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BBC News
6 days ago
- General
- BBC News
York Mansion House to reopen to public after restoration work
A Georgian house believed to be one of the earliest civic buildings to be built in the classical style in England has reopened to the public, after the first phase of its £1.3m restoration has been Mansion House is also celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, and the reopening comes ahead of it hosting a Georgian Festival this Bellerby, project architect from Buttress Architects, said it had been a "privilege" to work on such a historically significant building's foundation stone was laid in 1725, and Ms Bellerby said the repair work would "ensure its longevity for future generations to enjoy." The Mansion House closed its door in November 2024 to undergo the work, which included roof repairs and renovating the Lord Mayor's drawing room and the main Mayor of York, Martin Rowley BEM said that while the building no longer functioned as his official lived-in residence, it remained an important part of the city. "Lord Mayors have been the custodians of this building over the years, but essentially it belongs to the people," he said. "There are things in this building that are unique to the Mansion House. It is part of York's history and heritage," Rowley said."For centuries it's been a building for the privileged and the few, and it is right now it is open to everybody."As part of the restoration work to the front of the house, Buttress Architects collaborated with stonemasons at York Minster."There were a greater amount of stone repairs than we'd anticipated which we could only find out when we had close access from the scaffold," Ms Bellerby added."York Minster was able to help us source the stone we needed for those repairs, so it was really great to see other organisations in the city come together to help with the work". The second phase of restoration works will start in August and are due for completion in of the upcoming tasks is to hang the drawing room's new wallpaper, which is a replica of 18th Century fragments found during the phase one House manager and curator, Richard Pollitt, said it would be "amazing" to welcome the public to come and explore the house again, with its new look."It's amazing to have the house back open, it has just been a fascinating journey once again in discovering how they built the house," he said."I think it's important that York keeps its heritage in great condition". Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
14-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Hidden wallpaper layers unlock York Mansion House's history
In a hard-to-reach corner of the first-floor drawing room, small pieces of wallpaper have helped to unlock York Mansion House's Georgian past. A £1.3m restoration is under way at the 300-year-old Lord Mayor's residence, which involves repairing the windows, roof and away the yellow wallpaper from the 1990s, workers found the walls underneath to be mostly bare. However, seven layers of wallpaper on a thin sliver of wall revealed the room's decorative history, dating back to the 18th Century, for the first time. Hannah Bellerby, a senior architect from Buttress Architects, says the drawing room is one of the key areas the team are looking at."We thought we had nothing to go on and didn't know where we were going to go with the works," she says."Then what we found, really interestingly in the corner of the room, was intact wallpaper pieces."The team brought in an expert to remove 12 samples of the wallpaper, before separating the layers and magnifying them."Each wallpaper was identified by what kind of paper it was, what pigmentation it would have had and what pattern it would have had," Ms Bellerby says."That gave us a really clear idea of the changing styles and tastes of this room, which is information we didn't have before."It is a brand new discovery." Although old black and white photos of the house exist, the new samples allow the team to colour in the 2017, an earlier refurbishment project found pieces of wallpaper from the mid-1800s underneath the floorboards, which would have been printed in white and oldest layer of wallpaper from the new sample is a flock paper, made with a mixture of chalk and lime with a pigment in it. A stencil would have been put on a wooden block in varnish, according to Ms Bellerby, and then bits of wool would have been put on top."We know from the colours seen in that sample that it would have been a red flock wallpaper," the architect says. "That type of wallpaper was really popular in the Georgian era in the late 18th Century. "We think it was either the first or a very early decorative scheme in this room." As well as wallpaper, paint throughout the house is analysed to uncover previous colour schemes. Ms Bellerby points to a patch of wall in the hallway, which is also being redecorated."This is one of the mechanical exposures we've had done," she says. "They mechanically expose the scheme of colour we're looking to get to, which involves cutting into layers of paint to get back to this layer here. "That allows us to get a really accurate colour match to the exact scheme we're hoping to reproduce."Underneath is an olive green colour, with bits of stencilling. Architects are hoping to restore the Mansion House back to its original Georgian appearance. It follows work to the basement areas and original the external work will finish in December, the house will open to the public again in summer."It's always exciting to see this stage, even though it looks a bit dusty and everything is covered in sheeting and boarding," Mansion House manager and curator, Richard Pollitt, says."In August, it will all be finished and looking quite new for our 300th year Georgian festival." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
