The Red House And Railings Attached At Front

The Red House is a town house, now offices, located on the north-west side of Duncombe Place in York. Built around 1714 for Sir William Robinson MP, with a later 18th-century extension and further alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is constructed of red painted brick in Flemish bond with painted stone dressings and quoins, set on a painted stone basement. The returns are finished in ashlar at basement and ground floor level, with upper storeys of orange-brown brick in English garden-wall bond to the left and random bond to the right. A timber modillion eaves cornice is returned at each end, and the slate hipped roof is topped with brick stacks. The extension is of red-brown brick in English garden-wall bond, with slate roofs to the rear wing and extension, which feature tumbled brick gable ends.

The principal front, accessed by cast-iron railings on a low stone plinth with stone steps, presents two storeys above a basement and attic, arranged in five bays that each break forward slightly. The central entrance features a 6-panel door and overlight recessed in a moulded architrave, flanked by palmette bootscrapers. Above the door is a cartouche with segmental pediment displaying the City arms set on a panel between garlanded volutes. To the right stands a conical torch extinguisher with a moulded stone panel. Ground-floor windows are 12-pane sashes set over a full-width sill band, whilst first-floor windows are tall 18-pane sashes with sills extended to the width of each bay. The dormers contain squat 6-pane windows beneath segmental pediments. Basement openings are blocked.

The left return has a Dutch gable and a lower two-storey three-bay extension attached to its right. In the centre of the gable end, two full-height chimney flues meet in a keyed semicircular arch above a first-floor window. Windows here are 12-pane sashes, those on the first floor topped with segmental brick arches over blind tympana. The extension's ground floor contains two 12-pane sashes and one 20th-century 9-pane light; the first floor has a 12-pane sash, two 6-pane Yorkshire sashes and a 16-pane sash.

The right return has a gable end and a long two-storey wing to its left. Steps lead up to a 4-panel door recessed beneath a timber lintel in the gable end, with a second 6-panel sunken-panel door with divided overlight beneath a stone arch serving the wing. Between these doors is a tall sash window to the staircase, with a radial-glazed secondary staircase window further right. Other windows include two unequal 15-pane sashes, one retaining original glazing, and one tripartite sash window beneath an elliptical brick arch.

The interior contains cellars in the front range separated by a stud partition wall, with two surviving chamfered mullioned windows, both blocked. The kitchen in the rear wing has a segment-arched blocked fireplace of painted brick.

The ground floor of the left front room retains heavy moulded ceiling beams. An opening in a fluted surround leads to the rear left room, which has a moulded dado rail and a plain fireplace with a round-headed grate; two semi-domed niches occupy the rear wall, one now converted to a doorway to the extension. A round arch leads to the stairhall.

The main staircase rises to the second floor with an open string, slender turned balusters and shaped treadends, a moulded ramped-up handrail wreathed at the foot around a turned newel on a shaped curtail step; the stairwell retains a parallel moulded dado rail. A secondary staircase rises from ground floor to attic with a moulded close string, turned balusters with square newels and splat balusters to the top flight. The rear room in the wing has a fireplace with timber lintel and 3-panel raised-and-fielded doors. The rear room in the extension has a plain fireplace with a duck-nest grate.

The first floor includes a front left room lined with full-height bolection moulded panelling, featuring enriched overmantel panels to a blocked fireplace and a moulded cornice. The rear left room, accessed through a bolection-moulded doorcase, has a heavy moulded cornice and a fireplace with a round-headed grate in an egg-and-dart surround. The front right room retains a moulded cornice and has an altered fireplace with moulded jambs, angle roundels and a square-headed moulded grate. A passage to the rear wing is lined with square wainscotting and bolection moulded panelling. The first room in the wing contains a plain fireplace with a central frieze panel with vestigial composition mouldings, a dentilled cornice shelf and a hob grate; flanking cupboards have 2-panel doors, with fluted skirting and door and window architraves. The second room in the wing is partly fitted with square panelling above a moulded dado rail, a bolection moulded fireplace with plain shelf, a moulded cornice, and two 2-panelled doors. Rooms in the extension feature plain fireplaces with basket grates, one flanked by cupboards with panelled and plank doors.

Early 19th-century cast-iron railings are attached to the front. Between 1740 and 1771, The Red House was the residence of Dr John Burton, who is believed to have been the model for Dr Slop in Lawrence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy.