12-14 Gowthorpe

12-14 Gowthorpe comprises three shops, originally The George Hotel, dating to the early to mid-19th century, with alterations and extensions from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The building is constructed of stuccoed brick, with a colour-washed front elevation and fair-faced brick to the rear, and has a gabled roof covered in Welsh slates. The plan is rectangular.

The front elevation is three storeys and five bays. Changes in the brickwork to the rear indicate that the second floor is an addition built in red brick. The ground floor now accommodates three late-20th century shop units, featuring modern shop fronts in a 19th-century style. These include glazed doors and oblong fanlights set within doorcases, with Tuscan piers, an entablature, and moulded capitals supporting a plain fascia. Large plate-glass shop windows are situated between the piers. The second bay from the left incorporates a former three-centred early-19th century carriage arch, defined by finely chamfered moulded piers and imposts. The fifth bay on the right-hand end has modern canted shop windows, within Tuscan piers, with a central glazed doorway at the base of an early- to mid-19th century two-storey canted bay, featuring a moulded cornice on paired brackets and moulded scroll console brackets. The first floor has four mid- to late-19th century two-light sash windows, with plain raised architraves on moulded brackets and moulded cornices on decorative scroll console brackets. The second floor mirrors this design with five similar windows, topped with a stuccoed modillioned eaves cornice. The east and west gables are colour-washed and have brick chimney stacks at their apexes. The pitched slate roof also features two ridge chimneys, all with moulded brick cornices and pairs of yellow drawing chimney pots.

A cast plaque is attached to the right-hand pier of the carriage arch. It reads: ‘YE FRATERNITIE OF / OLDE SELEBIANS / YE FRATERNITIE OF OLDE SELEBIANS WAS / FOUNDED ON THIS SITE, THE FORMER GEORGE HOTEL, / ON THE 10TH JANUARY 1821. / THE OBJECTIVES OF THE FOUNDERS WERE TO PROMOTE, / CULTIVATE AND DEVELOP THE WELFARE OF SELBY / AND ITS INHABITANTS, WHILST PRESERVING ITS / HERITAGE AND OLD AND VALUED FRIENDSHIPS. / THESE OBJECTIVES CONTINUE TO BE PRACTISED / BY THE FRANTERNITIE AND ITS MEMBERS / TO THIS DAY. / FLOREAT SELEBIA.’