One of our favourite restaurants in York is ASK in the Assembly Rooms. Sitting in the midst of this gorgeous building it's easy to imagine that you're taking part in a Jane Austen ball or dance!
The York Assembly Rooms are believed to be the first neoclassical building ever constructed outside Italy, and have been noted as being "of seminal importance in the history of English architecture" and "one of the most influential pieces of architecture of the early 18th century".
The Assembly Rooms were designed by Lord Burlington in 1730 and provided a great opportunity, not just for the newly emerging and expanding city of York, but also to promote Burlington's ideas of Palladian architecture. The requirements were quite simple: a large room for dancing, another for cards and play, a room to make tea and some basement rooms with chimneys for the footmen. The whole cost approximately £6,000 when the building was completed in 1735.
The main ballroom, where most of the tables are today, features 44 magnificent columns of stone and stucco, supporting an upper story decorated with pilasters and 44 unusual iron windows.
Lord Burlington was also a member of the team responsible for the management of the rooms and his death in 1753 marked the gradual decline in the Assembly Rooms' popularity. So much so, that in 1778 David Garrick, one of England's foremost actors and playwrights of the day, was so furious about their neglect that he wrote angrily to the City Corporation:
In vain did genius plan this great design
The precious pearl is cast amongt ye swine
Oh for a magic power to waft ye pile.
From this, ye vilest spot in Britain's isle.
To that famed land where taste with science reigns.
Today the Rooms are in the care of the York Conservation Trust and leased to the restaurant chain. It's a magnificent place in which to enjoy some fine Italian food and a glass of wine.
