| Description | York House, Wakefield. Early to mid 18th century town house.
'Third quarter of C18, built for James Banks, founder of the first Wakefield Theatre. Substantial square house of 2½ storeys with 5 window north and west facades. Light red brick with finely gauged arches, triple keystones and stone sills to recessed sash windows with glazing bars some original, some early C19. Hipped roof of stone slates has moulded stone eaves cornice. Classical central entrances on both moats. 2 storey, north east kitchen wing has Venetian window below, lunette above.
Interior woodwork complete and of good quality, particularly doorcases. Three handsome carved chimney pieces, one with panel above holding contemporary painting of Chinese scene. Arches over hall and landings; staircase rather small. Deep plaster cornices to most rooms, but Adam style decoration in one room is reproduction'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 14/07/1953. Date amended 01/02/1979. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1242813. Web site accessed 13/11/2013).
York House was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles and Philip Swan in 1978 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images and sketch plan produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME), 1978: Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1979). The field work report is transcribed below:
'This is a town house, dating perhaps from the second quarter of the 18th century. It is of brick, of three storeys, and is roughly square on plan. The brickwork is in Flemish bond and, although the nature of the brick appears to differ on the two exposed fronts, and although there are signs of rebuilding at the south west angle, the house appears to be effectively of one period.
The entrance front is to the west. There is a central door with a pulvinated frieze and a pediment, with two flanking windows on each side. The window surrounds have raised keystones and the sashes have thick glazing bars. The south front is again of five bars, and again has a central door, this time with a Gibbs surround.
The western door leads into the entrance hall; this has a heavy cornice. To the rear of the entrance hall a passage leads off to the door on the south front. The entrance hall is blanked by the two major rooms on the ground floor. The larger, north western room has a bracketed cornice and a fireplace with a wooden surround and an overmantel framing a painting in the Chinese style. The south western room has an original plaster ceiling. The south eastern room is another heated room, but is plainer in detail and was perhaps used as a morning room or parlour.
To the east of the entrance hall lies a narrow stair hall. The stair is the only one in the house, the compact plan of which allows no room for a service stair and forces the existing stair into a cramped, small area. The stair has slender turned balusters, an open string, shaped cheeks and a moulded swept handrail.
A passage leads off from the stair to the north east angle of the house, which contains two small rooms. One is perhaps a study, having a heavy cornice and a fireplace with a moulded overmantel. The other room is unheated and feature less and serviced perhaps as a store room. To the north of the house lies a kitchen block. This does not appear to be original, as it is not bonded in with the main house. There seems little doubt, however, that the disposition of polite and service rooms within the main block, together with the passage arrangements leading off from the stair hall, indicated that if not original this kitchen block is at least on the site of an earlier kitchen.
The first floor contains rooms with original cornices and decoration, suggesting that the contemporary practise of receiving guests on the first floor prevailed here. The second floor has featureless rooms'. |