28–32 Coppergate is a historic building in the city centre of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, in England. The rear part of the

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

building originated as a five-bay

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

, built in the 15th century. It may be the building recorded as having been built by William Alne, Member of Parliament for York, in about 1420. However, the

City of York Council City of York Council is the local authority for the city of York, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. York has had a city council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1996 the council has be ...

note that, due to its size and unusual layout, it may have been constructed as an inn. The ground floor of the house was open, probably for use as a shop, while on the first floor the two south-eastern bays formed a single hall, open to the roof, while the third bay had a third storey. The fourth and fifth bays were later demolished, and their form is not known. In front of the hall house, facing on to

Coppergate Coppergate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. The street runs north-east from the junction of Castlegate, Nessgate, King Street and Clifford Street, to end at the junction of Pavement, Piccadilly, Parliament Street, and Hig ...

, is a row of three three-storey tenements. These also date from the 15th century, and have shops on the ground floor and accommodation above. Each floor was

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber framing, timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of incr ...

. The first floor of No. 32 extends out to the line of its second floor; this may be a later change, but the City of York Council argues that it acted as a porch, and would have been in the centre of the facade of the original building. In the 17th century, a floor was inserted into the hall, to make this part of the building three-storeyed, and fireplaces were also added. The building was further altered in about 1800. Originally, each shop had its own entrance, and there were pointed shop windows, but the current shopfronts date from the 19th century. No. 28 was restored in 1988, and then No. 30 was restored in 1994. On the first floor are a couple of fragments of 17th-century painted wall plaster. Some decorative plasterwork and fireplaces of this date also survive. The building was

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1954, with a note that it was an "apparently rare building type of which few other examples were known nationally", although

41–45 Goodramgate 41–45 Goodramgate is a grade I listed building in the city centre of York, in England. Most of the building was constructed in 1500: a three-storey, five-bay range facing onto the east side Goodramgate, and a single-storey hall behind its nor ...

represents a more complete example in the same city. It is currently divided into two shops, one of which is the

haberdashery __NOTOC__ In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a men's clothing store ...

Duttons for Buttons.

References

Coppergate Coppergate 28 Timber framed buildings in Yorkshire {{DEFAULTSORT:28-32 Coppergate

See also

References