The Ale House

The Ale House is a public house located on York Street, built around 1816 with later alterations. It features limestone ashlar that is now painted and has a Welsh slate roof. The building occupies a corner site with a single depth plan, presenting two façades. It stands three storeys tall, with an attic and cellar.

The exterior has three bays facing Terrace Walk and four bays on York Street, with a canted corner. There is a platband at the first floor level. The left bay on Terrace Walk is blind but includes window recesses, while the ground floor has plate glass windows and six/six sash windows above. At one point, this building shared a large multi-paned shop window with No.2 Terrace Walk. The building has a cornice, parapet, and a mansard roof with two flat-topped casement dormers. The canted corner features an arch-headed doorway on the ground floor. The York Street elevation has a small late 19th-century two-light shop window, a plain sash, and two plain doorways on the ground floor, with four six/six sash windows and three dormers above.

Inside, much of the interior is from the late 19th century, featuring a fielded counter front, ornate shelving behind the bar, and a tiled fireplace surround in the ground floor bar. The lower part of the staircase has been replaced. The basement is now known as the Cellar Bar, where extensive barrel vaults remain in situ.

Historically, this building, along with No.3 Terrace Walk, is situated on the site of Lindsey's Rooms, which were designed by John Wood the Elder, opened in 1730, and demolished in 1816. They create a matched entry to York Street, which was cut through at that time.