19, Grape Lane

Greengate is a historic building in Whitby, a town in North Yorkshire, in England. The house was built at what is now 19 Grape Lane in the late 18th century. The neighbouring building became the bank of Simpson, Chapman & Co in 1785, and 19 Grape Lane became a solicitors' office, which may have been linked to the bank by a connecting door. The bank was secured by a green gate, and hence was nicknamed the "Green Gate Bank". In the 1960s, 19 Grape Lane was purchased by Peter and Barbara Gross, who restored it. They found a safe on the premises and mistakenly thought that it was the old bank. As a result, they renamed it "Greengate". The house has been grade II* listed since 1954. The house has a ground floor in rusticated stone, and above it is in brick and surrounded by fluted ionic pilasters and an entablature. There are four storeys and a basement, and three bays. On the ground floor are three double-hung sash windows with triple keystones, and these are flanked by round-arched doorways with blank radiating spiked fanlights. The upper floors have sash windows with sill bands, a cornice, a parapet with open panels, and an octagonal lantern. At the rear is a doorway with an ornamental semicircular fanlight, a tall bottle window, and sash windows. Inside, there is panelling throughout the house and the original staircase survives. The 18th-century safe is in the first floor front room.