Number 68 And Verandah Railings Attached At Rear

Number 68 and Verandah Railings, Micklegate, York

A house with attached verandah railings spanning the basement area at the rear. The building dates from the mid-17th century with earlier origins, was remodelled with an added third storey around 1823, and underwent late 19th and 20th-century alteration and renovation.

The front elevation is rendered in stucco, whilst the rear is of brick with ground and first floor painted. A moulded cornice and low parapet at the front mask a hipped slate roof. The building comprises a basement and three storeys with a two-window front. The principal doorcase features Doric pilasters, frieze and cornice, with a round-arched architrave framing a recessed six-panel door beneath a radial fanlight. To the right is a 20th-century shopfront. The first floor right features an inserted canted bay window with moulded dentil cornice over a pulvinated frieze. The remaining windows are two-light casements set in raised moulded architraves with painted sills. Moulded bands articulate the first and second floor levels.

The rear elevation shows three storeys and an attic with a two-window gabled front. The ground floor window to the right is tripartite with panelled half doors beneath a centre sash opening onto the verandah. The first floor right window is also tripartite with a 12-pane centre sash; other windows are 12-pane sashes beneath flat brick arches. A circular window sits within the pedimented gable. Cast-iron verandah railings are alternately straight and serpentine in form.

Interior

The cellars contain a rear left room with a plain fireplace retaining a pot from an early 19th-century range removed in 1987. The right room is groined and said to be of brick beneath later plasterwork.

The ground floor entrance passage and stairhall are paved with diagonally set flags. At the end of the passage, a screen of two round arches with moulded details and keyblocks, carried on a square section centre pier with moulded impost and plain base, leads to the stairhall. The close string staircase to the first floor features bulbous balusters, square newels with ball finials, and a broad moulded handrail. An original two-panel door beneath the stairs, to the left of a length of studded wall now boarded over, leads to a stone newel stair to the cellars. Opposite the foot of the main staircase, an early 18th-century door of six fielded panels in a fluted architrave with frieze, angle blocks and plain cornice hood opens to a small workshop. At the rear of the hall, two early 19th-century six-panel doors have similar architraves.

The rear ground floor rooms were not accessible at the time of survey. Records indicate the left room has a ceiling with moulded beams and cornice, a fluted doorcase with angle paterae, and an early Victorian fireplace. The right room features ceiling beams carried on stop-chamfered posts, a segment-headed recess beside the fireplace, and a recessed cupboard with moulded surround and Gothick-glazed doors (said to have been removed).

On the staircase, a six-light window with moulded mullions originally contained a painted glass window of 1665 by Henry Gyles, which was in the possession of the York Glaziers' Trust at the time of survey. The staircase half landing features a wall cupboard with a small plank door rehung on butterfly hinges.

The first floor landing has four moulded doorcases with six-panel doors; one doorcase retains a three-panel door rehung on iron pins. A close string staircase to the second floor, closed off behind a door, features stick balusters, turned newels and a ramped-up moulded handrail.

The front right room contains moulded beams and cornice, and a marble corner fireplace with tiled surround. The front left room has a marble chimneypiece with cast-iron hob grate, moulded beams and cornice. The rear right room features fielded dado panelling and moulded dado rail, with a plank cupboard door with pegged-on panelling. The rear left room has a marble chimneypiece with reeded jambs and frieze with angle blocks carved with flower posies, together with moulded beams and cornice.

The second floor contains several re-used six-panel doors.

Historical Note

Between circa 1650 and 1709, the house was the residence of Edmund Gyles, glazier, and his son Henry, a notable glass painter. It served as the meeting place of the York Virtuosi, of which Henry Gyles was a leading member, and was visited by distinguished contemporaries including Ralph Thoresby, the Leeds historian; Dr Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne; and artists William Lodge and Francis Place. Francis Place lodged with Henry Gyles for a period. From 1813 to 1823, the occupant was William Stead, carver and monumental mason.