York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.37 The Wandesford Hospital BOOTHAM. Almshouses. Opened in 1743 as the Mary Wandesford Old Maid's Hospital; altered mid C19, and in 1968 when the present doorcase was added. Brick in Flemish bond with plain tile roof.

EXTERIOR: symmetrical, of 2 storeys and 7 bays, with the 3 central bays projecting under a pediment. Each bay has a round-arched recess within which the windows of both storeys are set, and a deep impost band is carried from arch to arch across the recesses. The windows are glazing bar sashes, the ground-floor ones with flat rubbed brick arches and the 1st floor ones with segmental heads and 3 over 3 panes. The doorway has a timber architrave and a broken pediment. The cornice gutter is heavily moulded. Within the pediment there is a niche containing a bust of the foundress. To the right of the 1st and 6th bays there are lead rainwater hoppers and downpipes. Chimneys to left and right, and on ridge to each side of the 3 central bays.

INTERIOR: not inspected. RCHM record 2 original staircases, each single flight with closed string, square newels and turned oak balusters with moulded and ramped handrail.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO London: 1975-: 51). Listing NGR: SE6002452368

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

Wandesford House, formerly Wandesford Hospital, No. 37 Bootham, was opened for occupation by 'ten poor maiden gentlewomen' in 1743. Mary Wandesford, a spinster of York, left an endowment in her will dated 1725 and the site was purchased from William Wilberforce of Hull in 1739 (E. Brunskill, YGS, Occasional Paper, vii (1960), 30). Accounts for the building survive and record payment to John Terry, carpenter, and for bricklayers' work to Robert Kibblewhite, Thomas Dunn and Richard Nelstrop (Borthwick Inst.). In the 19th century additional staircases were constructed to give access from each living-room to the bedroom above, and in 1968 further modernisation was carried out; at the same time the central entrance, previously a plain brick doorway, was given a timber door-case with broken pediment.

The building is of two storeys with brick walls and tiled roofs. The front is designed in seven bays with the central three bays projecting under a pediment. The treatment of the walling is unusual, each bay having a round-arched recess within which the windows of both storeys are set, and a deep impost band is carried from arch to arch and across the recesses. At the wall-head is a heavy timber cornice and within the pediment is a plain niche containing a bust of the foundress. Two lead rainwater heads and down-pipes are original.

On the side and back elevations there are no arched recesses but the impost band from the front is continued below the sills of the upper windows. At the eaves plain oversailing courses of brickwork replace the timber cornice of the front. The windows have flat arches of gauged brick and there are two more lead rainwater heads, one dated 1739. The interior is very simple. The original two staircases each rise in a single flight with closed string, square newels, turned oak balusters with half-balusters against the newels, and a heavy moulded and swept handrail.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO London: 1975-: 51. Monument 26

NMR Information

Full description
(SE 60035236) Wandesford Hospital (Almshouses) (NAT)

1. BOOTHAM 5343 (north-east side)

No 37
(Wandesford House)
[formerly listed as No 37 (The Wandesford Hospital)]

SE 6052 SW 13/94 14.6.54 II* GV

2. Circa 1739. The building was opened as the Mary Wandesford Old Maid's Hospital. Red brick; 2-storeys; arcaded front of 7 arches each of 2-storeys, containing a window in each storey; altered doorway at centre; heavy moulded eaves cornice; pediment over central portion enclosing niche containing a stone bust of the foundress and with an inscribed panel below; rainwater head dated 1739. Interior generally altered but retaining 2 good staircases. (RCHM Vol IV, Monument 26.)

Sources

1 Ordnance Survey Map OS 1:2500 1962.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, p.23 City of York, June 1983

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060255 WANDESFORD HOUSE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

NMR, NMR data (Unassigned). SYO2214.

RCHME, 1975, RCHME Volume 4, Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO2424.