York Guides

These stand in what was once a walled courtyard occupying the bend of the river west of the lay-brothers' infirmary. There are substantial remains of two of them, both built shortly after the middle of the twelfth century, and they are amongst the best examples in Britain of a particular type of stone dwelling house that is also found in towns, on manors, and as domestic accommodation within castles during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Each is a simple rectangular building of two storeys, with a hall, chamber, and privy on each floor. In the twelfth century, therefore, they were capable of providing four complete and independent sets of accommodation for important visitors and their travelling households.

The east guest house is the better preserved of the two. As first built, its ground floor was entered by a doorway in the north wall and was vaulted in six double bays from, a central row of elaborate clustered piers. It was divided into two rooms, each of three bays, as can be seen from the change in the design of the piers and from the slightly greater width of the windows in the northern half, which formed the lower hall. The southern half was the lower chamber, from the south-west angle of which a doorway leads to a privy in a turret projecting into the bed of the river. Another doorway led to a timber balcony bracketed out over the river between the turret and the infirmary bridge.

Most of the upper storey has gone. It was reached by external stairs against the west wall of the building. The upper hall was four bays long, with a fireplace in its east wall and a group of two two-light windows and a circular window above in the north gable. The upper chamber had a window to the south and a doorway to a privy in the upper storey of the turret.

Later in the Middle Ages the arrangements were altered. A cross-wall was inserted dividing the ground floor into two rooms of four and two bays, the north doorway was converted into a window and a new doorway was made at the north end of the west wall, the lower chamber was given an external doorway of its own by breaking through a window in its west wall, and the external stairs were provided with a masonry base containing two tiny rooms or closets. On the upper floor a fireplace was put between the two windows in the north gable, and the circular window above was blocked to take its flue. Its stone chimney remains complete on the apex of the gable.

The west guest house

The west guest house is similar but smaller, being of four double bays. In the twelfth century a doorway at the east end of the house led into the lower hall, probably of two bays, which had a fireplace on the south and was separated by a partition from the lower chamber. This was also of two bays, with a doorway to a privy in a turret over the river at the south-west angle of the building. At this date the external stairs to the first floor may have been against the north wall.

The upper storey is too much ruined for its arrangements to be recovered with certainty, but the upper hall fireplace remains in the south wall and has a lamp bracket and part of a boldly projecting stone hood. The upper chamber had access to a privy in the turret, and its west wall had two windows with a circular window above in the gable.

In the thirteenth century a wing as large as the original building was added to its north side. Little of this remains but excavation showed that it had a large chimney breast in its north wall. The upper chamber was also provided with a fireplace in its west wall, the flue of which blocked the circular window.

More extensive alterations were made in the fourteenth century, and can best be appreciated by reference to the plan. They included the buttressing and perhaps the vaulting of the added wing, and the provision of new external stairs and a curved passage at the junction of the wing and the house. They were perhaps connected with the use of the wing as a kitchen, and the conversion of the end bay of the west house into a 'screens' passage serving both floors of both houses. A bridge probably linked the head of the new stairs with the stair block of the east house. The angle between the two guest houses was also walled in and provided with a fireplace, forming a small chamber that probably served as an office for the guest master.

Ambitious as they are, these surviving guest houses only formed part of a larger group. Excavation showed that other buildings had stood to the north-west, extending as far as the river bank where a pair of massive corbels for a latrine remain in the river wall.