Description

LANCASTER

SD4761NW ST MARY'S GATE
1685-1/6/286 (North side)
22/12/53 No.2
Greycourt
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET
No.2
Greycourt)

GV II

House. c1792, restored c1987. For Mr Richard Postlethwaite.
Sandstone ashlar, brought to a smoother face on the facade,
and a slate roof with gable stacks to left and right.
Double-depth plan.
3 storeys above a tall basement which, because of the steep
cross-fall of the ground accommodates on the right a wide
lintelled coach entrance. 3 widely-spaced bays with a
roll-moulded band above the basement, an ovolo-moulded sill
band on the first floor, a plain sill band on the second
floor, and an eaves cornice with a blocking course. All the
windows, which have 12- or 9-pane sashes, have moulded
architraves. Those on the first floor have a plain cornice
supported on capitals which rise from the architrave, while
those on the ground floor have slightly wider plain cornices
carried on fluted consoles outside the architraves. The
doorway, to the left, has a similar cornice and a door with
more raised and fielded panels beneath an overlight.
The doorway is approached along a terrace above the Church
Steps (qv), and this has railings with cast-iron stick
balusters and 'turned' standards with ball finials.
The rear elevation includes one bay with tripartite glazing
bar sash windows and has a porch with a door of 9 raised and
fielded panels.
INTERIOR: restored in the late 1980s, when partition walls
installed when the house was in multiple occupation were
removed. Entrance hall contains mahogany dogleg staircase with
open string, Tuscan columns as newels, stick balusters, and
ramped handrail. The main living room, to the right at the
front on the ground floor, contains a marble fireplace in a
Grecian style. This was previously in an upstairs bedroom and
may originally have been supplied by Websters of Kendal.
HISTORY: the house was built for Richard Postlethwaite, who
also rebuilt Gardyner's Charity almshouses, which adjoined the
house at right angles to the left but which are now
demolished. A booklet published in 1978 to accompany an
exhibition of the work of Thomas Harrison at Lancaster
University suggested that the design of the house and
almshouses may have been by Harrison.
(Cross Fleury (pseud.): Time-Honoured Lancaster: Lancaster:
1891-: 41).

Listing NGR: SD4743461908

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26489650

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas