Lendal, opposite York Minster · Inn
A Grade I listed Georgian townhouse on Lendal with a cellar bar and a garden terrace, a two-minute walk from York Minster.
Built in the 1720s for a physician and later used as lodgings for visiting assize judges, this Grade I listed townhouse on Lendal is one of the finest Georgian buildings in York. It was restored and reopened as a small hotel and pub, and the combination works: you get a genuinely historic building with a proper bar downstairs rather than a hushed lobby.
There are around twenty-one bedrooms spread across the main house and a rear extension. The best are the front-facing rooms on the first floor, with tall sash windows, high ceilings and period detailing. Rooms at the back are smaller and quieter. Decoration is comfortable rather than luxurious, with good beds and modern bathrooms fitted into old spaces, which occasionally means a compact shower room in an otherwise grand bedroom.
Downstairs there are two bars, including a vaulted cellar bar that was once the kitchen and coal store, plus a walled garden terrace that fills quickly on a warm evening. Food is pub cooking done properly, with Sunday roasts that are worth booking. Breakfast is included on most rates and served in the dining room overlooking Lendal.
The location is the strongest argument for staying here. The Minster is two minutes away, Museum Gardens three, and the Shambles five. That does mean street noise at weekends in the front rooms, so light sleepers should ask for a rear room. It suits couples and small groups who want to be in the thick of the old city without paying five-star rates, and it is one of the better mid-range choices inside the walls. There is no on-site parking.