Castlegate House And Attached Railings

A grand town house with attached railings to steps at front and rear, now serving as a Masonic Lodge. Built 1762-63 by the architect John Carr for Peter Johnson, Recorder of York. Altered around 1920 when a Masonic Temple extension was added at the side by Ward and Leckenby.

Materials and Construction

The house front is constructed of orange-brown brick laid in Flemish bond on a moulded stone plinth, with arches of orange gauged brick. The portico and other dressings are of painted stone. At the rear, the plinth is of rendered brick, and the staircase window is of painted stone. A timber Doric cornice returns on all sides of the house beneath a shallow hipped slate roof with brick stacks. The railings are of wrought iron.

The house follows a central entrance hall plan, whilst the temple is rectangular with an apsidal end.

Exterior

Front Elevation

The front comprises a basement and three storeys arranged across five bays. The basement openings to the right are unequal nine-pane sash windows with painted stone sills. To the left is one shuttered window, and at the left end a fielded panel door beneath a six-pane overlight.

On the ground floor, stone steps lead to a pedimented Doric porch with fluted frieze and cornice. The door has six raised and fielded panels beneath a radial fanlight set within a round-arched architrave on pilasters with impost band. The flanking ground floor windows and the first floor windows are twelve-pane sashes with flat arches, positioned over blind balustraded aprons. Raised band and sill band features appear on both floors. The first floor windows are recessed beneath a round-arched arcade on a moulded impost band. The second floor windows are squat six-pane sashes with moulded sills on brackets.

Rear Elevation

The rear presents a basement and three storeys across a three-bay front. The outer bays are canted and rise to full height beneath half-hipped roofs. Windows in the outer bays are three-light sashes, twelve-paned on all floors except the second, which has squat six-pane sashes.

In the centre bay, the basement window is semicircular. On the ground floor, a flight of brick and stone steps over the basement area leads to a half-glazed and panelled door set in an architrave with pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. Above this is a Doric order Venetian staircase window recessed beneath a semicircular brick arch.

All other windows have flat arches of gauged brick, and basement and second floor windows have painted stone sills. Raised bands and sill bands on ground and first floors are returned on the centre bay of the ground floor. In the re-entrant angle at the left of the centre bay is an ornate rainwater head dated 1763, with fallpipe on rosette clamps.

The Masonic Temple has no external openings.

Interior

Basement

The cellars at the front are vaulted. One has a ventilated door of fielded panels; another is fitted with stone slab shelves. The rear room to the left retains a kitchen fireplace without fittings and an elliptical bread oven arch of painted voussoirs to the left. It features a panelled and shuttered bay window with window seats and a moulded cornice.

The rear room to the right has a bolection moulded fireplace surround with moulded cornice shelf and replacement grate. It also has panelled window shutters and moulded skirting and cornice.

Ground Floor

A stone flagged floor extends from the entrance hall to the staircase hall at the rear. The front doorcase is round-arched on pilasters with acanthus leaf capitals, whilst doorcases off both halls are plain with corniced heads and panelled reveals. The entrance hall has a plaster frieze of swags beneath a cornice of acanthus modillions and rosettes which continues into the stair hall. A Corinthian order distyle in antis screen separates the entrance and stair halls.

The front room to the left has a painted stone fireplace with fluted pilasters, a frieze with foliate centre panel and moulded cornice shelf. A replacement grate is set in a grey marble surround with slips and hearth covered with good Pre-Raphaelite tiles. The walls are sunk-panelled below a moulded dado rail and panelled in plaster rosette frames above. There is a dentil cornice to the door and an enriched dentil cornice to the plain ceiling. A round-arched opening to the left of the fireplace was inserted later.

The rear room to the left has a fireplace with fluted Ionic columns, a frieze of foliage arabesques and moulded cornice shelf. A replacement grate sits in a carved architrave with marble surround and slips covered with 19th-century floral tiles. The doorcase has a carved architrave and pulvinated frieze enriched with flower and leaf carvings beneath an enriched cornice. The architrave to the bay window, skirting and dado rail are carved, and walls are sunk-panelled below the rail. The moulded cornice is enriched with acanthus leaves.

The front rooms to the right have moulded skirtings, dado rails and cornices. The rear room to the right has a marble fireplace with bolection-moulded architrave and dentilled cornice shelf, positioned between alcove cupboard doors. Architraves of door and window cases are bolection moulded, and there is moulded skirting, dado rail and cornice.

Staircases

The cantilevered main staircase from ground to first floor has slender turned balusters, three to a tread, and a ramped-up moulded handrail wreathed at the foot around a bulbous newel on a scrolled curtail step. A moulded dado rail parallels the staircase rail. The Venetian staircase window is of enriched Ionic order, retaining original glazing, beneath a plaster cartouche festooned in floral garlands. Flanking walls of the upper stair well have scrolled consoles carrying classical busts.

The cantilevered secondary staircase from ground to second floor has stone treads and a wrought-iron balustrade of elongated S-shaped scrolls with turned newels and ramped-up wood handrail. The bottom flight to the basement has square section balusters. Staircase windows are round headed sashes.

First Floor

Three doorcases on the landing have carved architraves, pulvinated friezes enriched with acanthus carvings, and enriched dentil cornice overdoors. The ceiling cornice is moulded and enriched with dentils.

The front room to the left has a fireplace surround carved with rosettes, garlands and drops. The doorcase architrave is carved with foliage and has a pulvinated frieze and dentilled cornice overdoor. Window architraves are carved, and walls are sunk panelled below a dado rail carved with Greek key and foliage motifs. The skirting is carved with ribbon and floret mouldings. The cornice is enriched with egg, shell and floret mouldings, dentils, and paired acanthus modillions and rosettes.

The rear room to the left has a fireplace with a replacement grate in a carved architrave, set within a surround of sunk panel pilasters carved with foliate pendants, a frieze of rinceaux, and dentilled cornice shelf. The doorcase has a carved architrave, a frieze of acanthus with garlanded centre panel, and enriched cornice overdoor. Window cases have carved architraves and shutters of enriched panels. There is carved skirting and dado, and moulded cornice. The plaster ceiling features an oval medallion in the centre containing a classical figure, surrounded by foliage tendrils and enclosed in a scalloped frame with subsidiary medallions and pendants.

The rooms to the right retain moulded skirtings and dado rails. The front room has a dentil cornice, the rear one an acanthus cornice.

General Features Throughout

Throughout the house, doors are of six raised and fielded panels, most retaining original door furniture. Panelled window shutters survive.

Interior of Temple

Double doors of raised and fielded panels set in a doorcase with pulvinated frieze and cornice overdoor lead to a lobby screened by a panelled partition. The three-bay interior is articulated by giant coupled attached Composite columns carrying an entablature with dentil and modillion cornice. A subsidiary arcade of round arches on dwarf attached Ionic columns with moulded impost band, broken by the giant columns and continuing around the apse, shapes bays into round-headed blind panels. The main ceiling is tunnel-vaulted containing moulded roundels, with a hemispherical roof to the apse. Wall panels are fitted with shaped boards.

Subsidiary Features

The railings to the front area are of square section interspersed with panels of scrolls and intersecting curves, ramped-up and swept up the steps to the portico. At the rear, a short balustrade of railings and standards similar to those of the secondary staircase closes off the steps.