Mansion House, York

The Mansion House in York, England is the home of the Lord Mayors of York during their term in office. It is situated in St Helen's Square, where York's Coney Street and Lendal intersect in the city centre. It is built in an early Georgian style.

The foundation stone for the Mansion House was laid in 1725, with the building being completed seven years later in 1732. The architect who designed the Mansion House is unknown, although the frontage at least may be by William Etty.

In 1998 the house was restored by the York Civic Trust. In October 2015 the Mansion House was closed for refurbishment as part of the "Opening Doors" Heritage Lottery Fund refurbishment. The Mansion House will reopen in 2017

The four main areas of the "Opening Doors" project involve restoring the original kitchens; improving displays; conservation and access to the civic collection of gold and silverware; developing an integrated environmental and conservation plan for the structure: and conducting and oral History project.

The Mansion House is the earliest purpose built house for a Lord Mayor still in existence and predates the Mansion House in London by at least twenty years.

The Mansion House is built on the site of the old "Common Hall Gates" which provided an entrance to the Guildhall. A chapel and other property and tenements which were once owned by the Guild of St. Christopher and St. George including the Cross Keys Public House also lay on this site. These buildings were demolished to build the current Mansion House in 1724. The fifteenth century York Guildhall is situated behind the Mansion House, where the medieval city council held their meetings. In May of each year the Mayor Making ceremony is still held in the Guildhall before the Lord Mayor takes up residence in the Mansion House. These two buildings, therefore, represent a continuity of civic democracy for over six hundred years in the City of York.

The Mansion House holds one of the largest civic silver collections in England. These collections will be displayed in a new Silver Gallery enabling visitors to view the collections from January 2017. Two of the earliest pieces are a seventeenth century silver chamber pot and gold cup which were bought for the City of York with monies bequeathed by Marmaduke Rawdon in 1669. Marmaduke left "one drinking cup of pure gold of the vallew of one hundred pounds, which I desire my executor to have handsomely made, and the cittie arms and my arms graven upon it, "This is the guift of Marmaduke Rawdon, son of Laurence Rawdon, late of this cittie alderman"; alsoe, I give unto the said cittie a silver chamber pott of the value of ten pounds, booth are to goe from Lord Maior to lord Maior, and if these two bee converted to any other use the vallew thereof to return to my executor or his heirs".

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Wikipedia