Details
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
