St Anthony's Hall

St Antony's Hall
The Hospital of St Anthony
St Anthony's Hall seen from Peasholme Green
Location	Peasholme Green, York, England
Coordinates	53°57′37″N 1°04′33″W / 53.9604°N 1.0759°W / 53.9604; -1.0759Coordinates: 53°57′37″N 1°04′33″W / 53.9604°N 1.0759°W / 53.9604; -1.0759
Built	1446–1453
Original use	Guildhall
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated	14 June 1954
Reference no.	1256892

St Anthony's Hall in York, England, is a former medieval guildhall and Grade I listed building. It currently houses Trinity Church York and the Quilt Museum and Gallery. The Hall, located on Peasholme Green, was built between 1446 and 1453 on the site of a chapel of St Anthony for either the Guild of St Martin or the Guild of St Anthony (which was founded in 1446). After the decline of the Guilds, it was used between 1627 and 1705 for various purposes: as an arsenal, a military hospital and a prison. Between 1705 and 1947 it housed the York Bluecoat School, after which it was offered to the York Civic Trust. In 1953, it became the Borthwick Institute for Historical Research (now the Borthwick Institute for Archives), which moved in 2004 to a purpose-built building next to the J B Morrell Library on the campus of the University of York. The Quilt Museum and Gallery opened in the Hall in 2008 and closed in 2015.

The Hall resembles the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in that it has two floors, of which the lower one consisted of a hospital and a chapel. In contrast to the Merchants' Hall, however, the walls of the lower floor are of stone (rather than brick) and the outer walls of the timber-framed upper floor were rebuilt in brick in the 17th century.

St Anthony's Hall was built between 1446 and 1453 but there are several different accounts of who was responsible for founding it. The first date, 1446, is connected to a charter granted to a group of wealthy citizens of York, by Henry VI that licensed them to found a Guild of St Mary and St Martin. Most sources agree that the Hall was built by this Guild of St Martin, with no mention of a Guild of St Anthony being associated with the Hall at the time of its construction, and that the name of St Anthony was used for the Hall because of a chapel that had formally occupied the site. However, there is evidence for a Fraternity of St Anthony of York in the city as early 1438, so it is possible that this group and the Guild of St Martin built and shared a guildhall. It has also been argued that they were both the same guild and the men who obtained the charter were members of the St Anthony group who were unable to use their preferred name on the charter because there was already a Guild of St Anthony in London. The 1453 date relates to the year of the consecration of the chapel although the building itself was not completed until several years later.