Skeldergate House Hotel

Skeldergate House Hotel is a house, later adapted as a hotel, built around 1777-1778. It was likely designed by John Carr for Ralph Dodsworth, who held civic offices in York. The building is of group value, demonstrating high architectural and historical significance.

The house is constructed of orange-red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with window arches made of gauged brick. It has painted ashlar dressings and a timber eaves cornice, topped with a slate roof and brick stacks. Originally designed with a central entrance, the building has a five-window front with a gable facing the street.

The entrance features an open-pedimented doorcase with fluted pilasters, moulded detail, and roundels in the frieze. The door itself is an octagonal-panelled double door under a plain fanlight, set within a keyed round-arched surround with sunk-panelled pilasters. To the left of the entrance are two four-pane sash windows with flat arches of gauged brick. A flat-arched carriageway has been broken through to the rear of the building, and to the right. The first floor windows are twelve-pane sashes with a sill band above a raised band that returns on the right side. The central first-floor window has an eared and lobed architrave with a pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice, while the flanking windows have a simpler floating cornice. The second floor features squat six-pane sashes, with the centre window featuring an eared and lobed architrave. A moulded eaves cornice tops the pedimented gable end, where a radial-glazed oculus is set within a painted ashlar moulding. Flanking the pediment are low parapets with moulded coping and urn finials. The rear of the building has a pedimented gable with a lunette window within the cornice. A Venetian staircase window, with a radial-glazed centre sash, is located on the right return side, beneath a moulded eaves cornice.

The interior retains original features. A rebuilt staircase in the entrance hall incorporates original column-on-vase balusters. Original plasterwork remains in the entrance hall and a rear stairhall. The saloon to the left of the entrance includes moulded skirting, enriched dado and panelling, cornice, and a plaster ceiling. The landing includes a dentilled cornice, and one room on the first floor retains its fireplace, featuring panelled pilasters, a console cornice shelf, and a cast-iron grate. An arched bed recess, framed by Tuscan pilasters, is in the rear wall.