Royal York Hotel And Area Railings Attached At Side And Rear

Royal York Hotel and Area Railings

This station hotel was built between 1878 and 1896 by Thomas Prosser and William Peachey for the North East Railway Company. It is constructed in yellow Scarborough brick laid in English bond with a rusticated basement, chamfered ashlar quoins, and bands of red brick arched over the window heads. The ashlar dressings, strings, impost bands, copings and cornices are of moulded stone. The building features stone balustraded brick parapets with urns and brick stacks topped with stone cornices supporting a slate roof. The railings are cast iron. The architectural style is Italianate.

The main front elevation rises three storeys with a basement and attics, containing 19 windows arranged in a pattern of 2:5:5:2. The end and centre blocks are quoined and break forward, with the centre block extending further forward. Between the 1-storey ranges at each end sits a 2-storey 5-bay block, flanked by 1-storey 3-bay ranges with a 1-storey projecting porch at the right end. Stone oriel windows appear on the first floor within the re-entrants of the end blocks. At the far right end, a 2-bay crosswing extension rises five storeys with attics and a tower.

The basement openings feature cambered arches of radiating rusticated brick voussoirs with stone keyblocks. The flat-roofed porch contains 20th-century small-pane glazed double doors set in a moulded round arch. Ground and first floor windows in the end and centre blocks form 2-storey canted bays. In the end blocks, the ground floor windows are segment-headed sashes in stilted arches with stiff leaf imposts, carved keyblocks and inset moulded voussoirs. In the centre block, they are similar but round-arched. Elsewhere the windows have round arches with inset plain voussoirs and imposts. First floor windows are segment-arched; those in the end and centre blocks have moulded segmental hoods on brackets, whilst those in the centre block have bracketed brick balconies. Both ground and first floor windows have moulded stone sunk panels beneath them. Second floor windows are squat sashes with sills on brackets, and those in the end and centre blocks feature bracketed cornice hoods, whilst elsewhere they have keyed brick arches. End and centre block attic windows have keyed cambered brick arches; the remaining attic windows have shaped lintels and pedimented gables. A moulded dentilled cornice runs across the second floor above the end and centre blocks. The porch, end block bay windows, oriels and 1-storey ranges are capped with parapets pierced by bands of keyed oculi.

The crosswing is fronted by a full-height twin gabled square bay crowned by pediments broken by shell mouldings, containing paired windows in ashlar surrounds. The ground floor windows are tripartite segment and round-headed sashes framed in pilasters with imposts beneath a continuous pulvinated frieze and cornice. The tripartite first floor windows are framed in Ionic pilasters supporting entablatures with dentilled cornices and scrolled pediments broken by grotesques in foliage. On the second and third floors, paired windows are framed in two tiers of Ionic pilasters carrying an entablature with a cornice above the third floor, beneath which are carved swags. The fourth floor windows are single sashes with affronted strapwork scrolls beneath them and channelled wedge lintels. A modillioned cornice runs beneath the attic, which contains single sashes with moulded lintels. Unless otherwise indicated, all windows are 4-pane sashes. The tower is topped by a moulded corbel cornice and balustraded parapet.

The Station Road front elevation rises three storeys with a basement and attic, comprising 10 bays arranged in a 3:4:3 pattern. The end blocks are quoined and break forward, with the right end block featuring a projecting 1-storey porch. The porch doors are glazed and panelled. Other details follow the pattern of the main front.

The interior was not fully inspected, but of particular note in the public areas is the basement bar and staircase, both lined with ceramic tiles. The main staircase is cantilevered and rises around an open well the full height of the building, featuring a balustrade of cast-iron openwork panels and ornate ceramic newels at the foot.

The area railings sit on a low stone plinth and feature diamond latticed panels with conical pendant finials, turned standards with macehead bases and spiked finials.