York Historic Environment Record

This Desktop Assessment has been prepared at the request of O’Neill Associates to assist with consideration of development proposals for the site of Roman House, 4-8 Rougier Street, York. The proposed development is to involve the extension of the existing adjacent hotel, into this building. The assessment indicates that the site lies in an area of known Roman to medieval archaeological remains. Excavations carried out in the 1980s in advance of the construction of the current building revealed up to 7m depth of archaeological deposits, the most significant of which dated to the Roman period. The Roman deposits included evidence for timber and masonry buildings. These were overlain by medieval deposits suggestive of open ground. The top of the recorded medieval sequence of deposits lay at a depth of c.2.5m below the modern ground surface (below 9.00m AOD). Excavations for a hydrotherapy pool carried out in the adjacent hotel in 2009, recorded medieval structural remains at a height of c. 11.00m AOD. This significant difference in levels appears to reflect the much steeper slope down towards the river that existed in the medieval period. The current development proposal is for an extension of the adjacent Cedar Court Grand Hotel and Spa into Roman House. At this stage it is uncertain if this will involve any below ground works. If the development proposal does require groundworks then the scale of these will determine the need for, and scale of any archaeological mitigation that may be required. The scope of archaeological mitigation will be agreed with the City of York Council Archaeologist. Several Listed Buildings lie within close proximity of the site. Consideration will need to be made with regards to any impact the development may have on the setting of these buildings. However, the nature of the development, being limited to the conversion of an existing building, would suggest that the development would have no impact upon the settings of these Listed Buildings.