York Arms (Numbers 24 And 26)

The York Arms, occupying numbers 24 and 26 High Petergate, is a terrace of seven houses originally including a coffee house, now incorporating a public house and cafe. The main section dates to 1838, though it incorporates an early 18th-century house at each end, namely number 24 High Petergate and number 1 Precentor's Court. The coffee house was converted into a public house around 1855, with other later alterations, including a 20th-century shopfront to numbers 30 and 32. The building was designed by JP Pritchett.

The building is constructed of orange-grey brick in Flemish bond on a painted stone plinth, with number 1 Precentor's Court displaying orange-brown brick in English garden-wall and random bonds. Number 24 has a pantile roof, number 1 Precentor’s Court a plain tile roof, and the remainder have slate, all topped by brick stacks.

The main facade is three stories high, with cellars, and features nine bays. Number 24 is lower than the rest of the terrace. It has a passage door of six sunk panels and a front door of six fielded panels. Number 26 displays an altered inn front with plain pilasters, an impost, a broad fascia, and a moulded cornice supported by grooved console terminal brackets. To the right of the entrance is a flush-panel door and a small-pane window above a riser of four raised moulded panels. Numbers 30 and 32 have sunk-panel pilasters, plate glass windows with timber sills, a glazed door, and a shallow cornice. The front doors to numbers 28, 34, and 36 feature six flush panels, all with divided overlights. First and second floor windows are 16-pane sashes, except for the two 2x6-pane Yorkshire sashes on the second floor of number 24. All windows have painted stone sills and slightly cambered brick arches. Number 24 has a moulded and modillioned cornice, while the others have a plain moulded cornice.

Number 1 Precentor’s Court is three stories high with a two-bay front. Steps lead to a six-fielded panel door within a moulded timber surround, topped by a dentilled cornice hood and a one-pane fixed light. A blocked cellar opening with a segmental brick arch is to the left, and a flat cellar opening with a grille is to the right. The ground floor window is a 20-pane sash. The first floor has two small inserted windows to the left of a 12-pane sash, and the second floor has a single 16-pane sash. The first and second floor sashes have flat arches of orange gauged brick, and the building terminates with a dentilled eaves cornice.

The interior of numbers 30 and 32 features a staircase with a close string, slim column-on-vase balusters, turned newels, and a ramped-up handrail. The York Arms public house was originally the Chapter House Coffee House.