1 Museum Street, a Grade II listed building seen here from the Red House. This corner site adjoins the Assembly Rooms on Blake Street (main hall 1730, façade 1828). The architect was Rawlins Gould (d. 1873). Gould had once been an assistant to the much better-known architect George Townsend Andrews (1804-1855), who was responsible for the York Railway Station building, and many other railway buildings. 1 Museum Street was built in 1860 for the City of York Council, as the Register office; there were some later alterations. It is now the Tourist Information Centre.
Three views of the Museum Street frontage. Left to right: (a) First three bays on Museum Street. (b) Close-up of the doorway in the second bay. (c) Last three bays on Museum Street.
The building has a 2-storey 11-bay front, with curved corner bay. Details are described as Doric, or Italianate. It is in orange brick with light stone facings and has a distinctive arcaded parapet, for which compare later buildings on Clifford Street, after 1881: Clifford Chambers with the Opera House, and the nearby Institute of Art, Science and Literature.
Again, the first doorway on Museum Street together with the next three bays, with a closer view of the elegant stone detailing.
The "rusticated pilaster strips of faceted blocks on ground floor" (as described in the listing text) create a very pleasing effect without looking overtly ornamental. The development of splendid new public buildings like this was stimulated by the building of Lendal Bridge, the widening of the streets and the opening up of Duncombe Place in the 1860s.
Photographs by the author; perspective correction and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the photographs without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
"1, Museum Street" Historic England. Web. 13 July 2021.
Pevsner, Nikolaus, and David Neave. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. See p. 226.
Created 13 July 2021