WALMGATE has always been an important route through York – and today we try to unravel the mystery of number 70, a former house, turned shop, and nowadays restored to its former Georgian townhouse glory, complete with ‘secret staircase’.
Walmgate Bar, built in the 12th century, formed part of the city boundary.
Percy’s Inn, home of the Earls of Northumberland, had been demolished.
But other houses including Dorothy Wilson’s Hospital and what became Bowes Morell House bracketed the street.
Six churches around Walmgate suggest the street was worthy of the building in 1700 of the property we know as 70 Walmgate, which in the 1980s became a shop and offices for the charity Age UK, having been run by Brian Wilson Ltd in the 1970s.
We don’t know who built and first owned the house, originally intended as a stylish residence. It had four bedrooms on the first floor, attics and a substantial main staircase with secondary servants’ staircase.
70 Walmgate, around 1970, when it was part of a larger interconnected shop, Brian Wilson Ltd., a decorators. Photo from City of York Council planning application
Additions in 1783 were probably, says the Historic Environment Record, “added at the same time as the ground floor was converted into shops”. Further accommodation was tacked on at the back. Alterations in the early 19th century and in 1985 demonstrate how this Grade II-Listed building, with its handsome Georgian roofline, proves itself adaptable to its changing fortunes and requirements.
All was not wonderful in Walmgate. The Bar would have funnelled trading into the city making Walmgate ideally placed for the cattle market. Records from the 1700s suggest the number of butchers, leather industries and tanneries would have made this street smelly and noisy.
Traffic, perhaps stopping at Watergate Inn, would have added to the bustle. The street might have been lively, but life wasn’t easy for many of its residents. In 1672, nearly half Walmgate households were too poor to pay the hearth tax.
Life continued hazardous for many. The first Naburn Lock, built in 1757, raised the water level on the dam side, keeping the Ouse and Foss rivers’ water levels high, removing the smell of stagnating mud and filth on the river banks. It did nothing to prevent the Foss from flooding Walmgate so that, unable to drain adequately, it became basically an open sewer. Some £2,000 spent on drainage between 1825 and 1844 failed to alleviate the situation.
The Irish-born population in 1841 was 429, but rose to 1,928 by 1851, as those fleeing the potato famine found sanctuary in this poor district. A plaque commemorates how Walmgate accommodated this event.
So the choice of 70 Walmgate as a quality site for an elegant town house seems a puzzle and a very poor bet.
Over the years, the ground floor was converted to shops and used by various traders, including a butcher, a fruiterer, grocer, tailor and draper. Number 70 also housed the rector of St Margaret’s Church in 1851 with number 68 housing Robert Jones, a machinist, his wife Susannah and their six children in 1911.
And here is a second puzzle: were 68 and 70 actually 68 and 70? Street alterations often caused houses to be renumbered. Renumbering the street occurred between 1861 and 71. So had number 70 turned into numbers 68 and 70? Possibly, to allow for the different shops in business on the same premises at the same time. Who knows?
Further alterations took place in 1985 when the house was bought for Age Concern, later, Age UK York. So the third puzzle is how the building reconverted to one number. Amazingly, many of the original features remained as we can see from photographs taken in 2021 before Age UK moved out.
But after 300 years, the house was showing its age. Age UK York had to meet increasing repair costs, reducing the income available for its services to clients. So the building was sold in 2021 to a private buyer, starting the next episode in its life as part of the Walmgate puzzle.
As reported in The Press at the time, Helmsley-based heritage consultant Beth Davies spent more than a year converting the former Age UK shop and office back to a house, complete with five bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Renamed simply The Georgian Townhouse, York, it was being used as a boutique holiday let for family reunions and groups, but also went on the market with Rightmove listing its asking price as £1.2m in March 2023.
The renovation project gave Beth the chance to uncover the building’s past, including a ‘secret staircase’ undiscovered for decades.
“In Georgian times it would have been a very high status house and the owner could possibly have been linked to activities on the Foss,” she said.
“While we were doing the work we found medieval timbers so there has clearly been a building here since then, and during the restoration we also discovered some fascinating features such as the servants back stairs which had been blocked off and lead from what was the shop.
“I had a copy of the Royal Survey which dates back to the 1970s and shows that the stairs existed, but they had been long forgotten and I never expected to find them. When the builder discovered them it was just an amazing moment – it’s like you can touch history, because they are warn away, it’s a tangible link to the people who lived here in the past, but they were shut away for most of the 20th century when the place was a shop.”
Today, 70 Walmgate is available for holiday lets and short stays for tourists; find out more at: thegeorgiantownhouseyork.co.uk
Rosemary Suttill is the publications officer with YAYAS and is a former chair of Age UK York’s trustees. YAYAS, Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society, developed from its foundation in 1842. It publishes the York Historian and YAYAS Times, with articles and news items about York and its surrounds. It is active with lectures and excursions and is always happy to welcome new members and suggestions for visits. Its archives include photographic illustrations that can be used for research or reproduction with copyright acknowledgement. Visit the website www.yayas.org.uk for more information about the organisation, its publications, how you can support it.
Do you have stories to tell about 70 Walmgate? Email – maxine.gordon@thepress.co.uk
