Municipal Offices and Council Chamber and Guildhall Annex

This imposing civic complex comprises the Municipal Offices and Council Chamber built in 1889–1891 by E G Mawbey and Alfred Creer, City Surveyors, with an early 20th-century annex originally constructed for the Post Office. The architect of the annex is unknown.

Construction and Materials

The Municipal Offices and Council Chamber are built of magnesian limestone ashlar facing the river, with cream brick in English bond elsewhere. The building has octagonal stone chimney stacks on tall pedestals, some joined together, with coved cornices, and slate roofs. The Guildhall Annex shares the magnesian limestone ashlar on its river front and return (north elevation), but uses red brick in English bond at the rear, also with a slate roof.

Layout

The Municipal Offices and Council Chamber adjoin the north side of the medieval Guildhall and Chamber Range. The building has a basement and a main rectangular range running approximately north to south, with spine corridors on the ground and first floors. The roof is double-span, double-pitched on the west (river) side and hipped on the east. The west side contains ground-floor offices with a double-height Council Chamber above, while the east side has offices on ground and first floors with a flat on the third floor. Angled single-storey and double-storey link bays at the east end provide an external doorway near the large main staircase and internal connections to the Guildhall and Chamber Range. At the north end stands the Guildhall Annex, whose west (river) end comprises a three-storey block with a square corner tower.

Exterior: Municipal Offices and Council Chamber

The principal elevation faces west toward the river. This is a three-storey, four-bay block over a basement, attached to the Guildhall Annex on the left and connected by a two-storey link bay over a basement to the medieval Guildhall and Chamber Range on the right. Built in magnesian limestone ashlar, the elevation features a crenellated parapet above a moulded eaves string, with string courses below the ground-floor and first-floor windows that continue across the Guildhall Annex. The ground floor has windows set in four-centred arches: the first and fourth bays contain four trefoil-headed lights, while the centre bays have paired groups of three trefoil-headed lights, all with leaded glazing. Four upper-floor windows lighting the Council Chamber rise through two storeys, each with two tiers of cinquefoil-headed lights beneath panel tracery within square heads and hood moulds, filled with coloured and leaded glass. The ground floor of the link bay has two four-light mullion and transom windows, while the first floor has a single six-light mullion and transom window with leaded glazing. The basement level features two-light square-headed windows with coloured and leaded glazing, and a segmental-headed doorway onto the terrace at the right-hand end with an adjacent two-light window with segmental heads and leaded glazing. The terrace corresponds to the basement level of the adjacent medieval Chamber Range and has an outer stone balcony wall with steps at the right-hand end descending to a lower staith for the Watergate arch of Common Hall Lane, which runs beneath the Guildhall and Chamber Range. At the left-hand end, an archway leads through to the Guildhall Annex terrace.

The east elevation is built of cream brick. At the left-hand end is a single-storey, two-bay link block with a hipped slate roof and roof lights. It has two segmental-headed windows, the left-hand one converted from a doorway, with three-over-three pane sash frames. To its right stands a two-storey staircase block with a large central Perpendicular-style eight-light mullion and transom stair window featuring leaded lights with stained glass, a four-centred head, and a hood mould. Below at ground-floor level is a doorway to the left and two small rectangular windows to the right containing coloured and leaded glass. On the right of the staircase is a three-storey, eight-bay block with segmental-headed windows, stone sills, and three-over-three pane sashes.

Exterior: Guildhall Annex

The early 20th-century Guildhall Annex features a three-storey, three-bay block with a gabled attic and a four-storey tower at the left-hand outer corner. Built of magnesian limestone ashlar with a crenellated parapet, it shares the string courses below the ground-floor and first-floor windows that continue across the Municipal Offices and Council Chamber. The ground floor has three segmental-headed windows of three mullioned lights beneath an arcaded hood of ogee arches rising to boss-like finials moulded with lion masks. The first-floor and second-floor windows are four-light mullion and transom windows closely flanking central six-light mullion and transom windows; the two floors are separated by a frieze of panels enclosing moulded blind quatrefoils. Above the second-floor windows is a continuous square-arched hood mould stepped up over the central window to enclose a triple cartouche bearing the Post Office emblem. The tower has four-light or two-light windows at the lower stages; the third stage is set back over a corbelled offset with angle buttresses rising from corner gargoyles and a single-slit window overlooking the river. It is crowned by a pierced parapet with winged lions holding blank shields at the corners.

The north elevation of the Guildhall Annex presents a return stone ashlar elevation for the riverside block with a clasping buttress with pierced parapet at the left-hand corner, a central gabled attic, and the tower at the right-hand corner. The rear (east) elevation is red brick with a wide doorway containing timber double doors, an adjacent blocked window, a wider blocked window above, two segmental-headed stair windows with one-over-one pane sashes, and a long roof light.

Interior: Municipal Offices and Council Chamber

The entrance hall, main staircase landings, and spine corridors have bordered mosaic floors incorporating the White Rose of York motif, with the entrance hall featuring a central roundel containing the City Arms. The entrance hall at the south end has a coffered ceiling with the main staircase on its east side, a recess on its south side, and a stone moulded two-centred archway with hood mould leading to the spine corridor on its north side, with the foundation stone to its right. The recess contains a central moulded-arch doorway with panelled double doors opening into the Guildhall, flanked by two smaller moulded-arch doorways with traceried panelling. Each side of the recess has a two-light stone mullion window with a clerestory band above, all containing leaded glazing.

The ground floor of the open-well staircase has a low stone parapet pierced by ogee arches around the stairwell, with an arcaded screen on the west side of four-centred moulded arches. The stone staircase features an arcaded balustrade of trefoil-headed arches with carved spandrels and a heavy moulded marble handrail with corner gas-light points rising to the first floor. The staircase windows contain coloured and leaded glass, and a window on the south side incorporates a stained-glass panel of a 17th-century horseman presented by the City of Münster in 1969. Beneath the coffered ceiling is a painted frieze of the City Arms and Guild badges. Two two-centred arches with hood moulds lead off the landing: the larger opens onto the first-floor spine corridor, while the archway to the left leads into the Council Chamber anteroom.

The Council Chamber was decorated by Kendal, Milne and Co of Manchester. This large room has a four-bay depressed barrel vault roof of timber, coffered with moulded beams and ribs carried on embattled corbels, each coffer quartered by slender ribs with bosses at the intersections. The end walls have traceried panelling to the wallhead above a brattished and moulded wallplate. The lower walls are lined with traceried panelling beneath a brattished and moulded rail, with plasterwork above painted with foliage and heraldic symbols. At the south end is the dais reserved for the Lord Mayor, with an elevated seat beneath a cantilevered canopy with crocketed finials and a carved City Arms, flanked by carved light brackets. At either end of the south wall are two arched doorways opening into the Council Chamber lobby and anteroom, with decorative timber doorcases featuring spandrels carved with roses, brattished lintels, finials, panelled reveals and soffits, and six-panelled doors with wide central rails. A similar door appears at the left-hand end of the east wall. The east wall contains a monumental chimneypiece with traceried panelling, a coved overmantel incorporating an inscribed timber foundation panel beneath a carved frieze of flowers and leaf trails, and a moulded cornice with an embattled parapet. The marble fireplace arch is four-centred with relief-carved spandrels and tiled slips depicting scenes of medieval York. The attached fender is marble, and the cast-iron grate bears the City of York shields of arms. The window cases are segmental-arched with hollow-chamfered mullions. Original fixed furniture survives including carved wooden and leather benches and desks for councillors, some curved around a central elongated octagonal table, and benches for the public at the north end behind a low carved screen. The anteroom has fitted panelled coat stands and a marble mantelpiece with a plain shelf on moulded brackets, glazed tile slips of embossed potted rosebushes, and a cast-iron grate. It has an outer door from the lobby of six panels with a wide central rail, one of the Council Chamber doors, and a door of six fielded panels opening into the upper room of the two-storey medieval chamber.

The ground-floor offices opening off the spine corridor have high arched doorways with doors featuring lower panels and three-by-four pane glazing, with bottom-hinged opening overlights of four-over-four panes. First-floor office doors are similar but without overlights. The offices have coffered ceilings and most have marble mantelpieces to the fireplaces.

On the east side of the building, a second-floor flat opens off the secondary stair at the north end of the spine corridors. The flat retains timber fireplaces, with the bedroom fireplaces painted white.

A substantial basement with rooms on each side of a spine corridor is accessible from both the main staircase and the secondary staircase. The walls of the corridors and rooms are entirely tiled in glazed tiles with buff tiles below a dark brown dado line and white tiles above. The floors are terrazzo echoing the design of the mosaic floors on the upper floors. The ceilings are concrete on rolled steel joists supported on rolled steel joist columns. The original doors are panelled or half-panelled and glazed with small pane glazing above.

Excluded Elements

To the rear of the riverside block of the Guildhall Annex is a long attached two-storey range with a double-pitched roof running approximately east-west. This utilitarian brick range was originally built as a sorting office and is architecturally modest with altered interiors. In the north-west inner corner of the sorting office and the east elevation of the Municipal Offices is a small water closet outshot built in the early 20th century with the sorting office. Adjacent and running parallel to the east elevation of the Municipal Offices is a plain boundary wall of cream brick with stone coping enclosing a narrow yard with a small store at its north end. The former sorting office, water closet outshot, boundary wall, and store are excluded from the listing.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the interior of the riverside block of the Guildhall Annex, the external metal fire-escape balcony and ladder on the east elevation of the Municipal Offices, and inside the Municipal Offices the modern stair-lift attached to the main staircase and the modern timber and glazed door and screen inside the archway of the first-floor spine corridor are not of special architectural or historic interest.