Property description

Walter Brierley’s own York house with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll. This is a truly exceptional Arts & Crafts property and York's most distinguished house.

Entrance hall, cloakroom, sitting room, study, drawing room, garden hall, loggia, dining room, kitchen, two larders, pantry and butler’s pantry, cellars
Five first floor bedrooms, three bathrooms, laundry, linen room, secondary staircase
Second floor with two bedrooms, reception room and bathroom
Formal gardens designed around an original plan with tennis lawn and bowling green, plantings, herbaceous borders, potting shed and greenhouses
Garaging and parking
About ¾ acre

Bishopsbarns, 27 St George’s Place, York YO24 1DT

Bishopsbarns was built by Walter Brierley in 1906 for his own occupation, as a country house in the leafy outskirts of York. He asked Gertrude Jekyll to design and plant the garden, and the result, on a plot of almost ¾ acre, is York’s most distinguished house. Quietly situated on a residential cul-de-sac, the house extends to some 8000 sq.ft and is built of hand made 2” bricks and tiles, set back behind a cobbled forecourt of “pebbles from the beach at Flamborough”.

The house is listed Grade II* as of special architectural and historical interest, and is a classic representation of the Arts and Crafts movement. Features of note include the elaborate plasterwork by George Bankart, (The Art of the Plasterer, 1908), gunmetal fire grates with Hoptonwood stone surrounds and timber mantles, oak woodblock floors, and panelling of kauri pine. There is brass door furniture to the panelled doors, leaded lights, and a pervasive feeling of calm. As Country Life wrote in Small Country Houses of Today, published in 1922, “The arrangement of the house is a compendium of domestic comfort”.

Alongside this outstanding example of Edwardian building, the present owners have set all that is best in modern living; a contemporary kitchen and bathrooms, pressurised hot water and heating systems, and hard wired internet streaming through the house.

•Classic Edwardian detached Arts and Crafts house and grounds
•Built by Walter Brierley for his own family occupation
•8000 sq. ft accommodation behind a discreet façade
•Contemporary kitchen with 3-oven gas Aga and module
•Cul-de-sac location opposite the Knavesmire and York race course
•Grade II* listed with all original features intact
•Generous gardens designed by Miss Jekyll providing privacy and seclusion

Outside
The cobbled forecourt sets back the house from the road. Brierley built Bishopsbarns to represent a country house in town, so the 150’ frontage occupies a location close to the street and the south facing gardens lie to the rear. There are brick paths in a herringbone pattern and the original rose garden now provides a flagged al fresco dining area opposite the deep south facing sun loggia. The garden is divided into a series of rooms, with the central bowling green surrounded by yew hedging, deep herbaceous borders, and an orchard and soft fruit area.

There are two potting sheds, a greenhouse on a brick base, and the tennis lawn at the western end of the garden has a rose pergola along one end.

Approx 3/4 acre

Environs
St George’s Place is a cul-de-sac opposite the racecourse. Many of York’s townhouses are on busy streets, but here is an oasis of leafy calm, with easy access to the centre of town, railway station and, south westwards, to the A64, A1 and Leeds. An ideal location for all the right reasons.

York centre 1 mile, Leeds 23 miles. (Distances approximate)

Services
Mains gas, electricity, water and drainage

Fixtures and fittings
Only those mentioned in these sales particulars are included in the sale. All others, such as fitted carpets, curtains, light fittings, garden ornaments etc., are specifically excluded but may be made available by separate negotiation.

Local authority
City of York Council 01904 551550

Directions
The house is on the south side of St George’s Place towards the far end leading away from the Tadcaster Road.