33, 35 AND 37, MICKLEGATE

Three houses now converted to shops and offices at 33, 35 and 37 Micklegate. Originally built in the late 17th century, the property was remodelled in the early 18th century when a front range was added. It was subdivided and altered around 1812, with further alterations in the 20th century. The original house may have been built for Anthony Wharton, and the circa 1812 alterations were carried out by the architect Peter Atkinson junior.

The front elevation is constructed of orange-red brick in English garden-wall bond with a painted and plastered eaves band and a painted timber modillion eaves cornice. The building presents 2 storeys plus an attic with 5 windows across. A coped left gable and brick stacks at the rear support tiled roofing. The rear wings are of orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with a third storey added to the wing behind No. 37 in mottled brick of irregular bond and pantile roofs. The 17th-century openings feature flat arches of gauged brick.

The ground floor contains paired shopfronts. The left shopfront has plain pilasters and a dentil cornice, with a 4-panel upper floor entrance door beneath a blocked overlight, flanked by recessed glazed double shop doors between half-canted plate glass windows. The right shopfront features sunk panel pilasters with a modillion cornice and plain fascia board, containing an 8-panel raised and fielded door with an overlight to the left and a margin-glazed shop door with patterned fanlight between small-pane windows.

The first floor windows are 12-pane sashes with slender glazing bars and flat arches of gauged brick. The attic contains three flat-topped dormers with 2 by 6-pane sliding sashes and one roof light.

The rear wing to Nos. 33 and 35 is 3 storeys with a 1-window gable wall. An open doorway with divided overlight leads to a through passage. The 20th-century windows on each floor include an altered attic opening with pilaster jambs. A 3-course raised band runs along the first floor with a moulded brick cornice beneath the attic, both returned along the wing at the rear of No. 37. The wing to No. 37 comprises a 2-storey 2-window return, with a 3-storey 4-bay block to the left. The 2-storey section has a blocked 17th-century oval window in a brick surround on the ground floor left, with other windows as small-pane sliding sashes and an inserted hung sash on the first floor. A portion of parapet survives above the eaves cornice. The 3-storey section has a door of 6 panels in a glazed screen beneath a half-elliptical fanlight patterned with vine leaves and rinceaux in wrought iron. The ground and first floor windows have been altered; those on the third floor are 4-pane sashes with cambered arches, with the left end one blocked.

The interior of No. 33 on the first floor features a front room fitted with full height raised panelling and a moulded cornice, subdivided by sunk panelled partitions. A blocked chimney breast carries a rinceaux frieze and blank overmantel framed in plaster moulded with a garland of roses. The panelling and overmantel are bolection moulded. The rear room retains 17th-century fittings including a 3-panel door on original hinges, full height panelling and a moulded cornice. A blocked fireplace has an overmantel flanked by dwarf pilasters with moulded imposts; similar pilasters form jambs to an altered window. The altered staircase around a square newel retains late 17th-century column-on-vase balusters and a heavy moulded handrail in the attic. A hob grate sits in a plain fireplace in the front room, with a studded partition wall to the rear room.

No. 37 at ground floor level has a glazed and panelled screen at the rear of the front room in a fluted frame with lion mask paterae. The stairhall is flanked by a Doric column and pilaster. An open string staircase features hollow-sided stick balusters, a serpentine moulded handrail wreathed at the foot around a turned newel, with the balustrade continuing around the stairwell on the first floor. A radial-glazed staircase window sits beneath a round arch on fluted pilasters with moulded imposts. The first floor front room contains a marble fireplace with angle roundels but no grate, with a moulded skirting and dado rail, a fluted frieze beneath a moulded cornice, and a ceiling rose of acanthus leaves; the door and window openings have panelled reveals. The rear wing has a late 19th-century firegrate in an angle fireplace and a hob grate in a plain surround in a huge chimney breast; the back room has a hob grate. The third floor back room features an oversize plaster frieze on a deep shelf carried on timber pegs and cast-iron brackets, depicting Greek processional figures playing musical instruments, with a hob grate in a plain fireplace.

Peter Atkinson junior lived at No. 37 for approximately 15 years from 1812. It was later occupied by Sir William Stephenson Clark, Surgeon, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1839.