Lady Row, also known as Our Lady's Row, is a

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Grade I listed building 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, Hi ...

Goodramgate Goodramgate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. History The area now covered by Goodramgate lay within the walls of Roman Eboracum. The street runs diagonally across the line of former Roman buildings, from the Porta Decumana ...

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 ...

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describe the structure as "some of the earliest urban vernacular building surviving in England".

History

The building was commissioned in 1316 as a

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

of tenements, to be let out to provide an income for a chantry priest at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate. The eleven-bay building was quickly constructed, and is usually dated as having been completed in 1317. Initially, it was divided into nine or ten tenements, each occupying both floors and one or more of the bays. By the 16th century, many of the tenements had been knocked together, and the building consisted of three cottages and a single tenement. Originally, an additional house was built in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, to house the chantry priest. The southernmost two bays had been demolished by the mid-18th century, when an archway to access the churchyard was built in their place. Around 1784, the second and third bays from the north end were rebuilt in brick as two three-storey houses. The two southernmost remaining bays housed a pub from 1796 to 1819, named The Hawk's Crest. In 1827, it was proposed to demolish the remainder of the building, to extend the churchyard, but ultimately only the separate chantry priest's house was demolished. Following this reprieve, the northernmost bay was also heightened to three storeys and extended to block a former entrance to the churchyard.

Architecture

The facade of the building has been repeatedly altered, and the ground floor now consists of shop fronts, while the windows on the upper floor are 18th-century and later. The basic wooden frame and jettying of the upper floor survive, and some of the internal walls may also be original. An attic floor was inserted in about the 17th-century, and the pantiled roof is of unknown date.

Gallery

Lady Row, Goodramgate - geograph.org.uk - 676090.jpg, Lady Row in 2008, seen from the south-east Lady Row from the north.jpg, Northern end of Lady Row Lady Row April 2024.jpg, Lady Row 2024

References

{{coord, 53.96091, -1.08006, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Goodramgate Grade I listed buildings in York Buildings and structures completed in 1317 Houses completed in the 14th century Timber framed buildings in Yorkshire