York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE5951NE TOFT GREEN 1112-1/15/1129 (North West side) 24/06/83 North Eastern Railway Company Offices and area railings attached (Formerly Listed as: TOFT GREEN North Eastern Railway Headquarters) GV II* Offices and area railings attached. 1900-06. H Field and W Bell for the North Eastern Railway Company. MATERIALS: orange-red brick in English bond on Portland stone basement; doorcase, pilasters, quoins, dressings, frieze and moulded and enriched modillion cornice of ashlar; Westmorland slate roof with stone coped gables, ashlar pediments and volute kneelers; brick stacks on stone plinths, with stone bands and moulded cornices. Railings of wrought-iron on moulded stone plinth. STYLE: Baroque Revival. EXTERIOR: entrance front: basement and 3 storeys: 3-bay frontispiece breaks forward between 7-bay flanking ranges terminating in 3-bay gabled crosswings; frontispiece and crosswings have 2-storey attics. Staircase tower of basement and 5 storeys set back at right end. Frontispiece is articulated by paired giant pilasters with consoles at the head supporting moulded cornice: semicircular gable between volutes with urn finials rises above cornice. Concave rusticated round-arched doorcase rises through 2 storeys of central bay: panelled sliding doors and overlight in bolection moulded architrave between fluted columns carrying deep frieze and cornice on foliate consoles; lunette fanlight in arch tympanum above. Frieze carved with cartouche bearing the words 'North Eastern Railways Head Offices'. Second floor window is 12-pane sash in Gibbs surround with moulded cornice, opening on to balcony with balustrade incorporating the letters NER embedded in foliate tendrils. In attic is Venetian window in Gibbs surround, beneath garlanded laurel wreath carved in high relief. In flanking ranges and crosswings ashlar basement plinth is stepped up beneath ground floor windows. Windows are 15-pane sashes on ground floor, 18-pane on first floor, in architraves with moulded sills, and moulded cornice hoods on first floor. Similar 12-pane sashes on second floor of flanking ranges, without hoods: in crosswings, second floor sashes are squat, in lugged architraves over aprons carved with festoons in high relief. Attic windows in crosswings are 12-pane sashes in eared and keyed segment-headed architraves with moulded sills. Gable end window is 18-pane sash with moulded sill on blocks and sill band, beneath triple-keyed hoodmould on consoles. Beneath window is a circular panel in keyed raised surround half enclosed in acanthus fronds. Segmental pediment to gable apex, over panel carved in relief with festoons, between volutes. Attics to flanking ranges have 12-pane sashes to lowest tier of dormers, beneath alternately triangular and segmental pediments: second and third tiers are flat with small-pane casement windows. There are four sets of square section rainwater goods with rectangular hoppers. Staircase tower has fielded panelled door, approached by steps, in architrave with stepped keyed lintel. Windows are square lattice casements in architraves with moulded sills, one segment-headed with triple keyblock, one eared on fourth floor, those on fifth floor in relief carved surrounds of fruit and foliage. Console cornice beneath concave sided pyramidal roof, truncated and surmounted by pedimented cupola with steam engine weathervane. Left return: basement, 3 storeys and attics; 8 bays, outer bays bowed from basement to first floor, centre bays gabled, with 3-light bow window on first floor. Windows and detailing generally follow those of main front, except that windows flanking first floor central bow are elongated 24-pane sashes opening on to balconies with balustrades similar to those on main front. Beneath first floor central bow is corbelled out cartouche carved with the constituent badges of the North Eastern Railway Company. Three out of four sets of lead rainwater goods survive, dated 1904, embossed 'NER'. Right return: 3 storeys and attics, gabled in centre; 6 first floor windows; tower of 3 storeys and attic set back at right end. Detailing repeats that of main front. Tower has a sash window in architrave on each floor and moulded cornice beneath parapet. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: area railings attached to front and left return: on low plinth. Square section railings incorporate openwork panels of scrolled lyre motifs and arabesques; square section standards have orb finials. (Bartholomew City Guides: Hutchinson J and Palliser DM: York: Edinburgh: 1980-: 244-45). Listing NGR: SE5988451763