Description

NORTHALLERTON HIGH STREET
SE 3694-3794
(east side)
6/13 No 84 (Durham House)
23.4.52
GV II*
House, now shops and offices. c1754 with later alterations. By John Carr of York
for Mr D Mitford (York Georgian Society, p 24). Front elevation of ashlar sandstone,
sides and rear of brown brick in English garden wall bond with some ashlar dressings,
Westmorland slate roof. 3 storeys, 5 bays. High Street elevation: central C20
part-glazed door in architrave, stepped at base, with swept outer architrave;
tripartite keystone and pediment on consoles. Flanking C20 plate glass shop windows
sit on plinth and below cornice. All first and second floor windows seem to have
original glazing, bars and crown glass. First floor: sill band to sash windows
with glazing bars in architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices. Second
floor: 6-pane sash windows in architraves. Modillion cornice. Hipped roof.
Corniced end stacks. Side and rear elevations have special bricks used for flat
arches to openings, which are typical of Carr's work in brick, and ashlar keystones.
Rear: sash windows with glazing bars, ashlar keystones to flat arches. Sides have
flush ashlar quoins to front ends. Left return: round-arched landing window with
thick glazing bars, radial at the top. Right return has pilaster buttresses
forming chimney stacks; ground-floor tripartite opening, of door flanked by windows,
now 3 blocked windows with cornice supported on consoles. Interior: first floor
has a landing which crossed laterally between two staircases, that to left only
from ground to first floors and now removed, but leaving top of landing window with
shouldered internal architrave, the staircase now destroyed; the lesser staircase
at right end survives from first to second floors, of dog-leg plan, with turned
balusters having column on small vase. The landing retains very fine doorways,
the doors of 6 fielded panels, panelled door reveals, deep architraves, with
pulvinated friezes and cornices, the doorcase to the back stairs having a flat
frieze with scrolled ends to distinguish it from the others. The landing has a
dentil and egg-and-dart ceiling cornice. The saloon, in the three bays to the front
left, has a panelled dado with chair rail; ceiling cornice with acanthus and egg-
and-dart motifs, the windows have ovolo moulding on the thick glazing bars, fielded-
panel shutters, and architraves with acanthus and bead and reel motifs; the door
architrave has acanthus motif. The smaller front room to the right has a plainer
cornice and no architraves. The name of the house commemorates the link between
Northallerton and the Bishoprick of Durham. Northallerton was a Peculiar of Durham,
and the Bishop's Palace here was his southernmost residence. However, the lands
of the Bishop in Northallerton were sold over a century before this house was built.
The Peculiar was abolished in 1837. The front elevation had ground-floor sash
windows in architraves with pulvinated friezes and alternating triangular and
segmental pediments, and a forecourt had ornamental railings and gates, all
removed. The C20 rear flat-roofed extension is not of special interest.
C J Davison Ingledew, The History and Annals of Northallerton (1885), pp 171, 198.
York Georgian Society, The Works in Architecture of John Carr (1973).

Listing NGR: SE3688994068

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535563

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)