The Old White Swan Public House

The Old White Swan Public House, located on Goodramgate in York, is an early 17th-century building with significant extensions and alterations from the mid-to-late 18th century, and further changes in the 20th century. The original core is timber-framed and rendered, with a tiled roof and brick stack. A mid-18th-century extension utilizes red-brown brick in Flemish bond facing Goodramgate, stretcher bond in the courtyard, and buff-orange brick for the ground floor. A late-18th-century extension is rendered. The various ranges enclose three sides of a courtyard.

The Goodramgate facade of No.76 is a three-story, five-window front featuring a glazed shopfront, an upper door with strap hinges, and 12-pane sash windows on the first floor. The second floor has unequal nine-pane sashes. No.78 has a two-story, one-window front with a single-story extension to its left, with 20th-century 12-pane sash windows. No.80 displays a three-story, two-window gable to the street, with 12-pane sash windows on the ground and first floors, blocked openings on the second floor, and a small four-pane casement in the attic. Raised bands are visible on the courtyard front.

The courtyard front includes a two-story, three-window range, a three-story, four-window range, and a three-window range with an attic. The ground floor features several 12-pane sash windows and a one-story extension with a heavy, moulded cornice hood supported by massive, carved consoles. First-floor windows have cambered heads and painted stone sills; some are blocked. Subsequent floors feature various sash windows and dormers with two-light casements.

The ground floor interior of the 17th-century range reveals significant timber-frame elements, including beams, joists, and studded partition walls. Three brick fireplaces with original stacks are present, two with large, chamfered timber lintels. No.80 is lined with 20th-century panelling and cornice, and includes a fireplace. Historic records suggest a close-string staircase with turned balusters in No.78 and a staircase with a Chinese fret balustrade leading from the first to second floor in No.80.