47 AND 49, ALDWARK

Nos. 47 and 49 Aldwark

Four ranges of school buildings, now offices, forming three sides of a courtyard to the rear of St Anthony's Hall, Peasholme Green. Built for the York Blue Coat School in stages: the first range by J B and W Atkinson in 1870, with further ranges by Demaine and Brierley in 1887 and 1901.

The buildings are constructed of orange and orange-grey brick laid in English and English garden-wall bonds. No. 49 retains remnants of earlier brickwork in Flemish and stretcher bonds. Both Nos. 47 and 49 feature moulded brick dressings, with terracotta also present on No. 49. The roofs are slate with stone coping and brick stacks.

No. 47 presents a three-storey front of five unequal bays with an entrance from the courtyard. The ground floor has 3-light windows with flat hoodmoulds and segmental relieving arches, whilst first-floor windows are 2-light with flat soldier brick arches. The second floor features segment-gabled half dormers with 2-light windows topped by header brick arches. Single-light windows occupy the left end half bay. All windows are mullioned and transomed. A moulded brick string runs beneath the second-floor windows. The courtyard elevation is three storeys with two bays and a three-storey gabled wing projecting to the right. A glazed and panelled door sits in an altered opening to the right of a segmental carriage arch with board doors. The casement windows are mullioned and transomed, those on the first floor with segmental arches and those on the second floor set in gabled half dormers. The wing has two ground-floor doors, one glazed and panelled, the other of diagonal boarding, with plain bargeboards to the gable end.

No. 49 has a three-storey front of three bays. To the left, an altered opening contains a segmental carriage arch with board doors and a 3-light window, each beneath a flat hoodmould. To the right is a 3-by-6-pane segment-arched window with hoodmould over a shaped apron. The first and second floors have 3-light mullioned and transomed casement windows with shaped stone sills; those on the first floor have triangular pediments breaking into plain aprons, whilst those on the second floor are set in pedimented half dormers with similar plain aprons beneath. A small 6-pane light with shaped apron appears at the right end of the first floor beneath a segmental arch and hoodmould. A moulded eaves course runs around. On the courtyard side, a school bell survives on a wrought-iron bracket above a 6-panel door in a projecting closet at the left end. Within the carriageway, a blocked opening beneath a semicircular arch on imposts remains visible.

The range at the rear of the courtyard is two storeys with seven windows. At the right end, a glazed and panelled door sits beneath a 30-pane staircase window with cambered head. The other windows are 12-pane segment-arched sashes with stone sills, arranged in a 1:2:1 pattern flanking two extruded stacks.

The range to the left of the courtyard is two storeys with five windows. Most ground-floor openings have been altered. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes with brick sills and slightly cambered arches of gauged brick. A brick dentil eaves course runs along this elevation.

Internally, there are few fittings of note. The rear range contains a stone staircase with cast-iron stick bannisters and a serpentine handrail. A cast-iron fireplace survives in a second-floor room in No. 49.