16-22, ST SAVIOURGATE

Terrace of four houses at 16-22 St Saviourgate, York, built around 1740 with later 18th-century and early 19th-century additions.

The building is constructed of orange brick laid in Flemish bond on a painted stone plinth, with painted stone quoins, bands and dressings. The front elevation displays a timber cornice and doorcases beneath a shaped parapet that masks the valley where the roof turns on the right return. The roof is twin span, with the front range tiled and the rear range pantiled, topped with brick coping and brick stacks.

The front elevation rises three storeys with an attic storey and is articulated by sixteen windows. Each of the four houses has its own distinctive doorcase. No.16 has two doorcases with plain pilasters and entablatures, the right one leading to a through passage. No.18 features a doorcase with fluted pilasters, moulded imposts, a festooned frieze and dentilled cornice hood. No.20 has a doorcase of half-elliptical columns with paired acanthus brackets at the head, swagged frieze with angle roundels and moulded cornice hood. No.22 has a doorcase with sunk panel pilasters, frieze moulded with festoons and vases, and dentilled cornice hood. No.20 retains a 2-panel door; the others have 6 raised and fielded panel doors.

Windows on the ground and first floors are 12-pane sashes with incised panel shutters on the ground floor. The second floor has unequal 9-pane sashes or shorter 12-pane sashes. All windows have moulded sills and flat arches of gauged brick with painted keyblocks; those on the second floor are partly obscured by a bold projecting cornice on paired shaped brackets. Attic dormers are either gabled or flat with 2-light casements. Raised bands articulate the first and second floors. Fluted bowl rainwater heads are positioned between Nos.16 and 18, and between Nos.20 and 22.

Interior details of No.16 include a stone-flagged entrance hall. The entrance and staircase halls and stair well retain dado panelling. The entrance hall and first and second floor landings are divided by moulded round arches on pilasters with moulded imposts. On the ground floor, the front room is panelled in two heights with moulded cornice; the fireplace has incised panel jambs and frieze flanked by panelled cupboard doors. The first floor front room has panelled dado and moulded cornice with a fireplace flanked by round-arched alcoves. The rear room has panelled dado and moulded cornice, moulded cornice overdoors, and an overmantel panel with broken pediment and volute sidepieces reset over a plain fireplace.

No.18 has an entrance hall and landings divided by moulded round arch on pilasters with moulded imposts. The open string staircase rising to the attics has a column on vase balusters, bulbous turned newels and heavy ramped-up handrail. On the ground floor, the front room to the left has coved moulded cornice with acanthus decoration and beaded panel window reveal. The front room to the right is fully panelled with a painted stone fireplace containing a mid-19th-century round-headed grate, a hemi-domed niche to the left and a round-headed panelled cupboard door to the right. The rear room to the left is fully panelled with console cornice and a 19th-century marble fireplace. On the first floor, the front room to the right has a fireplace flanked by panelled cupboard doors on H or H-L hinges with a plank door on butterfly hinges inside the left one. The rear room to the right has a plain fireplace with mid-19th-century grate. On the second floor, both rooms to the right have cast-iron grates in plain surrounds. The attic landing doors are of 2 raised and fielded panels on H or H-L hinges. Moulded plaster cornices survive in a number of rooms on the main floors. The interior of No.20 has been incorporated into No.18.

No.22 has a stairhall arch as described for No.18. Plaster cornices survive in the entrance and stair halls and in the front rooms on ground and first floors. On the second floor and in the attic, the front rooms have fireplaces with cast-iron grates and panelled cupboard doors.