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York Assembly Rooms
The York Assembly Rooms is an 18th-century assembly rooms building in York, England, originally used as a place for high class social gatherings in the city. The building is situated on Blake Street and is a Grade I listed building. Designed by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington it is one of the earliest Palladian buildings in Northern England and possibly the earliest neoclassical building in Europe. Construction began in 1730 and was completed in 1735, but it was used beginning in 1732. After a fire in 1773, alterations were made to the Lesser Assembly Room to the designs of Sir John O'Corall. The front steps of the portico were later replaced by an internal set in 1791. Lord Burlington's original front facade was replaced in 1828 by a Greek Revival portico designed by J. P. Pritchett. In 1925, York Corporation purchased the building and made further alterations in 1939 through 1951. The York Conservation Trust purchased the Assembly Rooms in 2002 and are responsible for the building's maintenance. It currently operates as an Ask Italian but is open for public viewing.
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28 m
Blake Street (York)
Blake Street is a road in the city centre of York, in England.
31 m
1 Museum Street
1 Museum Street is a historic building in the city centre of York, in England.
The building was constructed in 1860, to a design by Rawlins Gould. It initially served as the city's register office. Later, it served as a Conservative Club, with committee rooms, a bar and a snooker room; it then became council offices.
The building has two storeys and is built of orange brick, with stone dressings. It is of 11 bays, one of which curves around the corner from Museum Street into Blake Street. The main entrance is on Museum Street, and has double doors with a fanlight above. Most of the sash windows have four panes, although a few retain the original eight panes. The window pediments are alternately triangular and segmented. The upper floor has Doric order pilasters. In 1909, a brick balustrade was added to the roof.
Inside, a grand staircase leads up to the first floor room, which contains a wooden tablet to the memory of John Hodgson, from Strensall. The room has housed meetings of the Board of Guardians of the York Poor Law Union.
In 1986, the building was Grade II listed. In 2010, it was purchased by the York Conservation Trust, which renovated it to become the city's tourist information centre. The office remained there until 2022.
32 m
Museum Street Tavern
The Museum Street Tavern, formerly Thomas's of York, is a historic pub in the city centre of York, in England.
The building which houses the pub was first constructed in about 1700. In about 1800, it became part of Ettridge's Royal Hotel, and at some point in the 1820s, it was heightened from two to three storeys. In 1858, it was bought by William Thomas, an experienced hotelier, who renamed the hotel after himself. The remainder of the old hotel was demolished, and the Museum Street facade of the remaining building was altered, with work completed in 1863. Thomas sold the pub in 1876, to Thomas Lightfoot, a brewer from Bedale, but its name was retained. In 1900, it was purchased by John Smith's Brewery. At the time, it had eight bedrooms, a bar, two drawing rooms, a coffee room and a billiard room.
The building is constructed of dark brown brick. The staircase and some first-floor doors are original, while the fireplaces and some plaster work date from the 1863 alterations. There is late-19th-century stained glass around the wide door, with a colourful design in the tympanum above, incorporating the name "Thomas's Hotel".
The pub was Grade II listed in 1978. By 2022, it was owned by the Stonegate Pub Company, which closed it for conversion into a Be At One cocktail bar. In 2023 it reopened as the Museum Street Tavern.
37 m
1–5 Blake Street
1–5 Blake Street is a Grade II listed terrace of buildings in the city centre of York, in England.
The current terrace originated in the 16th century, as a large, timber-framed, building, with four parallel ranges, gabled to the street and to the rear, covering what is now 1 and 3 Blake Street. This was probably a two-storey building, and is described by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England as having been "exceptional in the city in its degree of elaboration". To the rear of the building was a yard, now fully enclosed, with a Magnesian Limestone wall which appears to have been built from stone shaped in the 12th century.
In the 17th century, the northernmost range was extended to project to the rear, and late in the century, an attic storey was added to part of 1 Blake Street. The building was remodelled in the second quarter of the 18th century, with the a new front to Blake Street built in brick, the roof largely replaced, and a new staircase added at the rear. The street may have been widened at this point, so the front may be on an entirely new alignment. 5 Blake Street was built at the same time, with a front in the same style, and it may also include some remains of an earlier timber-framed building. Repeated alterations in the 19th and 20th century include further extensions to the rear of the terrace, new shop fronts for 1 and 5 Blake Street and the removal of some internal walls, but the Georgian windows survive, unusually, in 3 Blake Street, even at ground floor level.
The Blake Street facade is 11 bays long and two storeys high, and there are nine sash windows at first floor level. There is a drainpipe head dated 1765. Inside, the first floor of 1 Blake Street has some 17th century panelling, which may have been moved from elsewhere. 3 Blake Street has a 17th-century door frame on the ground floor, and a late 17th century staircase. Its first floor is combined with that of 5 Blake Street. One room has early-17th century panelling, and there are several Georgian fireplaces and cornices. 5 Blake Street has a 19th-century domed ceiling with a rooflight which previously lit a spiral staircase, later removed.