The Shambles, Stonegate, St Sampson’s Square, Walmgate
A history of York through its street-names and buildings. This page, is one of a series covering historic streets and buildings in York. Here we go from ‘R to ‘W’, starting at York’s old and ‘new’ Railway stations, and continuing our alphabetical journey via the Shambles to Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate.
On the way we visit a whole church-full of saintly streets and squares such as St Andrewgate, St Saviourgate, St Helen’s Square and St Sampson’s Square. We also take in two of the city’s most famous medieval streets – Stonegate and the Shambles – with their wonderful shops and timber-framed houses, as well as exploring lesser-known thoroughfares like Walmgate, the home to Walmgate Bar, one of the York’s great gateways and the only one to retain its barbican.
Railway Station
The first York railway station was built in 1840 by G.T Andrews within the city walls a little south of Lendal Bridge and facing out to Tanner Row. The north end of the old station included its own hotel, also by Andrews, which now faces out towards the later, much larger red brick Grand Hotel of 1906.
In the neighbouring city wall there are a number of broad arches created in Victorian times through which railways and associated roads entering the old station and goods yards once passed. Today, the long redundant former station and its original station hotel have been preserved and incorporated into the new headquarters for York City Council’ called the West Offices which were constructed in 2010-2013 and can be seen from the city wall.
The old railway station had not served as a station since the 1870s because the rapid increase in railway traffic in the Victorian era quickly made it an unsuitable location. It was particularly apparent when the line from London came to be extended to Newcastle as the journey would involve trains having to reverse out to continue their journey north.
In 1877, a new railway station, the present York station, was built by Thomas Prosser nearby but just outside the city walls. At the time of its opening it was the largest railway station in the world. Prosser also built the nearby Royal Station Hotel of 1877-78 just north of his new station.
Leeman Road west of York Railway Station is home to the fabulous National Railway Museum and the street itself is named from George Leeman (1809-1882) who was a Chairman of the North Eastern Railway Company in the late 1870s.
The museum includes around 100 locomotives (both steam and diesel) along with rolling stock and thousands of other items relating to railway history. Highlights include the Flying Scotsman and Sir Nigel Gresley’s Mallard locomotive.
South of the museum is Holgate, an area of York meaning ‘street in a hollow’. It is the location of a prominent restored windmill, in working order, dating from 1770. Also in Holgate is York’s former Fallout Bunker, now a property of English Heritage. It was a monitoring station in the event of nuclear war.
Severus Hill, one of York’s highest points is another interesting Holgate location. A haven for wildlife in the city, it hosts a prominent water tower associated with a reservoir that was situated here. Severus Hill is said to be the place where Severus, the Emperor of Rome was cremated following his death at York in the year AD 211.
St Andrewgate
St Andrewgate, stretching from Aldwark to King’s Square, is named from the medieval church of St. Andrew.
This church fell into disuse in the eighteenth century when it came to be used as a stable and a brothel and is now an Evangelical church.
The street itself is something of a quiet backwater of Georgian brick houses near the centre of York and is the home of a former Drill Hall dating from 1872.
Spen Lane, an offshoot of St Andrewgate near St Andrew’s church means the ‘lane with a hedge’. It joins the south side of St Andrewgate and links the street to St Saviourgate and St Saviour’s Place.
The word ‘spen’ occurs in place-names such as Spennymoor in County Durham and Spennithorne near Leyburn in North Yorkshire.
A lost lane or street thought to have been connected to St Andrewgate was Ketmongergate, a Viking street-name that meant ‘flesh-sellers street’ but its exact location is not known. ‘Ket’ was possibly a term for sweetened, poor quality meat.
At the south western end of the street St Andrewgate meets King’s Square and Colliergate with King’s Court leading into the Shambles directly across the square from St Andrewgate.
St Helen’s Square
St Helen’s Square lies at the foot of Stonegate and is also connected to the streets of Lendal, Coney Street and Blake Street. It is linked to St Sampson’s Square by Davygate.
Buildings in St Helen’s Square are largely Victorian or neo-Georgian, but the church of St Helen, between Davygate and Stonegate, is medieval. It is this church on the east side of the square that gives the square its name. First mentioned in 1235, the church underwent some restoration in the 1500s.
On the north side of the square there are three fine ashlar buildings standing in a row. The first, on the corner with Blake Street, is the former Savings Bank building of 1829-30 and next to it with four large columns is the former Terry’s building, associated with the well-known York confectioners who were once based here.
Next to the Terry’s building is the former Yorkshire Insurance building of 1840 by G.T. Andrews, (pictured below) and opposite the three buildings, on the south side of the square, is a grand Neo-Georgian office building of 1930 whose occupants include Betty’s Tea room.
On the west side of the square is the Mansion House (see Coney Street) where Coney Street meets the street of Lendal. Behind the Mansion House, overlooking the River Ouse and clearly seen from Lendal Bridge is the Guildhall.
The Guildhall was originally built in 1447-8 for two guilds by Roger Couper on the site of an earlier guildhall dating from 1378. During a bombing raid on 29th April 1942, the Guildhall was almost completely destroyed and had to be carefully rebuilt. It reopened in 1960.
St Leonard’s Hospital, Museum Street
Museum Street adjoins the south east side of Duncombe Place near the foot of the curving St Leonard’s Place. Nearby are the Yorkshire Museum and Museum Gardens in the former grounds of St Mary’s Abbey. Museum Street heads southward towards Lendal Bridge which crosses the Ouse just to the south.
On the north side of Museum Street is the York Library and Archives building of 1927. It stands within a corner of both the old city walls and earlier Roman wall of the fortress of Eboracum near the Multangular Tower. The Yorkshire Museum and ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, beyond, are just outside the city walls.
Next to the library and within the city walls are the ruins of St Leonard’s Hospital which was the largest medieval hospital in Northern England. The remains include a vaulted passage and vaulted undercroft above which is a chapel.
Established in the eleventh century, the hospital was initially called St Peter’s Hospital but following a fire in 1137 was re-founded by King Stephen as the Hospital of St Leonard. Like all such institutions it was closed during Henry VIII’s religious reforms in the 1540s. In the later sixteenth century and following seventeenth century it was used as a Royal Mint. The name of Lendal and Lendal Bridge to the south both derive from St Leonard’s Hospital.
St Leonard’s Place
St Leonard’s Place is named from its location within what were once the grounds of St Leonard’s Hospital. The street is an attractive, sweeping crescent of twenty-seven bays built in 1844-5 by P.F. Robinson and G.T. Andrews.
Prominent, but detached from the crescent at the north end, next to Bootham Bar, are the De Grey Rooms, built by Andrews in 1841 as an officers’ mess for the Yorkshire Hussars. They are named from the regiment’s commanding officer, Thomas De Grey, the 2nd Earl De Grey (1781-1859) who raised revenue for the construction.
York Theatre Royal in St Leonard’s Place dates from 1877 and is located on the site of an earlier Georgian theatre. The theatre is said to be haunted by the ghost of a grey lady. Some say she is the spectre of a nun who frequents the area as far as Bootham Bar.
St Sampson’s Square
St Sampson’s Church which gives its name to this square, was first mentioned in 1152. The church was rebuilt in 1440-1450 and rebuilt again in 1848.
St Sampson’s Square is the largest square in York and links the streets of Feasegate, Church Street, Davygate and Parliament Street. In medieval times St Sampson’s Square was called ‘Thursday Market’ and was first mentioned around 1312.
Like the Shambles the Thursday Market was part of a district of York called ‘Marketshire’. It was, of course, the site of a market held on a Thursday.
However, the history of this spot goes back to a time long before the medieval market. Remains of a Roman bath can be found in the cellar of the Roman Bath Inn in St Sampson’s Square.
At the north west corner near the Roman Bath Inn, St Sampson’s Square is joined by Finkle Street and by a narrow nearby passageway called Nether Hornpot Lane (the lower Hornpot Lane) that leads to the ‘Minster Quarter’ of York. The meaning of the lane’s name is uncertain but may have something to do with a drinking horn.
Finkle Street derives from an old word for a ‘dog-leg’ usually from the awkward sharp angle at which it meets an adjoining street. It is almost obligatory to find a Finkle Street amongst the medieval street-names of historic northern towns and cities.
Other Finkle Streets can be found at Selby; Hemingbrough; Richmond; Stockton-on-Tees; Alnwick; Holy Island village; Bishop Auckland; Thirsk; Malton, Sheriff Hutton and at Newcastle upon Tyne where it occurs as ‘Fenkle Street’. Finchale Priory near Durham (pronounced Finkle) is so-named from its location in a dog-leg bend of the River Wear.
Parliament Street is a very wide street of modern shops built from 1835 onwards and leads from St Sampson’s Square to Piccadilly and Pavement. Parliament Street becomes Davygate in St Sampson’s Square. Like Coney Street to the south it has something of the feel of a typical high street.
Before the street was built there were crowded markets in St Sampson’s Square to its north and also near All Saints church in Pavement to its south. A new wide street was created following an act of Parliament in 1833 (hence the name Parliament Street) which brought into force the removal of buildings and clutter.
Parliament Street would become the main focal point for York’s street markets until they were moved in 1955 to the neighbouring Jubbergate and Shambles area.
Church Street, once called ‘Girdlegate’ was ‘the girdle maker’s street’, but now takes its name from St Sampson’s Church which is located at the southern end of the street near St Sampson’s Square.
At its south end Church Street is joined by Silver Street then midway along is joined by Swinegate on its north side and by Patrick Pool on the opposing side of the road.
The northern end of Church Street ends at its meeting with Goodramgate, Low Petergate and King’s Square.
St Saviourgate and St Saviour’s Place
St. Saviourgate runs north from Colliergate and Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate to St Saviour’s Place and Spen Lane.
It is named from St Saviour’s Church, founded in 1090, but completely rebuilt in the fifteenth century. New aisles were added to this church in the 1840s and it is now used by The York Archeological Trust.
St Saviourgate is home to several neat Georgian houses and is also the setting for St. Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel of 1693; the oldest non-conformist church in York.
The chapel is near the north end of St Saviourgate near the street’s junction with Spen Lane and St Saviour’s Place. Spen Lane is linked to St Andrewgate to the north. St. Saviour’s Place links St Saviourgate to Aldwark and Peaseholme Green.
Back in St Saviourgate, towards the Colliergate end of the street is the prominent Central Methodist church of 1839-40, built by James Simpson of Leeds as the Centenary Methodist Church. It has a portico of four Ionic columns.
The church of St Saviour itself is situated about half way along St Saviourgate. Close by is the entrance to Lady Hewley’s Almshouses that were built in 1840 by the York architect J.P Pritchett, the father of the Darlington architect, J.P Pritchett junior.
Lady Sarah Hewley (1627-1710), who is commemorated with a blue plaque on a neighbouring Georgian house on the site of her home, was founder of the original almshouses and established the nearby unitarian chapel.
Opposite the church and almshouses is a Masonic Hall that was built in 1846 as the Institute for Popular Science and Literature. Purchased by a freemasons lodge in 1882 it reopened as a Masonic Hall in 1884.
The Shambles
The Shambles are undoubtedly York’s most famous street and were, in medieval times, the heart of a York district called ‘Marketshire’. In the medieval era, the street’s old name was recorded as ‘Market Shire alias Flesh Shambles’.
Flesh ‘shambles’ were benches or stalls where meat was sold. Today, this charming street is still brimming with character, although Nikolaus Pevsner, the architectural historian, perhaps unfairly described it as ‘over-restored and twee’.
The Shambles is a relatively short street. At its northern end we find King’s Square and the adjoining street of Newgate. Behind the west side of the street are the stalls of the present day Shambles Market. These lively, colourful stalls extend into neighbouring Silver Street, Newgate and Jubbergate.
Shambles Market can be reached from the Shambles itself via Newgate or from the Little Shambles or from any one of three little passageways or ‘ginnels’ between the houses on the west side of the street.
Little Shambles is near the north end of the street and has a particularly pleasing timber-framed house on the corner.
A little to the south on the same side of the Shambles as Little Shambles are two ginnels near the house of Margaret Clitherow that lead to the market stalls. Another ginnel (actually a broader yard) also leads into the market from the south end of the street.
At this south end of the street a little before the Shambles meets with Pavement there is another narrow ginnel called Saint Crux Passage, over on the east side of the street. It cuts along the north side of St Crux and emerges in Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate.
The timber-framed houses of York’s Shambles, with their over-hanging upper storeys have a distinct medieval character and their popularity with tourists make them a setting for many quaint shops.
There is an interesting array of shops here including one that ‘must not be named’ taking on a Harry Potter theme and another that is a popular ‘ghost merchant’ selling ghosts.
The Margaret Clitherow House, half way along the street on Shambles’ west side commemorates Margaret Clitherow (1556-1586) who may have actually lived opposite. Margaret was a Roman Catholic martyr who was executed on Ouse Bridge for harbouring Roman Catholic priests at a time when Catholicism was outlawed.
Born Margaret Middleton, she was the daughter of a York chandler who had once served as Sheriff of York. She married a Shambles butcher called John Clitherow, a Protestant, and they resided in the street with their family. Here, in 1586, her house was raided and a priest hole (a hiding place for priests was uncovered).
Margaret, who was pregnant, was arrested and tried. She was given the brutal punishment of being crushed on York’s old Ouse Bridge. She was positioned on a small, sharp stone designed to break her back. The front door of her house was then placed upon her and it was slowly loaded with heavy rocks and stones until she perished.
Interlinked with The Shambles are the narrow streets of Newgate, Silver Street and Patrick Pool which, along with King’s Square and Jubbergate, form one of the busy historic hubs at the heart of York.
In historic times there was also a Haymongergate somewhere hereabouts that formed part of the Shambles with a name meaning ‘hay merchant’s street’. The Shambles outdoor market stalls form a little centre for shopping for items, ranging from fresh fish and fudge to hats and handbags.
Newgate runs along the north and western edge of the market joining the northern end of Shambles and linking Silver Street to King’s Square. It is joined on its north west side by Patrick Pool.
Jubbergate, which approaches the south west side of the Shambles area from Parliament Street (see St Sampson’s Square above) is lined with market stalls that make up part of the Shambles Market.
Skeldergate and Skeldergate Bridge
Skeldergate, along the western bank of the River Ouse has a Viking name meaning ‘the shield-maker’s street’. It stretches northward from Skeldergate Bridge in the Baile Hill area to Micklegate, Bridge Street and North Street, at the western end of Ouse Bridge.
We begin at Skeldergate Bridge, built in 1881 by Thomas Page. Like his Lendal Bridge, it is constructed of iron with Gothic details. Skeldergate Bridge links the two sides of the River Ouse, from Bishopgate Street on the west bank, to the Clifford’s Tower area over on the east bank.
The street of Skeldergate has a number of apartments situated above the river, in what was a warehousing area. Beginning at the south end of the street is Baile Hill, the site of a Norman castle near a corner of the city wall. It once complemented Clifford’s Tower over on the other side of the river.
Slightly further along Skeldergate, but still near Skeldergate Bridge, is Terry Avenue leading to the riverside from the rear of the Bonding Warehouse on the banks of the River Ouse.
Still continuing along Skeldergate we reach a hotel that that was formerly two almshouses. One of these almshouses, built as the ‘Ann Middleton Hospital’ was founded in 1659 by Ann Middleton, to care for twenty widows of the York Freemen.
After demolition in 1827 it was rebuilt in 1829 and set back from the street. The statue of a puritan on the building’s front may be from the original almshouse.
Right in front of the former Middleton Almshouses are two cottages of another former almshouse, the Terry Memorial Almshouses of 1899 by the architect W.G Penty. It commemorates the confectioner Joseph Terry (1828-1898) who was the driving force behind the success of the Terrys chocolate company.
He was the son of another Joseph Terry (died 1850) who had established a confectionery shop near Bootham Bar in 1767 that later relocated to St Helen’s Square in 1818. Under Joseph Terry junior the business, moved to a factory established in the Clementhorpe area of York.
Further still along Skeldergate two short roads lead down to the riverside area of the Ouse called Queen’s Staith where we find apartments occupying a former warehouse at Woodsmill Quay.
Continuing further still along Skeldergate, the street is joined on its west side by Fetter Lane which links Skeldergate to Bishophill and St Martin’s Lane (see Micklegate). Fetter Lane was originally ‘Feltergate’ meaning ‘street of the felters’.
Just beyond the meeting with Fetter Lane, the street of Skeldergate reaches its northern terminus where it meets Micklegate, Bridge Street and North Street.
Spurriergate
Spurriergate was originally Little Coney Street and its name means ‘street of the spur-maker’. St Michael’s church in Spurriergate was first mentioned in 1088 and rebuilt in Victorian times. It has some notable stained glass.
Stonegate
Stonegate means ‘the stone-paved street’. The element ‘gate’ is of course ‘gata’ from the Viking word for a street. In Roman times a road called the Via Praetoria within the legionary fortress of Eboracum followed the course of this street and it is possible the Roman stone-paved street survived into Viking times. Another view is that stone was carted along this route for the building of York Minster.
Stonegate is a long, narrow street and one of the most attractive and characterful in York. St. Helen’s Square is at the south western end of the street while High Petergate and the Minster Gates are at the north eastern end. The street is narrow but not too narrow, with plenty of interesting buildings, both Georgian and timber-framed.
The Roman Via Praetoria crossed the Ouse by means of a bridge, near to where the Guildhall now stands just to the south of the present Lendal Bridge. Roman legions certainly marched this way, so Stonegate is definitely one of those streets in York where you get a real sense of walking in the footsteps of two-thousand years of history.
Some of the timber-framed buildings in the street are rendered, so that the actual timber-framing is hidden from view but the overhangs of buildings above shop windows often give them away.
Starting from the High Petergate end of Stonegate, the first group of rendered timber-framed houses are on the north side of the street. Continuing along the street, features of several other shop fronts in Stonegate are attractive with some featuring bowed windows. Attractive too are the range of shops, many of which are both charming and interesting.
Further along the street, the western end of the first group of rendered houses includes a narrow passageway or ‘ginnel’ that is intriguingly headed ‘Trembling Madness Apartments’. ‘Trembling Madness’ is thought to be a reference to the dangers of drink, dating back to a time of insanitary conditions, when ale was safer to drink than water.
This Trembling Madness ginnel leads to the remains of a very rare old house; a Norman house of the eleventh century. Along the ginnel and hidden away to the rear of Stonegate, it is the oldest dwelling house in York.
Back in Stonegate, opposite the entrance to the ginnel, is an impressive shop front with a large colourful shield above its intricate window. A couple of doors along on the same side as the shop with the shield in the direction of York Minster, is number forty-one Stonegate, while in the opposite direction also a couple of doors along is number thirty-five, both of which claim to be haunted.
Number 41, an antiques centre, is claimed to be haunted by the ghost of a little girl. Said to be the daughter of a doctor, she apparently slipped down the stairs to her death, while eave’s dropping on one of her father’s evening social gatherings, when she should have been in bed.
Number 35, also a shop, has several ghosts. They include a Georgian lady; a bald monk; a sobbing woman in the basement; a gentleman called ‘Tall Tom’ and a ghostly cat. We should say we are not particularly big believers in ghosts but do once recall feeling a very curious, sudden and unexpected chill accompanied by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, one day, while walking along Stonegate at the Minster Gates end of the street.
Further along from these haunted shops, the beam spanning the street, high above, with the name Ye Olde Starre Inn comes into view but it might distract from another intriguing feature, the figure of a ‘printers’ devil’ below, on the south side of the street.
‘Printer’s Devil’ was an old term for a printer’s apprentice, supposedly because they became so stained with ink. So the red devil came to be symbols of the printing industry. This particular emblem marked the site of a print works that once operated here.
The little devil can be seen alongside the entrance to a ginnel called Coffee Yard that was formerly known as Langton Lane. It is worth exploring this passageway which take us to the Swinegate end of Grape Lane. A little over halfway along the ginnel between Stonegate and Grape Lane is a significant, timber-framed house called Barley Hall (see Grape Lane).
Back in Stonegate, Ye Old Starre Inn, is reputedly the oldest public house in York and dates from the seventeenth century. The pub is reached along a yard on the north side of the street and is actually situated next to a masonic hall that overlooks the memorial garden in Duncombe Place just to the north.
It will come as no surprise to learn that Ye Old Starre Inn claims to be haunted. Its ghostly residents include an old lady dressed in black, who descends the stairs and the ghosts of two black cats. Like St Williams College it is also said to be haunted by soldiers from the Civil War who suffered amputations here without anaesthetics, when the building supposedly served as a makeshift hospital.
In Stonegate itself, a little further along the street, on the south side, is the substantial timber-framed house called Mulberry Hall at number 17 Stonegate. On the opposite side of the street is a plaque recording that the parents of the gunpowder plotter, Guy Fawkes, lived in the street around about here. It is likely that this was Guido Fawkes’ birthplace rather than High Petergate.
Further still along the street, on the south side we meet the junction of the streets of Stonegate and Little Stonegate. Little Stonegate is another narrow street and leads south to Back Swinegate.
Half way along Little Stonegate, the large grey stone and brick building on the south side is a former Ebenezer Chapel of 1851 but is now a bar.
Returning to Stonegate proper, there are more neat-looking shop fronts and old buildings with overhangs such as the Punch Bowl Inn before the street finally comes to an end at St Helen’s Square with Blake Street to the right and Davygate to the left.
Swinegate
Swinegate was known in Viking and medieval times as Swinegail, means ‘lane where swine were kept’.
Swinegate also once included the street now called Little Stonegate that we have mentioned above. Swinegate is linked to Grape Lane, Patrick Pool and Stonegate.
The Stonebow
The Stonebow’s name probably refers to an arch that once crossed the street. The street links Pavement to Peaseholme Green.
Walmgate and Walmgate Bar
Walmgate is thought to mean the street belonging to someone called Walba. It is an eastern continuation of Fossgate but lies entirely on the east side of the River Foss. It is linked to Fossgate across the river by the Foss Bridge.
At the north end of Walmgate, just before it reaches Foss Bridge, Walmgate is joined on its south side by the short street of Merchantgate linking Walmgate to that part of Piccadilly south of the River Foss.
The Red Lion in Merchantgate sometimes claims to be York’s oldest pub but has only been a pub since the nineteenth century. More accurately it seems to be the oldest building in York that is still functioning as a pub.
Built on thirteenth century foundations, the building is mostly fourteenth and fifteenth century with early seventeenth century wings. A bread oven in the front bar is said to be of the thirteenth century and there is a priest hole on the first floor that was a hiding place for priests during times of Catholic repression.
At Merchantgate’s south end, Piccadilly, like Walmgate and Fossgate crosses the River Foss over a little bridge near the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall.
The main medieval features in Walmgate are St Deny’s Church, St Margaret’s church and Walmgate Bar. St Denys church was first mentioned in the early twelfth century but its spire was removed in 1798. The church has a Norman doorway, as does St Margaret’s church further to the east.
St Margaret’s was first mentioned in 1180 and has a brick western tower dating from 1684. It underwent much rebuilding in the nineteenth century.
Situated in a secluded spot away from Walmgate to the north of the street, this church is now the Centre for Early Music.
A notable feature of Walmgate is a timber-framed house called Bowes Morrell House that has a history dating back to 1396. It was extended in the sixteenth and seventeenth century but the name of the house is not an historic one.
The house was acquired by the York Civic Trust in 1966, then restored and named after one of the Trust’s founders and leading conservationists, John Bowes Morrell (1873-1963) who was twice Lord Mayor of York.
A little further along the street, heading towards the city centre, is another timber-framed building opposite the offices of the City of York’s newspaper, The York Evening Press. Then, further along still, just before we reach Foss Bridge and head into Fossgate is a prominent building of 1812 that was once Dorothy Wilson’s Hospital and school house.
This began as an almshouse and schoolroom in 1719 but was subsequently rebuilt during the middle of the eighteenth century before it was rebuilt again in 1812.
Walmgate Bar
Walmgate’s most significant historic feature is Walmgate Bar down at the other end of the street. This is the most easterly gateway on the city walls of York and dates from the fourteenth century, although some parts are Elizabethan dating from 1580.
Like the other city wall gateways of Bootham Bar, Micklegate Bar and Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar still has ‘Bartizans’ or little rounded towers on the top.
What makes Walmgate Bar particularly special, is that unlike the other gateways it has retained its extensive Barbican, the arched extended outer wall extending along the road, providing extra protection. A moat once passed beneath this barbican.
The barbican which was added to the bar during the fourteenth century contained two sets of gates enabling assailants to be trapped between them.
Within the city wall on the western face of Walmgate Bar there is a remarkable wooden timber-framed building that was built during the reign of Elizabeth I. Extraordinarily, Walmgate was long lived in as a house, with tenants recorded here as early as 1376. People were still living here as recently as 1957.
Walmgate Bar still retains its portcullis and fifteenth century wooden gates. As with many key locations along the wall there is an helpful information board describing its history which notes that Walmgate Bar is the most complete gateway through the city wall.
The oldest part of Walmgate Bar is a twelfth century archway that was part of a small gateway that existed here before the city walls were built, when the city was surrounded by earth ramparts.
Outside the city wall, beyond the bar, the street of Walmgate is called Lawrence Street, although this was originally also part of Walmgate. The main historic feature here is St Lawrence Church, which has a medieval tower.
Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate
Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate is the shortest street in York but has the longest name and a rather curious one at that. It connects to Colliergate and St Saviourgate and at its south end meets with Fossgate, Pavement and the Stonebow.
The little street of Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate stands next to St Crux Parish Hall (a former church) on the boundary wall of which we find the street’s much-photographed street sign. Upon the wall of St Crux itself a plaque says the name Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate was recorded in 1505 as ‘Whitnourwhatnourgate’ and claims this means “what a street!”
Other theories suggest it means ‘neither one thing nor another’ perhaps related to the northern expression ‘neither nout nor summat’. Further old versions of the street-name that appear in old records of 1546 and 1588 include ‘Whipman Whapmangate’, ‘Whipney-Whapneygate’ and ‘Whitman Whatmangate’, although the present name is undoubtedly the most fun.
One idea is that the strange and cruel local medieval custom of whipping small yelping dogs called Whappets was thought to have been observed here on St Luke’s Day. A whappet was a kind of yelping dog. Presumably the name of the present day dogs called whippets, popular with miners, derive from this old name.
The ‘Whipman’ element in some of the old spellings of Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate could refer to the ‘whipper’ (whipman) and the ‘whap’ which would refer to the dog’s bark – “Whip! Whap! Whip! Whap!” making Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate an onomatopoeic street-name
A variation of this idea could be explained by a whipping post and pillory that were seemingly situated here for the punishment of offenders. The whipping of miscreants could have been compared to the whipping of dogs. Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate lies at the south end of Colliergate.
- A-B : Aldwark to Bootham
- C-E : Castlegate, Coppergate, Exhibition Square
- F-J : Fossgate, Fishergate, Goodramgate
- K-L : King Street, King’s Square, Lord Mayor’s Walk
- M-O : Marygate, the abbey, Micklegate, Ousegate
- P : Patrick Pool, Pavement, High and Low Petergate
- S-W : Shambles, Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate
- Y : York City Walls | York Minster | York Origins
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Places around York
Acaster Malbis
Acaster means the site of a Roman fort which was later aquired by and Anglo-Saxon called Aca. After the Norman conquest the manor was owned by the Malbis family.
Acomb
Acomb derives from the Anglo Saxon Akum which means oaks, um being an Anglo-Saxon plural. There are two Acombs in the north, near Hexham and near York.
Appleton Roebuck
The name Appleton indicates an Anglo-Saxon farm where apples grew. Roebuck derives from Rabuk, the name of a man who owned the place in the fourteenth century.
Askham Bryan
Askham mean the homestead near the ash trees. Bryan son of Scolland was a thirteenth century owner.
Askham Richard
Thought to be named after Richard Duke of Cornwall in the thirteenth century
Bishopthorpe
Bishopthorpe lies about three miles south of York on the western bank of the River Ouse. Originally a village called Thorpe St Andrew, it was bought by an Archnbishop of York called Walter De Grey in 1230 who rebuilt the manor house as a place of residence which became Bishopthorpe Palace. This was rebuilt and extended by successive Archbishops over the centuries and extended in the eighteenth century. Bishopthorpe Palace is still the official residence of the Archbishop of York today.
Cawood
This means Wood of the Jackdaw. It was the medieval residence of the Archbishops of York who resided at Cawood Castle.
Copmanthorpe
Means village of the chapmen – the traders’ thorpe.
Dringhouses
Dringhouses is a souther subburb of York which has a Scandinavian name meaning the houses of the Drengs. A Dreng was a free tenant holding land by tenure older than the Norman conquest. Dreng could also mean ‘lad’ or ‘servant’. Goddards House in Dringhouses is a Tudoresque house dating from 1926
Heslington
Heslington lies on the south eastern outskirts of York near Walmgate Stray. It is the home of York University.
Sheriff Hutton
Once held by Bertram Bulmer, the Sheriff of York who died in 1166.
Strensall
A puzzling name which is often compared to the ancient name of Whitby.
Tockwith
This means Tocca’s Vithr, the wood belonging to Tocca.
Upper Poppleton
Poppleton is thought to mean the pebbly farm.