St Anthony’s Hall,
Peasholme Green, York

The hall of St Anthony is one of four medieval guildhalls which have survived in the City of York – the others are the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, the Guildhall and the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall. In 1446 King Henry VI granted a charter which founded the guild of St Martin. The hall and a chapel were subsequently built on the site which previously housed a chapel for St Anthony – the name was retained for the hall. The hall had a hospital chapel which was consecrated in 1453 and was used by patients and members of the guild.

By 1569 St Anthony’s was being used as a workhouse for the poor, where weaving was among the main chores of the work force. In 1586 part of the hall had been converted into a house of correction and a place of detention and work for minor criminals. In the early 17th century the hall was used as a knitting school for poor children. However, by 1655 the lower part of the hall was back in use as a house of correction and this continued until 1814. During the English Civil War (1625 – 1649) the hall was also used as an ammunition storeroom, military hospital and a prison. In 1705 the Blue Coat charity used the main hall for teaching, while using the aisles for sleeping and eating. The ground floor houses kitchens and service rooms. The Blue Coat charity occupied St Anthony’s hall up until 1946. In 1953 York Civic Trust came into management of St Anthony’s guildhall and it was subsequently opened as the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research as part of the University of York.

It was purchased by York Conservation Trust in March 2006 and has undergone major refurbishment, including the underpinning of two sides in order to prevent further movement.

The building is of two storeys, with walls partly of 15th century stonework and partly of 17th century brick, replacing timber framing; the roofs are now slate-covered, but were formerly tiled. The west elevation rises to a central gable with a lower gable to each side. The lower storey is of limestone ashlar with moulded plinths and one buttress. Above the ashlar is a 17th century moulded stone string-course with brickwork above. The plinth is interrupted towards the north end by a large opening, now blocked, flanked by niches with two-centred heads and square labels and, at a high level, by two carved stone panels; one is a modern restoration, the other shows an armed man, badly weathered. In the middle part of the wall are three windows, of which only the middle one is original; it has two cinquefoiled lights in a square head. The others, of similar design, are modern.

On the first floor, three windows are set in 17th century openings under moulded brick pediments, and in the central gable is an oeil-de-boeuf. The southern elevation continues the ashlar and brick walling of the western end. Near its west end a large window with four-centred head and continuous casement-moulded jambs is partly blocked and contains 19th century sash windows. Three smaller windows to the east are of 15th century origin and originally had cusped lights; that to the east was formerly blocked and partly replaced by a doorway. Further east again was a fourth window, for which no visible evidence now remains. In the middle a doorway and oeil-de-boeuf above represent early openings remodelled in the 19th century. The upper storey has three windows, set in regularly-spaced 17th century openings, and a fourth inserted in 1886. The eastern end of the building has a plinth and string-course of stone, with a brick wall, all of 1655; the lower storey has a central bay window of 1828 flanked by doors and windows of the same date or later. In the upper storey are three windows under brick pediments and an oeil-de-boeuf as on the western end. Evidence for original close-studding in this wall remains internally in the tie-beam. The northern elevation is largely masked by additions and much of the string-course has been cut away. In the lower storey is a small barred window, now blocked, to a cell. To the west is a round-headed opening, formed of moulded brickwork, now containing a small modern window. There are some traces of the jambs of 17th century windows, but all the existing windows are 19th century or modern.

The ground floor is divided into two areas by a north-south through passage, with a west wall of 17th century date and an east wall of the 18th century. The area west of the passage may represent the mediaeval chapel lit by the big arched window in the southern end; it is divided into seven bays by moulded cross-beams, supported by wall-posts and braces, and the ceiling of each bay was subdivided by moulded beams into four compartments. The two northern bays, entered from the west, may always have been screened off, on the line of the present 17th century southern wall, to form an antechapel entered by a large doorway in the western wall. The rest of the lower storey is presumed to have been the hospital, and was divided into four aisles by three rows of timber posts supporting the arcades and the floor of the hall above. A number of these posts have been removed; those that remain are embedded in later partition walls, mostly of the 18th century.

On the first floor is the great hall of nine aisled bays. The three west bays are of earlier construction than the rest; this was the high-table end. The roof trusses have moulded tie-beams carrying crown-posts with a high collar-purlin, and kerb-principals with side-purlins. Between the trusses are moulded beams to carry a ceiling. The tie-beam of the east truss is moulded on both sides, and has mortices, never used, for ceiling beams continuing to the east. This part of the hall is separated from the aisles by 17th century walls. The remainder of the wall to the east is built in six bays. The main trusses are carried on octagonal oak posts and are of arch-braced collar-beam construction with moulded purlins; the braces spring from demi-angel corbels of which two (east and south side) are original. Of the others, some are of early 19th century plasterwork and the remainder are mid 19th century wooden replacements. A break in the ridge and associated mortices suggest that there may have been a louvre over the third bay from the east. The wall-plates to the aisles are housed into the main posts at corbel level, and there is framing between them and the wall-plates of the hall roof, but below this level the aisles seem to have been open to the hall, except in the east bay and perhaps the three west bays. Additional strutting has been introduced where posts have been removed from the floor below. Various mortices indicate that the east bay was separated off by a screen, and over this screen was a gallery which extended into a second bay. Access to the east bay from below was by a staircase in the east end of the north aisle. Wooden bosses in the roof were carved by John Wolstenholme, whose initials with the date 1850 appear on one boss, and the family crests all refer to civic dignitaries of c.1850. Other subjects include a centaur and St Anthony’s pig. The aisle roofs have four-centred barrel vaults, formed in plaster between the curved braces under the tie-beams. Each brace rests on an original angel-corbel. Carved bosses include representations of heads, foliage, fleurs-de-lys and royal arms.