Numbers 36-42 (Even) Including Number 38A

Terrace of three houses with attached range of buildings at right angles forming a rear yard, now comprising shops, warehouse and language school, located on Coney Street in York.

The terrace dates to the late 18th century, with substantial extensions and alterations made in the late 19th century to incorporate earlier buildings. An early 17th-century timber-framed structure and an early 19th-century house were incorporated into the complex at the rear. The shop fronts are of late 19th-century date, subsequently altered in the 20th century.

The street front is constructed of orange-buff brick in Flemish bond with a sharply projecting dentil and modillion eaves cornice, with cast-iron and timber shopfront. The rear is of red brick in Flemish bond with brick dentilled eaves cornice. The roof is hipped slate with brick stacks. The late 19th-century extension is of pink-grey brick in Flemish bond with brick dentilled eaves cornice, slate roofs (one hipped with scrolled corner brackets) and brick stacks. The 17th-century building is timber-framed, later encased in re-used orange-brown brick with Flemish bond at the front and stretcher bond with English garden-wall bond to the rear, featuring a moulded modillion eaves cornice of timber at the front and pantile roofs. The early 19th-century house is of orange brick in Flemish bond at the front with a similar returned timber cornice, with Flemish garden-wall bond to the rear over lower courses of random bonded brick and a hipped slate roof.

The main front elevation is 4 storeys with 6 windows. A full-width shopfront features elliptical arched windows on colonnettes with moulded capitals. The fascia is shaped to segmental arches with attenuated tulip foliage and tulip heads in spandrels. A shallow cornice rises centrally over a wide segmental pediment between heavy brackets ornamented with entwined tulip flowers and leaves. A panelled door with overlight beneath the pediment provides access to the rear yard. First-floor windows are 12-pane sashes over a raised sill band. Second-floor windows are unequal 9-pane sashes, with some alterations to the right end. Third-floor windows include two original 6-pane sashes; others have been altered. All windows have flat arches with painted sills on the second and third floors. A fluted bowl rainwater head appears on the right return.

The rear of the front terrace extends to 4 storeys with 2 windows, widening at the right end into a 2- and 3-storey range of 6 windows. The yard is closed by a 3-storey early 17th-century bay and an early 19th-century 2-bay house front. The ground floor of the front terrace is partially obscured by later additions, except for a round-arched passage opening. The extension features a blocked central doorway in an inserted doorcase with a segment-headed arch on moulded corbels and cogged brick cornice hood. Towards the right end, a window has been altered to a plain door beneath a cambered brick arch. First-floor windows are mostly 12-pane sashes; second-floor windows are 4-pane sashes. The 17th-century bay has an altered door beneath a tall staircase window with a semicircular arch of rubbed brick and painted stone sill. The early 19th-century house incorporates a passage arch with semicircular head to the left of a plain door with blocked overlight. First-floor window is a 16-pane sash; second-floor window is a squat 8-pane sash, both with narrow sills and flat arches of rubbed brick. The rear of the 17th-century building is twin-gabled with altered openings and a blocked original window with flat arch of brick in the left gable.

Interior features are concentrated in Nos. 36, 38 and 40.

Number 36 contains front rooms on the first and second floors with fireplace surrounds of timber painted to resemble marble. The second-floor front room retains a cast-iron range and grate. The rear room on the second floor has a plain fireplace with hob grate. The first-floor front room features a plaster anthemion and palmette frieze, coved cornice and sunk-panelled window shutters. Other rooms on the first and second floors retain moulded cornices. Three fireplaces survive on the third floor, including one of cast-iron and one with remains of a cast-iron grate and range.

Numbers 38 and 40 contain top-lit open-string staircases from the first floor to the attic with tall column-on-vase balusters, slender moulded handrails ramped-up to detached turned newels. Cornices survive in most rooms on the first and second floors.

Number 38 has a second-floor front room with a painted timber fireplace with fluted jambs and fluted dentil cornice shelf. The rear room has a cast-iron fireplace with floral moulded architrave in a fluted surround and a pulvinated frieze enriched with rosettes and horizontal flutes.

Number 40 has a first-floor front room with a painted timber fireplace with Corinthian pilaster jambs, plain shelf and late 19th-century basket grate. The second-floor front room has a plain fireplace with ornate basket grate. The rear room has a painted fireplace in a raised panelled surround with plain shelf and hob grate with cornucopias and medallions on the sidepieces. On the third floor, both rooms retain fireplaces with fluted friezes and cornice shelves, the front room featuring a basket grate with scrolled back plate.

The 19th-century extension contains an open-string staircase with heavy turned balusters and moulded handrail rising from first to second floor. The first-floor rear room has a plain pilastered fireplace with flat shelf. The second-floor front room has a moulded cornice and round-arched fire grate. The rear room has a stone fireplace with incised frieze and grooved keyblock and a round-headed grate.

The 17th-century block retains an open-string staircase from ground to first floor with slender column-on-vase balusters, shaped tread ends and delicate ramped-up handrail with turned newel at the foot. Full-height braced posts, wall plates and some studding survive on the first and second floors.

The early 19th-century house contains a main staircase with re-set column-on-vase balusters rising from ground to second floor, with fireplaces surviving on both first and second floors.