The Black Friar Cafe

The Black Friar Cafe is a mid-15th century timber-framed building with a stucco exterior, located on the north side of Kirkgate in Ripon. It stands two storeys high and was originally two houses, likely built around the same time. The western part of the building has one bay featuring a sliding sash window with glazing bars on the first floor and a mid-19th century shopfront that includes panelled pilasters, roundels, and a moulded cornice.

The eastern part consists of two bays, with the eastern bay containing a carriage entrance that still shows the seating for the hinge pin of one of the gates in the south-west corner, along with pegs from another seating in the south-east corner. Above the entrance, two arch braces connect the bressummer to the principal posts, and there is a small window above. The other bay has a sliding sash window with glazing bars on the first floor and a sash window on the ground floor.

Inside, two notable roof trusses, numbered 2 and 3, remain in the eastern part of the building. These trusses feature cambered tie beams, crown posts, and braces extending from the crown post to the ends of the tie beam, similar to the exposed framing above the carriage entrance. The western part originally had a jettied first floor, with a bracket for the jetty still visible as it is cut in with a surviving post. However, the front was extended a few feet before 1797, as depicted in a drawing of Kirkgate by J M W Turner, although it did not have the current mid-19th century detailing at that time.

Historically, the building was constructed as a gatehouse, likely serving the palace of the Archbishops of York, which is believed to have been located just to the north.