Thorpe Prebend House

Thorpe Prebend House is a mid-17th century house, originally known as The City Museum, with internal alterations dating to around 1700. Its design resembles that of the Old Deanery from approximately 1660-70, though its name suggests it may be a rebuilding of a medieval prebendary's house. The building comprises a hall range and two projecting wings on the south (river) side, which have catslide roofs sloping down towards the centre.

The exterior is roughcast over brick, with ashlar dressings, and has pitched pantile and stone slate roofs. There is a coped gable with cut stone kneelers, which formerly had finials. The house is two storeys high with attics. Moulded strings and various moulded window cornices, not always matching the current window styles, are present.

The hall range has four bays with 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars, along with some 19th-century casements and Yorkshire casements with glazing bars. The west wing features French windows, a mid-19th century two-storey canted bay, and two attic dormers and one semi-dormer on the east side. The north (street) front has various 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars, and a mid-19th century door with six fielded panels, an oblong fanlight, and a wooden Tuscan doorcase. A massive projecting chimneybreast with tall, diagonally-placed stacks is prominent. Two projecting chimneybreasts are at the west end, with a later addition built between them.

The east wing contains internal remnants of a timber frame, potentially indicating the presence of an earlier, possibly medieval or early 16th century, house belonging to the prebendaries of Thorpe.

Internally, there are 17th-century features including a hall fireplace with a chamfered four-centred arch, and wainscotting in the rooms of the west wing, which has been reset due to the presence of 19th-century windows. An elaborate overmantel is found in the north-west first floor room, and a chimneypiece. 18th-century features include an elm staircase with a closed string, plain newels, a scrolled console to the lowest newel, and double-twisted spiral balusters, characteristic of around 1700. A room above the hall is panelled, with an overmantel, a moulded surround and a simple egg-and-dart architrave to the chimneypiece. A bolection-moulded chimneypiece is in the first floor south-west room.

Thorpe Prebend House exhibits characteristics of both a Pennine manor house and the Vale of York style, unusual due to its construction in brick and stone.