Guinness Bar in the Old Grandstand at York Racecourse is a Grade II* listed building in the York local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 June 1954. Bar.
Guinness Bar in the Old Grandstand at York Racecourse
- WRENN ID
- fossil-minaret-ash
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- York
- Constituency
- York Central MP: Rachael Maskell (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 June 1954
- Type
- Bar
- Address
- Guinness Bar in the Old Grandstand at York Racecourse, Knavesmire
- OS grid reference
- SE 596 499
- Coordinates
- 53.94188, -1.09262
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Guinness Bar in the Old Grandstand at York Racecourse is a grandstand that has been converted into a bar. It was originally built in 1755 and was partly demolished and reconstructed around 1920. The structure was designed by John Carr and is made of orange brick in English bond, with dressings of ashlar sandstone. The roof is not visible.
The exterior features a one-storey, nine-bay front that sits on a moulded stone plinth. The centre and end bays are faced with rusticated stone and project forward, with the centre bay topped by a pediment. The bays are arcaded, with the end and centre ones having round arches made of radiating voussoirs, while the other arches feature rubbed brick with a stone impost band. Each arch is covered by a 20th-century canopy. A moulded stone eaves cornice runs beneath a balustraded parapet, which is adorned with bulbous balusters, plain stone piers, and moulded coping.
The rear of the building also has a one-storey, nine-bay layout on a brick plinth. The outer and centre bays are blind, while the other bays feature blind arcading beneath a stepped brick cornice and a plain parapet with flat stone coping.
The interior has not been inspected. This structure is noted as the last remnant of one of the most impressive 18th-century grandstands in England.
Local climate
Guinness Bar in the Old Grandstand at York Racecourse sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 39 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 74% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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