13 and 14, Fossgate

The building at 13 and 14 Fossgate comprises a shop and house, dating to the late 17th century. It was remodelled around 1720 with a new front block, and later altered in the late 19th century, including a shopfront refurbishment around 1928 for Masons, Grocers.

The front block is constructed of stuccoed brick, incised to resemble ashlar, with a plain parapet and moulded coping. The right return is of orange brick in stretcher bond, with a slate roof and terracotta cresting. The rear building is of buff-pink brick in Flemish bond, with a double-span pantile roof, brick coped Dutch gables, and brick stacks.

The front has a three-storey, three-window facade. The shopfront features a small-pane door beneath a dentilled pediment hood, flanked by plate glass windows with colonnette mullions and painted tiled risers. The windows have leaded transom lights of coloured glass incorporating the monogram “MG.” To the right are recessed glazed and panelled double doors with a fluted transom and bordered overlight. The first and second floors contain 12-pane sash windows with sills, the central window on the second floor being blocked. Raised bands mark the second floor and eaves, with an inverted bell rainwater head at the left end.

The rear is three-storey with attic accommodation, featuring twin-gabled bays with the left bay set forward. The ground and first floors of the right bay are obscured by the adjacent property at 14A. The left bay has a through-passage opening beneath a 15-pane sash window, both with flat brick arches. A radial glazed staircase window with a brick round arch sits between the floors to the right. The second floor windows are 12-pane sashes, and the attic has two 6-pane Yorkshire sashes, all with flat brick arches. Four-course raised brick bands mark the first and second floors, and a moulded brick cornice sits beneath the attic gables.

The interior passage has a door of eight raised and fielded panels. The shop interior retains a moulded and dentilled timber cornice over a glass frieze advertising “Messrs. Masons’ Provisions.” The remainder of the interior was not inspected. Historical records mention a staircase with column-on-vase balusters, a ramped-up handrail, and a staircase window enclosed in a round arch on fluted pilasters.