"I didn't choose Garforth House, I discovered I owned it": How one of York's grandest Georgian buildings became a £3.5m family home
Lindsay Jacques didn’t so much choose Garforth House as discover she already owned it. One evening at their home in Singapore, her husband John showed her an online listing for the grand Georgian townhouse in York.
She admired it, assumed it was beyond their reach, and moved on. A few days later he confessed: “I’m glad you like it because I’ve already put down a non-refundable deposit.”
That moment in 2011 began a five year-long project for the couple and their two sons: turning one of York’s most significant historic buildings from a bare commercial property back into a layered, welcoming family home.
Now, with the house on the market for £3.5m, Lindsay is preparing to say goodbye.
Designed by the renowned 18th-century architect John Carr, who also created Fairfax House and parts of Harewood House, it was completed in 1757 for the Garforth family of Wiganthorpe Hall. With around 15,000 sq ft of space, it is among the largest townhouses within York’s city walls and is Grade I listed.
Its most striking features include an original cantilever staircase lit by a Venetian window, ornate plasterwork, carved fireplaces, and intricately panelled walls.
When the Jacques family bought it, the building had been in use as commercial offices. “It was very neat and tidy, but very much a workplace,” Lindsay says. “There were strip lights, internet cabling, and every room was full of desks.” They spent each holiday back in the UK filling skips and calling schools to donate surplus office furniture. “We didn’t buy it thinking it would be a big project,” she says. “But it became one.”
Restoring it while still living in Singapore added complexity. They hired a site manager and handled much of the work remotely – spending evenings after work on progress updates and decisions. “We had them do the top floor first so that we could at least stay there when we came back during the holidays,” Lindsay says. “It wasn’t exactly relaxing, but it made things easier.”
They finally moved back to York full-time in 2016. The intention had always been to settle there permanently. “It felt like our forever home,” Lindsay says. “So we did everything to a really good standard.” The aim was to restore the house sensitively, not to preserve it as a museum. “It’s a big house, but because the rooms are generous, not awkward, it’s very usable. Especially when our sons were at home and when we fostered children for a few years. It was full of life.”
The ground floor now includes a large family kitchen overlooking the rear garden, a laundry and utility area, and a formal dining room used for large gatherings. Upstairs, three large reception rooms span the width of the house - a drawing room, sitting room and study. There are seven bedrooms spread over the top two floors, and on the lower ground level, a self-contained two-bedroom apartment with its own access.
The layout is practical, but the character is never compromised. “We didn’t bring in a designer, we just did it ourselves,” Lindsay says. A geologist by training, she found herself increasingly absorbed in the building’s history. “It’s early Georgian, so the colour palette is quite neutral - but that’s my kind of colour. I loved doing the interiors.”
One surprise came when floorboards were lifted during the rewiring: a large hand-cranked pulley system, hidden beneath their dressing room, designed to lower the huge chandelier in the stairwell. “We’ve never used it,” she says, “mainly because of one famous episode of Only Fools and Horses.”
While restoring the main house, they also adapted the outbuildings at the rear -now a 4,000 sq ft space used as a gym, playroom and studio. The private garden, a rare feature for any house inside the city walls, stretches behind the house like a green buffer between the historic building and the city beyond.
“It’s like a little oasis,” Lindsay says. “It’s quiet, we get the sun, and it’s completely private. Visitors are always surprised when they see how big it is.”
The house has had many lives. Between 1912 and 1968 it was St Margaret's Independent Grammar School for Girls, and former pupils - now in their eighties and nineties - still return once a year for a reunion. Lindsay hosts them for coffee and a house tour.
“They’re the sweetest ladies,” she says. “They walk through the rooms and point out where they had lessons, where the classrooms were. It’s incredibly moving.” That connection with the building’s past has led to more public involvement, including participating in York’s ‘Unlocking the City’ open house events and tours with the York Civic Trust.
Selling was not the original plan, but the couple have since taken early retirement - and John was ready for the next challenge. “He needed something new to focus on,” Lindsay says. “So we’ve bought another listed building, this time in Northumberland. It’s another former school, and we’re doing even more of the work ourselves.”
This time, it’s in open countryside, far from the cobbled streets of York. That doesn’t make leaving Garforth House easy. “It’s a very special place to live,” she says.
Garforth House is on the market for £3.5m with Prime Residential. Call: 01904 202820.