Number 51 And Bootham School Block To Rear Including John Bright Library And Attached Railings

Number 51 and Bootham School Block to Rear including John Bright Library and Attached Railings, York

A house now forming part of a school, designed by Peter Atkinson senior for Sir Richard Vanden Bempde Johnstone, Bart., and nearing completion in 1804. The main house is constructed in brick laid in Flemish bond with painted stone dressings and a hipped slate roof.

The exterior presents a symmetrical façade of three storeys with attics and cellars, arranged in five bays. The windows are sashed with glazing bars, set within moulded architraves. Those on the ground and first floors are topped with cornices, and the ground-floor windows feature a sill band and fluted friezes. The windows on the upper storeys include tripartite central examples, with the first-floor window particularly distinguished by Ionic mullions and jambs and a segmental pediment. A trellis ironwork balcony extends across the entire front at first-floor level. The attic is lit by three round-headed dormer windows. The central doorway is notably impressive, comprising sidelights, a door with six raised and fielded panels, and a fanlight. A portico with two pairs of Doric columns and pilaster responds supports an entablature with a bucrania frieze. The roof features a modillion gutter cornice, with chimneys positioned to the left and right and two additional chimneys near the centre of the ridge.

To the rear stands a library and classroom block added to designs by WH Thorpe and F Rowntree. This two-storey structure is built in red brick with terracotta dressings. The south-east entrance front features a projecting central doorcase with Ionic columns supporting a pediment, a segment-arched opening with double doors and fanlight, two glazing bar windows to the left, and to the right a two-storey block of three windows with a chamfered single bay window. The north-east front comprises a three-window, two-storey bay on the left, followed by a recessed four-window wing. The ground floor of this wing contains four segment-headed glazing bar sashes, with four narrower sashes on the floor above and two through-eaves gabled dormers above those. To the right extends a projecting library block of four windows with basement access. This façade is articulated with pilaster strip balusters and four tripartite sashes on the ground floor. Above these are four shallow curved bow windows with iron frame cross casements. The block is crowned by an octagonal wooden cupola.

The interior of Number 51 contains an elegant hall with a good stone staircase set between fluted columns and fitted with an iron balustrade. The house also features several good fireplaces throughout. The library and classroom block interior includes panelled classrooms on the ground floor and a stone stair with Art Nouveau iron balustrade. The upper corridor retains dado panelling. The library or former assembly room features wainscot panelling with built-in bookshelves and displays a bronze plaque commemorating John Bright alongside a Second World War Memorial plaque. At the north-west end stands a proscenium arch beneath curved wooden roof trusses supported on stone corbels.

The front area is enclosed by plain wrought-iron railings which extend in front of the portico, where a central gate provides access.