York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Nos.3-6 NEW STREET. Terrace of 4 town houses; now offices. 1746, with later C18 extension to No.9, and early C19 and C20 alterations. Orange-red brick in Flemish bond with timber cornice; right return faced with red brick in stretcher bond. M-shaped slate roof with brick stacks and 4 flat topped dormers, 3 with 2-light 6-pane horizontal sliding sashes.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, basement and attics; 12-window front, 3 windows to each house. Basement openings blocked. Each house has 4- or 6-panel door and divided overlight in panelled doorcase of plain pilasters with moulded imposts, plain friezes and moulded cornices. Only No.9 retains unaltered 12-pane sashes on ground floor: others are 1-pane sashes or top-hung windows. All have painted stone sills, and all except No.3 retain panelled shutters. First and second floor windows are 12-pane sashes with painted stone sills. Ground and first floor windows have flat arches of gauged brick with painted stone keyblocks, those over doorways fasciated. 4-course brick bands to first and second floors. Moulded eaves cornice on shaped brackets and inverted bell rainwater head dated 1784 at left of No.3. Left return: 3 storeys. 4-pane sashes with stone sills and keyed flat arches of rubbed brick to each floor. Shaped gable with brick dentilled coping. Right return: one round-headed window, one radial glazed, between first and second floors: 3 windows to attic. Brick coping masks roof valley.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM records original staircases to each house, those to Nos 5 & 7 top lit, each with 2 turned balusters with knops per tread, moulded and ramped handrails, plus panelled dados on walls.

No.3 has front ground floor panelled room, with doorcase and dentilled cornice. First floor has panelled room with fireplace with pedimented overmantel at front, at rear, room with one panelled wall and fireplace with pedimented overmantel, and pedimented doorcases. Second floor has original stone fireplaces.

No.5 has fully panelled ground-floor room with C19 fireplace and original cupboard with rounded back and shaped shelves. First-floor front room also panelled, though now partitioned, with blocked fireplaces. No.7 has panelled ground-floor front room with fireplace and overmantel topped with pulvinated frieze, and round topped cupboard to right. First-floor front room, fully panelled with doorcases and fireplace with swan-necked broken pedimented overmantel. Rear room has one panelled wall with fireplace and overmantel with lugged architrave.

No.9 refitted early C19 with contemporary fireplaces to ground and first floors. Second floor has original doorcases. Front room has reused fireplace with pedimented overmantel, back room has original stone fireplace with trefoil motifs. Staircase window on second floor has painted glass probably by William Peckitt and floral panel probably by Henry Gyles. All houses have original doors and fireplaces to attic. Roof of principal rafters with staggered butt purlins. Terrace originally consisted of 6 houses; end houses rebuilt in 1958-9.

(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 167-70).

Listing NGR: SE6024651882

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

Cumberland Row, Nos. 3–9 (odd), a terrace of four houses of three storeys, basements and attics, built of brick with slated roofs, occupies part of the site of Davy Hall, demolished in 1745. A lease to build four houses, 'all double (except against the churchyard which would not admit it)', was granted to Charles Mitley, carver, and John Theakston, whitesmith, but Theakston withdrew in January 1746 and Mitley, joined by his brother-in-law, William Carr, carpenter and joiner, subsequently built six houses (YCA, B43, ff. 187, 192, 240–7). They were being roofed in 1746 on the day that the Duke of Cumberland passed through York after the battle of Culloden and were named Cumberland Row in his honour (Hargrove, 407). Of the six houses, four survive, each having the common town-house plan of front and back rooms with central transverse staircase; the other two, towards the Davygate end of the street, were only one room in depth because of the existence of St. Helen's burial ground (20) immediately behind. The house which stood at the corner of the two streets was pulled down and replaced by a smaller building when Davygate was widened soon after 1891; this replacement and the second house (No. 1 New Street) were both demolished in 1958–9, and new offices built on the site reproduce the original facade. The four houses which remain are occupied as offices, and interconnecting doors have been made between Nos. 5, 7 and 9. Many of the original fittings survive in good condition and the range is of special interest as one of the earliest terraced developments in the city, comparable with others in St. Saviourgate (Monument (409)) and Bootham (York IV, Monument (41)).

The front elevation, of red brick in Flemish bond, is twelve bays in length, three to each house; it has a brick plinth containing basement windows, and bands at first and second-floor levels. The early 19th-century doorcases are identical, with plain pilasters and friezes and panelled reveals. The hungsash windows have flat arches of gauged brickwork with stone key-blocks on the ground and first floors; key-blocks are doubled on the windows immediately over the entrances. The second-floor windows were heightened in the early 19th century when the timber cornice was replaced by one less deep than the original. The N.E. end wall is of stock brick but the window details and half-round gabled motif are all late 19th-century work. At the S.W. end, most of the wall has recently been covered by a facing of modern brick but two original round-headed stair windows are preserved, and the M-shaped gable, with three attic windows, is still visible. The back elevation is of stock brick, mostly in stretcher bond, with bands at first and second-floor levels. It was originally twelve bays long, like the front, but some window positions have been altered, many sashes renewed or replaced by casements, and there is a later 18th-century addition against No. 9. The original arrangement survives most complete in No. 7, though one first-floor window has been blocked; all the openings have segmental arches.

Inside, the central staircases in the middle houses are top-lit, but those in the other two have windows in the end walls. All have similar balustrades, with two turned square-knop balusters on each step and bulky newels at the foot, but the proportions vary between the separate houses (Plate 192). The ramped handrails are reflected in panelled dados on the walls. The flights from the second floor to the attics, except in No. 9, are simpler, with close strings and square newel-posts.

In No. 3, on the ground floor, the front room is lined with pine panelling which has clearly been removed and reset after restoration; the door-case has a pulvinated frieze and dentil cornice. On the first floor, the front room is lined throughout, with large sunk panels above a plain dado, moulded skirting, rail and dentil cornice. The fireplace has a slightly segmentalarched stone surround which includes some Gothic carved motifs; above is a panel with lugged architrave, pediment over, and the whole flanked by panelled pilaster strips. The back room, divided by a modern partition, is panelled on the fireplace wall. The overmantel (Plate 176) has a panel with broken pediment above and flanking carved scrolls, and contains a central disc with radiating rays. The overdoors have moulded friezes of cyma section and triangular pediments (Plate 163). On the second floor, both rooms, now sub-divided, have simple stone fireplace surrounds and moulded cornices.

In No. 5, the ground-floor front room is fully panelled, but the doorways have been altered. The fireplace surround is 19th-century, but to the right is a cupboard, with rounded back and head and containing shaped shelves. The front room on the first floor is panelled but has been divided and the fireplace blocked up. The other rooms in this house are rather plain and have been partly altered.

No. 7 contains the most sumptuous fittings in the range. The ground-floor front room is panelled in similar manner to other rooms. The fireplace surround has a carved frieze with acanthus leaf ornament, and the overmantel is a panel with lugged architrave incorporating some profusely carved arabesque ornament; a central block at the top has a rococo cartouche, and the entablature above has a pulvinated frieze (Plate 176). To the right is a round-arched cupboard. On the first floor, the front room, fully panelled, has enriched door and window architraves; to the right of the chimney-breast, a false door matches the landing door and both have pulvinated friezes and enriched dentil cornices (Plate 163). The fireplace has an enriched frieze like the one in the ground-floor room, but the overmantel has a panel with lugged architrave decorated with a Greek fret, and surmounted by an enriched pulvinated frieze and scroll pediment (Plate 176). The back room is only panelled on the chimney-breast; the fireplace has a pulvinated frieze decorated with rococo motifs, and the overmantel is a plain panel with lugged architrave. On the second floor the fireplaces have simple stone surrounds.

In No. 9 the ground and first floors were refitted in the early 19th century; all the rooms have fireplaces of that date and there are reeded cornices in the front rooms. On the second floor, original door architraves survive. The front room has a segmental-arched stone fireplace surround similar to one in No. 3 (first floor); it was probably reset in this position when the lower floors were refitted. In the back room is a stone fireplace with trefoiled motifs on the jambs. The staircase window on the second half-landing contains some painted, stained and engraved glass probably by William Peckitt, with urns and festoons, together with a floral panel possibly by Henry Gyles.

All the houses have basements under the front rooms, out of which open vaulted recesses under the entrance passages. The kitchens were probably in the ground-floor back rooms but all these have been altered. The attic rooms have two-panel doors and simple fireplaces; the roof construction is of principal rafters with staggered butt-purlins.

Monument 287; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 167-70

NMR Information

Full description

(SE 60255188 - O.S 1/2500, 1963)

1. NEW STREET
5343

Nos 3 to 9 (odd) (Cumberland Row) (formerly listed as Nos 3 to 6 (consec))

SE 6051 NW 28/399 14.6.54

II*

2.
Circa 1746. A range of 4 town houses. Red brick; 3 storeys; 12 sash windows with flat brick arches and with keyblocks to ground and 1st storeys; early C19 plain wood pilaster doorcases with panelled reveals, rectangular fanlights and 6-panelled doors; wood panelled shutters to ground storey windows on Nos 5, 7 and 9; rainwater head dated 1784; C19 wood bracket eaves. The interior
of each house retains good original features. (RCHM Vol V, Monument 287).

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. p257 City of York, June 1987.
List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. District of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF060934 CUMBERLAND ROW, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

NMR, NMR data (Unassigned). SYO2214.

RCHME, 1981, City of York Volume V: The Central Area (Monograph). SYO65.