Rubber stamp shop now occupies oldest city houses
Often shortened to Lady Row, these cottages on Goodramgate date from 1316 and are the oldest houses surviving in York. They are England’s earliest examples of houses with overhanging jetties—the upper floor wider than the lower—and are among the few still in existence. That style was common in medieval times because residents only paid tax on the area occupied by the ground floor.
The houses sit in front of Holy Trinity Church, almost obscuring it from view. This is because they were built in the original churchyard and the rental income they generated went towards the church’s running expenses. Some of the early tenants were priests from Holy Trinity.
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Address Goodramgate, York YO1 7LF | Public Transport 4-minute walk from Monk Bar car park. Closest bus stops: Monk Bar and Lord Mayor’s Walk | Tip The National Trust Gift Shop on the corner of Goodramgate (No. 32) sells books about history as well as gifts and tasty treats.
As you might expect, the construction of Our Lady’s Row was basic – the dwellings are made of plastered timber framing with curved pantiles on the roof. When it was first built, Lady Row measured 128 feet long and 18 feet deep, and had two storeys and 11 bays; generally, each bay made up a single home with one room on each floor. One house was demolished in 1766 to make way for the arched entrance to Holy Trinity; seven bays remain.
Over the centuries the historic buildings have been put to various uses. For a time in the 18th and 19th centuries, two of them were pubs – one called the Hawk’s Crest, the other Noah’s Ark. One of the houses today is occupied by Happy Valley, a Chinese Restaurant. Further along, in the cottage closest to Holy Trinity Church, you’ll find a unique York business, the Make Your Mark shop. It sells rubber stamps – some custom-made – and ink pads.
Exemplifying how old and fragile these buildings are, in late 2015 a corner from the overhanging first floor of this shop fell onto the street. The damage was caused by weather, most likely the heavy rain of the winter. York must look after these buildings if they are to survive into the next century.
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