Description

YORK

SE6051NW CUMBERLAND STREET
1112-1/28/280 (North West side)
28/02/86 Grand Opera House
(Formerly Listed as:
CLIFFORD STREET
No.8
(SS Empire))

II

Includes: Grand Opera House CLIFFORD STREET.
Corn exchange and warehouse, converted to music hall. Corn
exchange and warehouse 1868; converted 1902, restored and
re-opened 1989. Conversion to music hall by JP Briggs.
MATERIALS: Cumberland Street front of red brick in English
bond, banded in orange brick, on sandstone plinth. King Street
front of red brick in Flemish bond, on rusticated sandstone
plinth, with sandstone ashlar dressings and bands of cogged
brick. Slate roofs.
EXTERIOR: entrance and foyer incorporated in Nos 2-10 Clifford
Street (qv). Cumberland Street front: 3-storey 4-window block
to left; taller block to right, of 3 storeys and basement, and
3 bays. Remodelled entrance in left block with panelled double
doors in plain doorcase: to right, small round-headed window,
and further right replacement panelled stage door beneath
overlight. On first and second floors windows are
round-headed, including tall staircase window between floors,
with stone sills and round arches of brick. All windows and
overlights have rounded 'Gothick' glazing. Gable eaves cornice
of three stepped courses of contrasting brick, with similar
band carried across gable apex beneath three stepped
ventilation slits. Block to right has double door at right end
beneath blocked former lifting opening: to left, inserted
basement door. On ground and first floors centre windows are
tripled and round headed, those on first floor stepped;
additional single window at left of ground floor. All windows
are now blocked and all have chamfered sills, forming sill
bands beneath tripled windows, and all openings have round
arches of brick.
King Street front: 3 storeys and basement; 7 bays. Basement
has five pairs of double board doors with tooled lintels, and
one altered doorway at right end. Ground floor windows over
chamfered basement band are tiered and paired, with cambered
heads, and stepped back beneath segmental arches of gauged
brick. On first and second floors, single tier of similar
paired windows, some retaining original diamond motif glazing,
others blind or blocked. First and second floor windows have
bands of cogged brick beneath stone sill bands: cogged brick
band also beneath eaves cornice of stepped brick corbels
surmounted by pierced brick parapet.
INTERIOR: restored re-using original fitments, including

scenery grid; bow-fronted box office front in new foyer;
panelled and half-glazed doors with embossed bevelled glass
and curvilinear glazing bars in segment-arched glazed screens
with spandrels decorated with Art Nouveau carving. Auditorium
retains two serpentine balconies both with moulded fronts.
Rectangular moulded proscenium arch with central cartouche,
flanked by full-height round arches on composite columns
containing pairs of bow-fronted boxes at each balcony level.
Ceiling is an oval saucer dome set in a rectangular surround
with decorated spandrels and plaster sunburst radiating from
the centre.

Listing NGR: SE6031151625

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Grand Opera House at Wikipedia
• Grand Opera House official website
• Wikidata Q5594856

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings