Crafting The Past
3/3-7 Coney Street

3/3-7 Coney Street York

From the  An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume5, Central

137) Houses, Nos. 3, 5, 7, formerly four dwellings with No. 5 forming a pair, stand on the site of a 16th-century house belonging to the Darleys of Aldby and Buttercrambe. The present houses are mainly of the first half of the 18th century but incorporate parts of an earlier house, of which three decorated plaster ceilings survived into the 19th century.
 The early 18th-century rebuilding may have been carried out by Francis Taylor, who acquired the property from the Thompson family, goldsmiths, in 1722. Taylor left the property to his nephew Francis Meek, who added a range at the back of No. 3, but No. 7 is said to have been refronted in 1758 and to have carried a rainwater head bearing a badge of the Brooke family.

 

 

Later alterations and additions may have been carried out by William Siddall, woollen draper and merchant tailor, as he used some of the frontage for a shop and the outbuildings as a workshop

Drastic alterations have been made in modern times to convert the houses to commercial use, including insertion of shop windows on the ground floor and removal of the fourth storey of No. 3 and the pitched roofs of Nos. 5 and 7. Only a part of one decorated ceiling is now visible. The heraldry relating to the Darleys described by Davies has been destroyed or concealed. (Davies, 57–63; YCA, Acc. 21, Deeds; G. Benson, Pamphlet on Bishophill).

The front elevations, of brick, have been much altered. No. 3 originally comprised five bays, No. 5 six, and No. 7 six; No. 7 has stone quoins. All are now of three storeys, with modern parapets. Inside, an elaborate plaster ceiling of c. 1600 remains at the rear of the first floor of No. 7 (Plate 165). This is by no means complete, and could possibly have formed a part of the heraldic ceiling described by Davies; it has a heavily moulded cornice, which breaks forward at intervals, and a background of scrolled foliage with vine, acorns, roses and birds. At intervals strapwork encloses male and female heads. The frieze has a similar background, with heads, a shield, a heart and a double-headed eagle. The fine early 17th-century ceiling on the ground floor of No. 5 (Plate 164), with a geometrical division formed with moulded ribs and decorative motifs, and the moulded cornice continued along the dividing beam with vine enrichment to the soffit, is covered by a modern underdrawn ceiling. The only other fittings of note to survive are the staircases of the second quarter of the 18th century in No. 3 and in the S.E. part of No. 5.

Images of the ceiling in number 7 are here

Possibly built by the Darley Family in the 16thc ?

1630 ? John Thompson Goldsmith,

John Thompson Goldsmith

John Thompson Goldsmith

Leonard Thompson Goldsmith

1719 Francis Taylor Gentleman

1732 Francis Meek

1767 William Siddall Taylor

1791 Robert Rhodes Taylor ?

1823 Dodgson W. F. (dealer in, & cleaner of oil paintings)  Coney st

1829 Straw Hat Makers Milliners and Dress Makers Cooke Joseph (& haberdasher

1840 Linen drapers & mercers Milliners & dressmakers, Cooke & Watson, (mrcrs.)

1851 Charles Potter silk mercer

1861 Potter Charles & John, silk mercers

1872  Charles Potter silk mercer
Kirby and Nicholson, drapers and silk mercers

1876 2 & 3 Kirby & Nicholson, drapers, silk mercers, and ladies’ outfitters

1885 2 & 3 Kirby & Nicholson, silk mercers, drapers and ladies’ outfitters

1886 2 & 3 Kirby & Nicholson, silk mercers, drapers and ladies’ Outfitters

1889 2-3 Kirby and Nicholson, drapers

1898 2-3 Kirby & Nicholson, Ltd., drapers, &c.

1905 2 & 3 Kirby & NicholsonLim. linen drprs. & silk mercrs

1913 2 & 3 Kirby & NicholsonLim. linen drprs.& silk merers

1929 2 & 3 Kirby & Nicholson (York) Ltd.linen drapers & silk mercers

Drapers Coney Street York