The middle room has a fireplace with sunk panel jambs, triglyph frieze and moulded cornice shelf with a 19th-century grate.

In the attic, four rooms contain plain fireplaces.

A blocked segmental arch, largely obscured by a later lean-to building, is adjacent to the rear wall of the house.