Jackson House

Jackson House comprises two buildings, No.7 Grape Lane and No.53 Low Petergate, York. No.7 Grape Lane is a 17th-century printing works, raised and incorporated into No.53 Low Petergate in the early 19th century, with a 20th-century refronting. No.53 Low Petergate itself was built in the early 19th century and partly rebuilt and extended later in the 19th century.

No.7 Grape Lane is timber-framed, with an orange-cream brick facade in Flemish bond; the roof is not visible. The front has three stories and one window, featuring a 20th-century four-panel door flanked by a bowed small-pane shop window set over a brick riser. A left-hand door leads to a rear access passage. The first floor has an oriel window, and the second floor a tripartite window, both with 12-pane centre sashes. The second-floor window is topped by a flat arch of orange soldier bricks. A prominent moulded timber cornice runs along the top. The left return shows a first-floor jetty over a side passage, which is now largely enclosed.

No.53 Low Petergate, located in former Morley’s Yard, is a two-storey, four-window range built of orange-grey brick in Flemish and English garden-wall bonds, with some rendering. The slate and pantile roofs are visible. A doorcase of attached reeded elliptical columns supports a frieze with a shaped fascia panel and rebated end blocks, topped by a moulded cornice. The door is of six raised and fielded panels. To the left of the main door is a round-arched, radially glazed and panelled door. To the right, the ground floor windows consist of a small four-pane sash, a 16-pane sash with a cambered brick arch, and a 15-pane fixed light. The first-floor windows are all 12-pane sashes, with the right-hand windows having single-course cambered brick arches. A taller, attached block at the rear of the yard has a glazed and panelled door with a 12-pane overlight in a canted corner, and a 12-pane sash window above. The yard front has triple 12/12-pane pivoting windows on the ground floor, and similar windows with 8/12-pane lights on the first floor.

The interior of No.7 Grape Lane includes an early 18th-century staircase with turned balusters and a moulded handrail, and an exposed timber-framed cross wall in the first-floor front room. A printing works has operated on the site of No.53 Low Petergate since the mid-18th century.