York History in Pictures

George to Victoria

These buildings form three sides of a square opposite Clifford's Tower. The site was formally the Bailey of the castle which stood between the rivers Ouse and Foss.

In the centre above stands the Debtors Prison which was completed in 1705 (strictly from the Tudor- Stuart period) using stone from the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. To the left is a building of 1780 which was originally conceived to extend the prison capacity and which later became the female prison. As new prisons elsewhere made the building redundant it was used to house the large collection of bygones assembled by Dr Kirk and known as the Kirk Collection. The two buildings have together subsequently become the renowned York Castle Museum

The Assize Court building, to the right above, was completed in 1777. Courts had always met in the Castle and it was therefore natural that the new court building would be completed next to the prisons. The building is still a court house to this day. 

The Judges Lodgings, so called after the building became the residence for the circuit judges in 1806, was formally built for a doctor of the County Hospital around 1720  

The Mansion House was built in 1726 and is home for the Lord Mayor during his or her term of office.

Fairfax House, said to be one of the finest Georgian townhouses in the North of England was built in the 1740s and was acquired in 1759 by Viscount Fairfax as a gift for his daughter Anne. Having been left to decay over many years it was restored by the Civic Trust. Tagged on to the left elevation is the former Tower cinema

Yorkshire Insurance Offices 1847. The 'Yorkshire' ran the city fire brigade from 1830 to 1857

Hospitals. To the left is Bootham Park. Built in 1777 as the York Lunatic Asylum it changed it's name to Bootham Park Hospital in 1904.

To the right is the County Hospital which was built in 1851 to replace an earlier 17th century building. It was it's self replaced as a hospital in the years from 1976 following the construction of York District Hospital

The Bridges. From left to right: Ouse Bridge, Lendal Bridge and Skeldergate Bridge.

The Yorkshire Philosophical Society was founded in 1822 partly to preserve the city's past. Based in the grounds of St Mary's Abbey the Yorkshire Museum was completed in 1830

York's Art Gallery stands in Exhibition Square, a square that was created from part of the grounds of St Mary's Abbey. The Gallery dates from 1879. In front stands a statue of William Etty, York's foremost artist famed for countless nude studies painted in the life school of the Royal Academy. Born in York, Etty retired to to the city after a working life in London and died in 1849