History of York

In 1710, William Cornwell, a tanner and a brewer, built Cumberland House as his home.  He was to become Lord Mayor of the City in 1712 and again in 1725. 

An image of it was included by John Cossins in his New and Exact Plan of the City of York in 1727 which displayed fashionable new houses around the margin of the map. 

The house is built of brick with pronounced stone corners or ‘quoins’, a style which was very popular in eighteenth-century York.  Less common is the stone basement, built as storage and accessed only from the quayside on which it stands, presumably to protect against the frequent flooding of the River Ouse.

The house is thought to have been named after the Duke of Cumberland, commander of the King's army that defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie to end the Jacobite rebellions.