Description

YORK

SE6052SW ST LEONARD'S PLACE
1112-1/27/945 (East side)
14/06/54 De Grey Rooms and attached gates,
railings and lamp standards
(Formerly Listed as:
ST LEONARD'S PLACE
De Grey Rooms, De Grey House and
railings)

GV II*

Formerly known as: De Grey Rooms, including railings and The
Conservative Club ST LEONARD'S PLACE.
Subscription rooms with attached front railings, carriage
gates and lamp standards; now municipal rooms. 1841-42. By GT
Andrews.
MATERIALS: white painted Roman cement at front, rusticated on
ground floor: rear of orange-grey brick in English garden-wall
bond, first floor partly weatherboarded; slate roof with
hipped clerestory to part, and brick stacks. Cast-iron gates,
railings and lamp standards on low stone plinth.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement; 7-bay front, 5 centre bays
project between recessed end bays: at left end, square-arched
carriageway and double gates. Unequal 12-pane sash windows to
basement area. Flat bridge spanning area leads to right of
centre entrance with double doors of raised and fielded
panelling. Ground floor windows are inset 1-pane sashes with
sills. On first floor, tall round-headed windows have
continuously moulded architraves, centre ones with pediment
hoods on scroll consoles. Heavy moulded cornice on massive
grooved brackets over centre bays, moulded cornices over
fasciated friezes to end bays. 5 centre windows fronted by
continuous balcony with cast-iron balustrade: outer bays have
similar balconies.
Rear: 2- and 3-storey curving front, 2-storey weatherboarded
part jettied. On ground floor windows are unequal 42-pane
sashes, on first and second floors 20-pane sashes; all have
stone sills and flat arches of brick. Weatherboarded part has
20-pane sashes with timber sills.
INTERIOR: open string staircase to first floor has cast-iron
grapevine balustrade and serpentine handrail wreathed at foot
on shaped curtail step. First floor: landing has moulded
cornice. Large room has three doorcases with panelled double
doors in architraves with panelled reveals and moulded cornice
overdoors on enriched consoles with wheatear pendants.
Panelled window shutters. Two fireplaces, now blocked, have
plain surrounds with cornice shelves on paired consoles. Dado
rail enriched with Greek key and flower mouldings: panel
surrounds above similarly enriched, with paterae at the
corners. Enriched cornice to coffered ceiling carried on
massive scrolled corbels; beam soffits moulded with Greek key,

central panels are glazed, outer ones enclose chrysanthemum
mouldings. Small room has apsidal end, moulded dado rail and
moulded panel walls: main doorcase repeats those in large
room: panelled window shutters: ceiling enriched with 3 bands
of mouldings.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: railings have mushroom finials, mace-head
standards and bracing to ground floor walls: carriage gates of
same railings, strengthened with curved braces. Gate posts
square-section with panelled sides and foliate finials.
Similar piers support tapered hexagonal gas lamps on fluted
shafts with crossbar.
HISTORICAL NOTE: rooms were built by public subscription at
the instigation of the Earl de Grey, Commanding Officer of the
Yorkshire Hussars, to provide a place for the Regiment's
Annual Mess and to supplement accommodation at The Assembly
Rooms, Blake Street (qv).
(City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 103).

Listing NGR: SE6011652202

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• De Grey Rooms And Attached Gates, Railings And Lamp Standards at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17549531

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]