Centuries of character. A remarkable restoration.

Snicklegate is the older soul of 18–19 Colliergate. In 1748 the attorney Ralph Yoward joined two or three sixteenth-century timber-framed houses behind one handsome Georgian front. He refaced the street side but never fully hid what lay behind. At the top of Snicklegate the Tudor house is still standing: its timber 'A' frame, once the front gable onto Colliergate, still holds stained, diamond-paned leaded windows rising to the apex, with traces of painted plaster around them. Iron hooks still hang from the old truss. The heritage survey thinks they may have been for hanging meat, as on the butchers' houses of the Shambles around the corner.

On the landing below is a timber mullion window of three lights, probably from a jettied back wall, bricked up long ago with unusually large bricks. Higher up, the rooms where the Yowards' servants lived still have their lime-ash floors. The beams carry the marks of an old fire.

The house takes its name from the passage beside it. Early maps show a long, narrow way between No. 17 and No. 18 Colliergate running to the back of the plot. The heritage survey of the building suggests it was probably once a snickelway, one of the small passages that thread between York's buildings. The word, coined by the York writer Mark W. Jones, is a mix of snicket, ginnel and alleyway. Later the passage was taken into the buildings. It inspired the house's name and its staircase, which is designed to feel like walking through an old York street.

Around 1830 the house was divided into two. For much of the twentieth century it was shops and offices. Now it is a home again, restored alongside Yoward House next door. Historic England, the Georgian Group and the Council for British Archaeology all supported returning the building to two houses. The building is listed Grade II*.

Restoring a listed building calls for a very different approach from an ordinary renovation. The aim at Snicklegate was to keep the individuality of the old house and make a luxurious, comfortable home for groups. The work used traditional materials and specialist craftsmanship.