6, Minster Yard

House, now school. Early 18th century, raised and re-roofed in 1786; small late 19th century extension.

EXTERIOR

The front and right return are painted render, possibly Portland cement, on a painted chamfered plinth incised to resemble ashlar, with painted stone dressings and timber doorcase and cornice. The rear is orange-red brick in English garden-wall bond on a basement of squared limestone. The roof is slate hipped with rendered brick stacks.

The building comprises a basement and 3 storeys with a 5-bay front and a 2-storey 1-bay extension to the right. A flight of stone steps leads to the front door, which has 8 raised panels and a radial fanlight recessed in a moulded architrave, with a plain doorcase featuring a moulded and dentilled cornice hood on consoles. The ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes with painted stone sills and sunk-panel shutters. The first floor windows are unequal 15-pane sashes over sunk-panel aprons; the centre window has an apron flanked by pedestals with ball finials and a pediment hood on consoles. The attic windows are squat 6-pane sashes.

A prominent moulded modillioned cornice is returned at the right end to a fluted inverted bell rainwater head and continued without modillions across the right return. First and second floor bands are present. The extension has splayed corners; the right return has 12-pane sash windows on both floors, segment-headed on the ground floor, in painted stone architraves with sills. A raised first floor band and moulded and modillioned cornice finish this element.

The rear elevation shows a basement and 3 storeys in 4 bays, with the left end bay slightly projecting. An off-centre panelled door and small window sit beneath guttering inscribed: "This house repair'd and the roof new slated in the year 1786". Above the door is a tall radial-glazed sash window in a round-arched opening. Ground and first floor windows to the right are 12-pane sashes; to the left are 16-pane sashes, all with 1-course segmental brick arches. Second floor windows are squat 6-pane sashes. Five-course raised brick bands mark the first and second floors; a brick dentil eaves cornice sits below boxed guttering. A composite rainwater head dated 1783 is positioned in the re-entrant with the left bay, with a fall pipe featuring crossed key clamps.

INTERIOR

Brick vaulted cellars are present in the basement.

Ground floor: The entrance hall has a stone flagged floor and a semicircular stairhall arch on fluted pilasters with imposts and a radial-glazed fanlight in the head. The main staircase has an open string, slender turned balusters and a serpentine handrail wreathed at the foot around a turned newel on a shaped curtail step; a moulded dado rail runs to the well, and a half-landing window sits in a moulded surround. A secondary staircase to the second floor has a close string, square newels and a flat moulded handrail.

The left front room is panelled on four walls above a dado rail. It contains a painted wood fireplace with an eared surround and overmantel panel, and a pulvinated frieze with a dentilled cornice. The left rear room is similarly panelled above a dado rail and has a fireplace in an eared surround with an enriched cornice shelf on foliate brackets; the overmantel panel is flanked by fluted pilasters with a triglyph frieze and broken pediment, and a modillioned ceiling cornice and panelled shutters are present.

First floor: The landing features two doorcases with eared architraves; the main one has a door of 6 raised and fielded panels recessed in a semicircular arch on plain pilasters with imposts, and a moulded ceiling cornice.

The large front room features a distyle in antis screen of cast-iron columns with foliate capitals and a moulded frieze. The fireplace has an eared architrave, sunk panel jambs and an enriched moulded shelf with an altered late 19th century grate in tiled slips. Doorcases have fasciated architraves and cornice heads; window reveals are panelled, and a moulded ceiling cornice is present.

The smaller front room contains a plain marble fireplace and lincrusta dado. The rear left room, sub-divided, has a moulded dado rail and cornice; a fireplace in an eared moulded surround enriched with egg-and-dart ornament and a moulded cornice shelf.