York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE6051NW CUMBERLAND STREET 1112-1/28/280 (North West side) 28/02/86 Grand Opera House (Formerly Listed as: CLIFFORD STREET No.8 (SS Empire)) II Includes: Grand Opera House CLIFFORD STREET. Corn exchange and warehouse, converted to music hall. Corn exchange and warehouse 1868; converted 1902, restored and re-opened 1989. Conversion to music hall by JP Briggs. MATERIALS: Cumberland Street front of red brick in English bond, banded in orange brick, on sandstone plinth. King Street front of red brick in Flemish bond, on rusticated sandstone plinth, with sandstone ashlar dressings and bands of cogged brick. Slate roofs. EXTERIOR: entrance and foyer incorporated in Nos 2-10 Clifford Street (qv). Cumberland Street front: 3-storey 4-window block to left; taller block to right, of 3 storeys and basement, and 3 bays. Remodelled entrance in left block with panelled double doors in plain doorcase: to right, small round-headed window, and further right replacement panelled stage door beneath overlight. On first and second floors windows are round-headed, including tall staircase window between floors, with stone sills and round arches of brick. All windows and overlights have rounded 'Gothick' glazing. Gable eaves cornice of three stepped courses of contrasting brick, with similar band carried across gable apex beneath three stepped ventilation slits. Block to right has double door at right end beneath blocked former lifting opening: to left, inserted basement door. On ground and first floors centre windows are tripled and round headed, those on first floor stepped; additional single window at left of ground floor. All windows are now blocked and all have chamfered sills, forming sill bands beneath tripled windows, and all openings have round arches of brick. King Street front: 3 storeys and basement; 7 bays. Basement has five pairs of double board doors with tooled lintels, and one altered doorway at right end. Ground floor windows over chamfered basement band are tiered and paired, with cambered heads, and stepped back beneath segmental arches of gauged brick. On first and second floors, single tier of similar paired windows, some retaining original diamond motif glazing, others blind or blocked. First and second floor windows have bands of cogged brick beneath stone sill bands: cogged brick band also beneath eaves cornice of stepped brick corbels surmounted by pierced brick parapet. INTERIOR: restored re-using original fitments, including scenery grid; bow-fronted box office front in new foyer; panelled and half-glazed doors with embossed bevelled glass and curvilinear glazing bars in segment-arched glazed screens with spandrels decorated with Art Nouveau carving. Auditorium retains two serpentine balconies both with moulded fronts. Rectangular moulded proscenium arch with central cartouche, flanked by full-height round arches on composite columns containing pairs of bow-fronted boxes at each balcony level. Ceiling is an oval saucer dome set in a rectangular surround with decorated spandrels and plaster sunburst radiating from the centre. Listing NGR: SE6031151625