39 and 41, Micklegate

A house and shop, later converted into shops, offices, and flats, built in 1835 by JB and W Atkinson for Mr Varvill. The building is constructed of dark mottled brick in Flemish bond, with a rusticated ground floor and a painted stone plinth. It has a painted timber eaves cornice with grooved consoles, returning at each end of the slate roof, and brick stacks.

The exterior features a three-storey, three-window front. To the left is a recessed entrance door with four moulded panels and a margin-glazed overlight, accessed by three steps and set within a plain pilaster and cornice doorcase. To the right of the entrance is a twelve-pane sash window with slender glazing bars and a painted sill. A shopfront is located further to the right, featuring plain pilasters with moulded imposts, a plain cornice, glazed double doors, and a three-light shop window with moulded glazing bars over sunk panel risers. The first floor windows are twelve-pane sashes, with two having replacement single-pane lower sashes. The second floor has one original unequal nine-pane sash window to the left, and twentieth-century replacement casement windows to the right; all have painted stone sills. A raised sill band is present on the first floor. The first and second floor windows are topped by flat arches of gauged brick.

From 1837 to 1851, Number 39 served as the office of JB and W Atkinson, the architects. The interior was not inspected. The building’s historical context reveals that it was designed as a commercial property for Mr Varvill.