York Historic Environment Record

Two houses and warehouse, now railwaymen's club. 1789, altered early C19 and 1934. Painted brick with slate roof.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and 5 bays. The windows are sashed, except for the ground and first-floor windows in the 4th and 5th bays which are glazing bar sashes. Bays one to 3 have a continuous timber entablature above the ground floor. This has a fillet with continuous guttae and is supported at the left by a pilaster and at the right by paired pilasters to each side of the entrance. This now has recessed C20 entrance doors but was originally a carriageway. At the left there are 3 low cellar entrances, partly blocked. To the right of the 3rd bay there is a lead rainwater hopper and downpipe. Dentilled and modillioned cornice gutter. The left-hand gable has a chimney with truncated cap in front of the ridge. Axial chimney on ridge between 4th and 5th bays.

INTERIOR: not inspected. (RCHME: City of York: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 64).
Listing NGR: SE5966651399

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

The building was constructed in 1789 by John Horner, a wine merchant from Liverpool, as a pair of dwellings of unequal size pierced by a central carriageway leading to a warehouse (No. 24) behind.
Mrs. Horner remained in No. 22 and Newmarch in No. 26 until 1798. Later occupiers of No. 22 included, in 1808–26, the widowed Lady Mary Stapleton, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Abingdon; and of No. 26, the architect Charles Watson.

The whole property was conveyed in 1888 to the North-Eastern Railway.During the period of ownership by the N.E.R. it was usual for No. 26 to be the residence of the York stationmaster and No. 22 that of a railway inspector and oral history suggests that railway tickets could be purchased here.

The RCHM states that In 1934 the London & North-Eastern Railway sold the freehold to the York Railwaymen's Club. The Club records indicate that ownership was actually transferred in 1927 with the Club joining the Club and Union Institute in 1928. This disparity may be explained by a period of tenancy prior to the sale (Voyage 1 HIA 2019).

Nos. 22, 24, 26, was built in 1789 by John Horner, a wine merchant from Liverpool, as a pair of dwellings of unequal size pierced by a central carriageway leading to a warehouse (No. 24) behind. Horner occupied the smaller house (No. 22) and advertised the other for letting (York Herald, 27 Feb. 1790); it was taken by Joseph Newmarch, wine and spirit merchant. Horner died in 1791 (ibid., 12 Feb. 1791). In 1795 the property was described as 'a large, genteel, well-built Freehold Dwelling-house, with spacious cellars and convenient out-buildings (No. 26) . . . with a commodious warehouse and wine-vaults under the same (No. 24), a yard, stabling for three horses, and a very good garden, well stored with a variety of choice fruit-trees'.

No. 22, the smaller house, was similarly described except for the omission of the word 'large' (York Herald, 14 March 1795). Mrs. Horner remained in No. 22 and Newmarch in No. 26 until 1798. Later occupiers of No. 22 included, in 1808–26, the widowed Lady Mary Stapleton, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Abingdon; and of No. 26, the architect Charles Watson. Watson moved from Wakefield to York at the end of 1807 (York Courant, 18 Jan. 1808) and resided and carried on practice in the house until 1821, when he was succeeded by James Pigott Pritchett (1789–1868), taken into partnership on 1 January 1813 (ibid., 4 Jan. 1813). The practice was carried on from Blossom Street until the partnership was dissolved in 1831, when Pritchett moved his office to Lendal (Yorks. Gazette, 1 Jan. 1831).

Thomas Cabry, engineer of the York and North Midland Railway, lived in No. 26 in 1841–4 and was succeeded from 1845 to 1848 by Joseph Rowntree (1801–59), founder of the famous firm; later occupiers were the Rev. Robert Whytehead, rector of All Saints' North Street 1854–63, author of A Key to the Prayer Book, and his widow (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate). The whole property was conveyed in 1888 to the North-Eastern Railway (British Railways, York, Estate & Rating Dept., Survey Vol. 17, p. 6, No. 32) and in 1895 a rent-charge of 10s. a year payable to Holy Trinity Micklegate by charity of Christopher Waide, Sheriff in 1619 (d. 1623), was redeemed (ibid., No. 32A). During the period of ownership by the N.E.R. it was usual for No. 26 to be the residence of the York stationmaster and No. 22 that of a railway inspector. In 1934 the London & North-Eastern Railway sold the freehold to the York Railwaymen's Club, and extensive alterations were made: the ground floor of No. 26 was formed into a single large room, and the first floor of the whole property thrown into one. Many of the internal fittings are, however, in Regency style and presumably the work of either Watson or Pritchett.

The building is of special interest, both on account of its plan with central carriageway, very unusual in York, and because it is one of the earliest three-storey houses outside the city wall.

Nos. 22 and 26 form a simple rectangular building of three storeys. The E. elevation to Blossom Street is in five bays with a timber cornice at the eaves. The windows to the upper floor are regularly spaced, but on the ground floor those to the N. are offset to allow for the carriageway. The timber pilasters flanking the carriageway and the entablature above are all modern. At the back each house has a lofty round-headed window lighting the staircase.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972. Monument 45

NMR Information
613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey
BF060377 YORK RAILWAYMEN'S CLUB, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

NMR, NMR data (Unassigned). SYO2214.

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

York Archaeological Trust, 2019, Desk Based Assessment 22-26 Blossom Street (Unpublished document). SYO2367.

1 Voyage Ltd, 2019, New York Club, Blossom St HER ST (Unpublished document). SYO2246.