York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE5951NE MICKLEGATE 1112-1/15/650 (North side) 14/06/54 No.54 Garforth House and railings attached at front, garden wall attached at rear (Formerly Listed as: MICKLEGATE No.54 (Garforth House)) (Formerly Listed as: MICKLEGATE Forecourt railings and lamp brackets of No.54) GV I Formerly known as: St Margaret's School MICKLEGATE. Town house, now offices, area railings attached to front and wall enclosing garden at rear. Dated 1757; late C19 alteration. Probably by John Carr, for Edmund and Elizabeth Garforth. MATERIALS: front of orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with doorcase, rusticated quoins and dressings of painted stone; triglyph frieze beneath moulded dentil cornice. Rear of pink and cream mottled brick in English bond, with orange-red brick dressings and moulded dentil cornice. Double span roof of slate, with stone coped gables, brick kneelers and brick end stacks. Railings, lamp brackets and window guards of wrought-iron. Garden wall of pink mottled brick in English garden-wall bond with stone coping. Double pile plan. EXTERIOR: basement and 3 storeys; 5-bay front, the 3 centre bays quoined and pedimented, and breaking forward slightly. At left end, two steps lead to open-pedimented Doric doorcase with door of six raised and fielded panels beneath radial fanlight, in round-arched architrave. All windows are sashes, 12-paned on ground and first floors, 9-paned on second floor, and all have flat arches of rubbed brick. Ground and first floor windows have sill bands, those on second floor painted stone sills. Raised bands at first and second floor levels. Pediment encloses keyed radial-glazed oculus in moulded surround. Rear: 3 storeys with basement and attics; 5 unequal bays. In right end bay on ground floor, former window altered to part-glazed door; above is Venetian staircase window with radial-glazed centre sash. In similar position at left end is round-arched radial-glazed secondary staircase window. Other windows are 12-pane sashes on ground floor, 4-pane sashes on first floor, and unequal 9-pane sashes on second floor. Rainwater goods with shaped hopper, dated, and stamped with initials EEG and the Garforth crest. INTERIOR: a series of vaulted cellars extends beneath ground floor, one with altered kitchen fireplace. Ground floor: entrance hall, staircase hall and central passage retain original stone-paved floors with marble inserts. All have an enriched moulded skirting and cornice of acanthus modillions and rosettes. Round-arched opening on sunk panelled pilasters with moulded imposts and bases, all enriched, leads from entrance passage to stairhall and central passage. The cantilevered main staircase rises from ground to first floor, and has fluted column balusters, three to a tread, serpentine moulded handrail, wreathed at foot around turned fluted newel on shaped curtail step, and matching enriched dado panelling. In the central passage are two doorcases with enriched architraves, pulvinated friezes carved with acanthus, and dentilled pediment overdoors; doors, recessed in panelled reveals, are of six raised and fielded panels, all enriched. A third pedimented doorcase with plain architrave and pulvinated frieze leads to service passage. Two round arches on sunk panelled pilasters with moulded imposts and bases open from service passage, one to secondary stairhall with moulded skirting and egg-and-dart cornice. Open string secondary staircase rises to attics, with column balusters, two to a tread, turned newel and ramped-up handrail. Front room has moulded skirting and dado rail, panelling above, and enriched modillion cornice over frieze decorated with arabesques, shells and a female head. Panelled window shutters survive, and pedimented doorcases with pulvinated friezes flank marble fireplace with panelled overmantel. All panelling is raised and fielded. In room at right end is plain fireplace with original basket grate with thistle side panels. Larger back room has late C19 painted fireplace between segment-arched recesses, one containing later doorway, and moulded dado rail. Both rooms retain panelled shutters. Corinthian order Venetian window to main staircase, set beneath shallow round arch filled with cartouche, bearing the Garforth arms, amongst rococo plasterwork flowers and leaves. Similar plasterwork to arch spandrels, beneath stairwell cornice of acanthus modillions and rosettes, and to ceiling, moulded into panels with flowers, fruit and foliage. Secondary staircase window is round-arched, with eared and shouldered architrave and sunk panelled reveals. First floor: at head of secondary staircase, round arch on sunk panelled pilasters and reveals, with moulded imposts and bases, all enriched, leads to passage. Moulded pilaster bases continue as skirting to passage. Enriched passage doorcases with carved pulvinated friezes, modillion pediments and 6-panel doors of raised and fielded panelling in similarly panelled reveals. Front rooms at each end have moulded skirtings, fielded dado panelling beneath moulded rails, and enriched cornices. Both have carved wood fireplaces with marble slips, relief moulded friezes, possibly of applied composition, and moulded cornice shelves. Subdivided middle room has plainer fittings and, beyond inserted partition wall, fireplace carved with egg-and-dart mouldings. Saloon at rear has pedimented doorcase with 6-panel door in panelled reveal, fielded dado panelling and moulded rail, and modillion and rosette cornice, all enriched. Painted fireplace has egg-and-dart enrichment. Rococo plasterwork ceiling of grapes, musical instruments, floral garlands and leafy fronds. Second floor: landing arch is elliptical, on sunk panelled pilasters and reveals. Landing and central passage have moulded skirting and cornices, and passage doors are of 6 fielded panels recessed in similarly panelled reveals. In all rooms, moulded skirtings, cornices, and fielded panel shutters survive. At the front, both end rooms retain fireplaces with eared surrounds and Art Nouveau grates: beyond inserted partition wall in middle room is a plain fireplace with pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice shelf. At the back, original fireplace with fluted jambs and plain moulded shelf survives in each end room. Middle room has fireplace with sunk panel jambs, triglyph frieze and moulded cornice shelf with C19 grate. Attic: in four rooms, plain fireplaces survive. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: wrought-iron lamp brackets of scrolls, tendrils and wheatear drops flank doorcase. Early C19 window guards to two second floor windows. Area railings: on low moulded plinth, approximately 1.25 metres high, with spearhead tips, ramped-up to follow slope of street. Garden wall at rear: approximately 4 metres high, with flat coping and projecting pilaster buttresses, raked up in places. Blocked segmental arch, largely obscured by later lean-to building, adjacent to rear wall of house. (City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 76-78). Listing NGR: SE5995151653