York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE5952SE BOOTHAM 1112-1/12/78 (North East side) 14/06/54 No.51 & Bootham School Block to rear incl. John Bright Library & attached railings GV II* House, now part of school. Nearing completion in 1804. Designed by Peter Atkinson senior for Sir Richard Vanden Bempde Johnstone, Bart. Brick in Flemish bond with painted stone dressings. Hipped slate roof. EXTERIOR: symmetrical, of 3 storeys with attics and cellars and 5 bays. The windows are sashed with glazing bars and are set in moulded architraves; those on the ground and first floors have cornices, and the ground-floor windows have a sill band and fluted friezes. The central windows of the upper storeys are tripartite, and that on the 1st floor has Ionic mullions and jambs and a segmental pediment. A balcony of trellis ironwork extends across the whole front at 1st floor level. The attic is lit by 3 round-headed dormer windows. The central doorway has sidelights, a door with 6 raised and fielded panels, a fanlight, and a portico with 2 pairs of Doric columns with pilaster responds, supporting an entablature with a bucrania frieze. Modillion gutter cornice. Chimneys to left and right, and 2 chimneys near centre of ridge. To the rear a Library and classroom block added to the designs of WH Thorpe and F Rowntree. 2 storeys. Red brick with terracotta dressings. South-east entrance front has projecting central doorcase with Ionic columns supporting a pediment, segment-arched opening with double doors and fanlight. To the left 2 glazing bar windows. To the right a 2-storey block of 3 windows with chamfered single bay window. North-east front has a 3-window, 2-storey bay at left then a recessed 4-window wing with 4 segment-headed glazing bar sashes on the ground floor, and 4 narrow sashes above, and 2 through-eaves gabled dormers above again. To the right a projecting library block, 4 windows with basement. This facade is articulated with pilaster strip balusters and 4 tripartite sashes on the ground floor with, above, 4 shallow curved bow windows with iron frame cross casements. The block is topped by an octagonal wooden cupola. INTERIOR: of No.51: elegant hall with good stone staircase set between fluted columns and having iron balustrade; several good fireplaces. Interior of Library and classroom block: panelled classrooms on the ground floor. A stone stair with Art Nouveau iron balustrade. Upper corridor has dado panelling. Library or former Assembly Room has wainscot panelling with built-in book shelves, and a bronze plaque to John Bright and another Second World War Memorial plaque. Proscenium arch at north-west end, curved wooden roof trusses supported on stone corbels. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the front area has plain wrought-iron railings which extend in front of the portico where they have a central gate. (An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls: London: 1975-: 60). Listing NGR: SE5996952435