About
Treasurer's House is one of York's finest historic properties, a magnificent townhouse immediately behind York Minster that takes its name from the medieval Treasurers of York Minster who once occupied the site. Managed by the National Trust, the house that visitors explore today is largely the creation of the eccentric Edwardian industrialist Frank Green, who purchased the property in 1897 and spent the next 23 years meticulously restoring and furnishing it as a showcase for his extraordinary collection of antique furniture, ceramics, paintings, and decorative arts. The result is an unusually intimate and personal historic interior that reflects not just centuries of history but one man's consuming passion for the past.
The house stands on foundations that follow the line of the Roman Via Decumana — the main east-west road through the Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum that underlies much of modern York. It is this Roman connection that gives Treasurer's House its most famous distinction: in 1953, apprentice plumber Harry Martindale was working in the cellar when he witnessed what is arguably the most compelling and detailed ghost sighting in British history. He described a group of Roman soldiers marching through the cellar wall, partially visible below the level of the floor — precisely at the height of the original Roman road surface. The story, corroborated by archaeological evidence and retold by Martindale in interviews for decades, has made Treasurer's House one of the most celebrated haunted houses in England.
The house contains around 17 rooms across four floors, filled with the furniture and decorative arts collections assembled by Frank Green with scholarly care and personal enthusiasm. Green arranged the rooms to evoke different historical periods, from the medieval through the Jacobean, Caroline, and Georgian eras, creating a layered experience of English interior decoration across five centuries. Highlights include the Great Hall with its period furniture, the exquisite Queen Anne Room, and the atmospheric cellar where Martindale's ghostly encounter took place.
Care of the property was transferred to the National Trust by Green in 1930, and the Trust maintains both the historic interiors and Green's eclectic collections. The house is open seasonally and offers guided tours, garden access, and a tea-room. Its position in the shadow of York Minster, surrounded by the medieval streets of the Minster Precinct, makes it an essential complement to any visit to York's historic core.
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Annual Visitors (2019)
60,000
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday morning visits in spring or autumn for quieter experience and comfortable temperatures in the house
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the National Trust website for current seasonal opening dates before visiting — the house is typically closed from November to mid-February and Mondays are closed throughout the season.
- National Trust members enter free, making this excellent value for members who might otherwise visit only York Minster on a trip to the city.
- Ask staff at the entrance about any guided tour times for the day — volunteer guides can bring the history and ghost story to life with remarkable personal engagement.
- The cellar ghost story is best appreciated with some background reading before you visit — the Harry Martindale account is widely documented online and adds greatly to the atmosphere of standing in the actual space.
- The garden is freely accessible to ticket holders and provides one of the best spots in York to view York Minster's east end — worth spending time in fine weather.
- Combine with a visit to York Minster next door for a comprehensive experience of the medieval Minster Precinct — both sites are within a few steps of each other.
- The tea-room is popular and can get busy at peak times — consider visiting early in the day or later in the afternoon for a quieter refreshment experience.
- Photography in the house is permitted without flash — the collections are beautifully lit and the period rooms make excellent subjects for photography.
Highlights
The Roman Soldier Ghost Story
Treasurer's House is famous throughout England for what is considered one of the most credible and detailed ghost sightings ever recorded. In 1953, apprentice plumber Harry Martindale was working in the cellar when he heard a trumpet call and watched a line of Roman soldiers march through the solid stone wall, cross the floor, and disappear through the opposite wall.
The soldiers were visible only from the knees upwards — precisely the level of the original Roman road surface beneath the cellar floor, a detail Martindale could not have known.
Archaeologists subsequently confirmed the existence of the buried Roman roadway at exactly that depth, lending remarkable credibility to an otherwise extraordinary account.
The Great Hall
The Great Hall is the grandest room in Treasurer's House, a magnificent space furnished by Frank Green to evoke the medieval and Jacobean periods when the house served as a residence of considerable prestige. The room is dominated by period furniture of exceptional quality, including long oak refectory tables, carved chairs, and tapestries that Green selected with scholarly care during his three decades of collecting.
The hall's high ceiling, stone fireplace, and carefully arranged period furnishings create an atmosphere of austere historical grandeur that contrasts pleasingly with the more intimate decorated rooms elsewhere in the house.
Frank Green's Decorative Arts Collections
The house contains one of the most personal and eclectic collections of decorative arts in the National Trust's care — assembled by the Edwardian industrialist Frank Green over more than two decades of collecting with passionate devotion and considerable wealth. Green furnished each room to evoke a different historical period, filling them with antique furniture, Chinese porcelain, English delftware, silver, textiles, and paintings sourced from dealers, auction houses, and private collections across Europe.
The result is less a museum arrangement than an inhabited collector's house frozen at the moment of its owner's greatest ambition — uniquely expressive of one individual's historical sensibility.
The Queen Anne Room
Among the most elegant interiors in the house, the Queen Anne Room exemplifies Frank Green's ability to create harmonious period compositions from diverse collected elements. The room's panelling, furniture, and decorative objects are carefully chosen to evoke the restrained formality of early 18th-century English taste, with particular attention to the quality of craftsmanship in the woodwork and upholstery.
The room offers a tranquil contrast to the more dramatic historical narratives associated with other parts of the house, and is a favourite with visitors interested in the history of English interior decoration.
Collections
Treasurer's House holds the decorative arts collections assembled by Frank Green between 1897 and 1930, bequeathed to the National Trust with the house in 1930. The collections include English and Continental furniture ranging from medieval to Regency periods, Chinese export porcelain, English delftware and pottery, silver and silverplate, oil paintings, watercolours, textiles, tapestries, and architectural elements sourced by Green to complete his period room arrangements.
The Roman archaeology of the cellar, while not formally collected, constitutes an important in-situ heritage element of national significance.
Period Rooms — Five Centuries of English Interior Design
The house presents a sequence of period rooms arranged by Frank Green to evoke English domestic interiors from the medieval through the Georgian eras, each furnished with antiques of appropriate period and quality.
📍 All floors
The Haunted Cellar
The atmospheric cellar where Harry Martindale witnessed the Roman soldier ghost in 1953. Interpretation panels tell the ghost story and explain the Roman archaeology that lends it credibility.
📍 Cellar
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.