The Trust bought this house, which had latterly been used
as a dental practice, on 26 February 2004 and it is now the
home of The Council for British Archaeology, who were previously
in residence at another trust-owned property, Bowes Morrell
House at 111 Walmgate.
The house was built between 1852 and
1860 for a newspaper proprietor from Knaresborough, William
Hargrove (Freeman of the City of York in 1847). Previously
on this site was a very popular building throughout the
late 18th and early 19th centuries known as The Cockpit
House. This house had a very chequered history and was
once the scene of much rioting in 1757, culminating in
a certain George Thurloe being sentenced to death, but
later having his sentence commuted to transportation for
life. Within the grounds of the house, in addition to the
cock-fighting pit, there was an adjacent bowling green.
The house was demolished in 1850, a year or two before the
street of St Mary’s was constructed.
66 Bootham is one of a pair of houses
built in brindled brick in Flemish
Bond with a hipped roof
in Welsh slate with a modillioned timber cornice,
Listed Grade 2. Of three storeys with habitable cellars
and attics with two bays on the Bootham elevation and three
facing St. Mary’s. A stone cill
band links the first floor windows. The 4 panel entrance
door with side lights, facing St Mary’s, has a central
distyle-in-antis porch
flanked by canted bays, all with modillionedcornices.
There are particularly fine iron railings set into a stone
dwarf wall with a twin top rail with spear finials. The entrance
gate has carved stone piers. Stone steps down to the basement
area are served by an iron gate on the Bootham front.
Internally there is a curved, cantilevered stone staircase
rising from the basement to the second floor with square
iron balusters and wooden handrail and statue niches. The
stairwell is lit by an octagonal lantern in an oval recess.
The original cooking range, boiling pot, sink and interesting
sliding shutters survive in the basement kitchen.
