York (population 209,900; in North Yorkshire, England; at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss, 30 km from the North Sea coast and 185 km north of London) is one of the most historically layered cities in England: founded as the Roman fortress city of Eboracum in 71 CE (the largest Roman fortress in Britain — the 2nd Legion fortress that became the capital of Roman Britain north of the Humber; the city where the Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus died in 306 CE and his son Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor by the army, making York the city where the Roman emperor who would Christianize the empire was declared — the most politically significant event in York's Roman history); conquered by the Danish Great Heathen Army in 866 CE and renamed Jorvik (the Viking city of Jorvik (866-954 CE) was the capital of the Danelaw — the Danish-controlled zone of northern and eastern England: the Jorvik that the Vikings built in the Coppergate area (modern Coppergate Walk) was the largest Viking settlement outside Scandinavia, and the archaeological excavations of 1976-1981 (the Coppergate excavations by the York Archaeological Trust) uncovered the most complete and best-preserved Viking Age urban archaeological site in the world — the waterlogged conditions preserving not only the wooden Viking buildings but the organic materials (leather shoes, cloth, food, human parasites, timber structures) that normally decay); a medieval city with the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (the York Minster — the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York: the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe by floor area (5,500 m²) and volume; the building whose 14th century Great West Window (the "Heart of Yorkshire" window: 24 lights, 8 m wide, 7.9 m tall) and 14th-15th century Great East Window (the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world (2,000 figures, 311 scenes from Genesis and Revelation): 56 panels, 23.8 m × 9.4 m — the area of a tennis court) represent the apogee of English Perpendicular Gothic stained glass); a city enclosed within the most complete circuit of medieval city walls in England (the York city walls — the "Bar Walls": 3.4 km of walkable medieval walls, following the line of the original Roman fortress walls (the Roman stones are visible in the foundations of the medieval walls at several points), with four intact medieval gatehouses (the "Bars": Bootham Bar (the north gate, the only surviving Roman arch in any English city gate), Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar (the only surviving English city gate with its barbican intact — the defensive outwork in front of the gate) and Micklegate Bar (the ceremonial southern gate through which English monarchs traditionally enter York).
York Minster (the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York — the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second highest office in the Church of England (after the Archbishop of Canterbury); the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe by floor area (5,500 m²) and the third largest cathedral in Northern Europe after Cologne and Seville): the building history (the current York Minster was built in phases from 1220 (the Early English Gothic south transept) to 1472 (the completion of the central tower): the south transept (1220-1241: the "Five Sisters" window — the five lancet windows, each 16 m tall, filled with 13th century grisaille glass (the grey-green monochrome glass (the "grisaille" technique — the geometric patterns in natural-coloured clear glass with iron oxide painting) of 1250 CE: the oldest complete stained glass set in the Minster and the most important English 13th century grisaille glass)); the chapter house (1260-1285: the most elaborately carved Gothic chapter house in England — the 15 m diameter octagonal chapter house with the vaulted ceiling supported on a single central column; the carved stone figures in the niches (over 200 carved heads, grotesques and foliage bosses)); the nave (1291-1340: the Decorated Gothic nave — the widest Gothic nave in England (15.6 m)); the Great East Window (the Perpendicular Gothic east window completed c. 1408 by John Thornton of Coventry — the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world: the window (23.8 m × 9.4 m — the area of a tennis court) depicting in 311 panels the complete narrative of Genesis (from the Creation) and Revelation (the Apocalypse): 2,000 individual figures; the Minster undercroft (the undercroft excavations of 1967-1972 (the engineering project to underpin the central tower that was subsiding into the Roman and Norman foundations): the most important Roman and early medieval archaeology in York — the Roman Eboracum column bases (4 surviving columns from the basilica of the Roman legionary fortress), the Norman archbishop's great hall foundation).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Shambles (the most famous street in York and one of the most complete surviving medieval streets in England; named from the Old English "Fleshammels" — the "flesh-shelves": the wooden benches projecting from the shop fronts on which butchers displayed their meat (the word "shambles" in modern English meaning disorder derives from the chaotic appearance of butchers' markets)): the street (the Shambles is a narrow cobbled lane (approximately 80 m long, 2 m wide at the narrowest point) in the heart of the York city centre (between Goodramgate in the north and the Shambles Market in the south): the most characteristic features: the overhanging upper storeys (the jetted construction — the upper floors of the medieval buildings project over the lower floors by up to 1 m on each side, so that the upper floors of houses on opposite sides of the street nearly touch (the widest gap between the overhanging upper floors of facing buildings on the narrowest section of the Shambles is approximately 90 cm)); the buildings (the medieval buildings on the Shambles date primarily from the 14th-15th centuries: the timber-framed construction (the oak frame, the wattle-and-daub infill panels); the Shambles is the most photographed street in York (described by the American travel writer Bill Bryson as "the most perfect medieval street I have ever seen")); the history (the Shambles was a butchers' street from at least the 10th century (the Domesday Book of 1086 records the Shambles as "Fleshambles") until the early 20th century (the last butcher's shop closed on the Shambles in 1955)); the Margaret Clitherow Shrine (the shrine to Saint Margaret Clitherow (1556-1586) at No. 35 the Shambles: the Catholic martyr who was pressed to death on Good Friday 1586 (the peine forte et dure — the torture by pressing with heavy stones) for harbouring Catholic priests during the Elizabethan persecution of English Catholics: canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideYork City Walls walk (the Bar Walls — the 3.4 km circuit of medieval walls surrounding the historic core of York: the most complete circuit of medieval city walls in England and one of the most complete in Western Europe): the history (the York walls follow the line of the Roman fortress walls of Eboracum (71-400 CE): the Roman walls (the original Roman wall was a rectangular fortress enclosure (490 m × 440 m) built in stone from c. 300 CE replacing the earlier earth and timber ramparts): the Roman stones are visible in the wall foundations at the Multangular Tower (the octagonal corner tower of the Roman fort in the Museum Gardens — the best-preserved Roman tower in Britain, 10 m high, c. 300 CE) and at several other points on the circuit; the medieval reconstruction (the medieval walls were built from the 13th century (the Angevin period) on the Roman foundations: the limestone ashlar walls (1.5-2 m thick, 3-5 m high) with the sentry walk (the "wallwalk") on top); the four Bars (the medieval gatehouses — the "Bars"): Bootham Bar (the north gate — built on the Roman gateway arch (the largest surviving Roman stone arch in any English city gate): the barbican was demolished in 1832 but the medieval arch gateway survives); Monk Bar (the most complete — the four-storey gatehouse with the original portcullis still in working condition: the Richard III museum is housed in the Monk Bar gatehouse); Walmgate Bar (the south-east gate — the only city gate in England with its barbican (the defensive outwork in front of the gate) intact: the outer face of the gate still shows the fire damage from the English Civil War (1644 Siege of York)); Micklegate Bar (the south-west gate — the ceremonial gate through which monarchs traditionally entered York: the heads of traitors were displayed on the battlements (the heads of Lancastrian nobles executed after the Battle of Wakefield (1460) were displayed here during the Wars of the Roses)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBetty's Tea Room York (the most famous café in northern England; on St Helen's Square opposite the Mansion House (the Lord Mayor's residence): the tea room founded in 1919 by the Swiss confectioner Frederick Belmont (born Fritz Bützer in Thun, Switzerland in 1885; emigrated to England c. 1907; founded the first Betty's in Harrogate in 1919 (the Harrogate Betty's is the original and flagship branch: the art deco café with the Louis XVI-inspired interior designed by the designers of the RMS Queen Mary ocean liner)): the York Betty's (the York St Helen's Square branch opened 1936): the interior (the carved oak room in the York Betty's: the 1930s interior with the carved oak staircase, the mirrors engraved with the signatures of the RAF airmen from the World War II (the Yorkshire aircrews who flew from the North Yorkshire bases (RAF Linton-on-Ouse, RAF Elvington, RAF Driffield) carved their signatures into the mirror of the downstairs bar before departing on bombing missions over Germany — the York Betty's was the most popular servicemen's café of World War II in the north); the menu (the Betty's menu: the most famous items: the Fat Rascal (the Betty's signature scone — the large, irregularly-shaped fruit scone with the glazed cherry and almond decoration, baked daily at the Betty's Bakery in Harrogate (the same bakery that supplies all 6 Betty's branches)); the Yorkshire Tea (the Betty's house blend (Assam, Darjeeling and Kenyan teas); served in the traditional Yorkshire fashion (the pot of tea, the strainer, the hot water jug, the milk jug)); the Afternoon Tea (the full Betty's Afternoon Tea: tiered stand with finger sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise), scones with clotted cream and jam, pastries and cakes)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideJorvik Viking Centre (in Coppergate, the heart of the former Viking city of Jorvik; one of the most visited archaeological museums in the United Kingdom): the archaeology (the Coppergate excavations of 1976-1981 — the most significant urban Viking Age excavation ever conducted: the York Archaeological Trust excavated the site of the future Coppergate shopping centre and found the best-preserved Viking Age urban environment in the world: the waterlogged conditions of the York riverine soil (the peat and clay deposited by the rivers Ouse and Foss at the Coppergate site) preserved organic materials that are normally lost in dry soil conditions: the Viking-era wooden buildings (the complete plans of the Viking-era Coppergate workshops — the timber tenements (the individual craftsmen's buildings) of the 10th century Jorvik: the most important architectural evidence for Viking urban building types); the leather (1,000+ leather shoes, leather scraps (the leatherworkers' workshop of Coppergate — the largest collection of Viking Age leather ever found in a single excavation), the leather helmets, the leather book covers); the textiles (the woollen textiles, the silk headband (a fragment of Byzantine silk woven in Constantinople — evidence of the Varangian trade route from York through Russia to Constantinople and the Middle East), the linen), the wood (1,000+ wooden objects including the bowls, cups and tools turned on the pole-lathe (the Coppergate pole-lathe evidence is the most important archaeological documentation of Viking wood-turning technology); the experience (the museum: the reconstructed Viking street (the "time car" ride through the reconstructed 10th century Coppergate with the animatronic Viking figures speaking reconstructed Old Norse); the artefact gallery with the original excavated objects (the most remarkable: the Coppergate Helmet (the 8th century Anglo-Saxon helmet found in 1982 — now in the Yorkshire Museum): the finest surviving Anglo-Saxon helmet and the most important Dark Ages metalwork find in northern England).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational Railway Museum (the NRM — in Leeman Road, adjacent to York Station; the largest railway museum in the world (the NRM covers 20,000 m² of exhibition space in 4 halls); part of the Science Museum Group (the national museum of science and technology)): the collection (the NRM holds the most important collection of railway history in the world: 108 locomotives, 130 items of rolling stock, 2 million photographs, 1 million documents and 7,000 railway artefacts): the most important objects: the LNER Class A4 No. 4468 Mallard (the Mallard — the steam locomotive that holds the world speed record for a steam locomotive: 202.58 km/h (125.88 mph) achieved on July 3, 1938 on the Stoke Bank descent (Grantham-Peterborough, the East Midlands of England): the record was set under the direct supervision of the LNER Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Nigel Gresley (the designer of the streamlined A4 Pacific (the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement): the most beautiful steam locomotive design in British railway history): the Mallard achieves the speed while hauling a 240-tonne test train on a 1.5% downhill gradient (the Stoke Bank gradient): the record has stood for 86 years and is unlikely ever to be broken by a steam locomotive); the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train (the Japanese National Railways Series 0 bullet train (0系新幹線 — the first-generation Shinkansen of 1964): one of the 1964 Series 0 cars is on permanent display at the NRM York: the most important non-British railway artefact in the collection); the Royal Train collection (the NRM holds the largest collection of royal railway saloons in the world: the Queen Adelaide's saloon (1842 — the oldest surviving royal railway carriage in the world (the carriage built for Queen Adelaide (the consort of King William IV) for the opening of the Great Western Railway); Victoria's royal saloon (1869 — the largest and most elaborately appointed (the GWR-built "Saloon No. 1": the clerestory-roofed 12-wheel saloon with the elaborate gilded interior panelling)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideClifford's Tower (the principal surviving element of York Castle; on Castle Street adjacent to the Castle Museum in central York): the history (the original York Castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068-1069 (one of two motte-and-bailey castles William built in York: the castle was burned in 1069 during the Harrying of the North (the Norman military campaign of 1069-1070 that systematically destroyed the agricultural infrastructure of northern England in reprisal for a Northumbrian uprising, killing an estimated 100,000 people and causing a famine that depopulated large areas of Yorkshire); the current stone tower (the quatrefoil (four-lobed) plan tower on the 20 m motte (mound) was built between 1245 and 1272 under Henry III: the quatrefoil plan (the unique plan among English medieval towers — the only four-apse plan tower in England) was chosen because the earlier round tower had collapsed (the mound had subsided): the "Clifford's Tower" name (from Roger de Clifford, the Lancastrian nobleman hanged in chains from the tower in 1322 after the Battle of Boroughbridge)); the 1190 massacre (the most historically significant event in the tower's history: the Massacre of York (March 16-17, 1190 — the night of Shabbat before Shabbat HaGadol (the Great Sabbath before Passover)): the Jewish community of York (approximately 150 people, one of the largest Jewish communities in England outside London — established in York from the 1160s) took shelter in the royal castle (the earlier timber keep on the motte) when threatened by a violent mob (the anti-Jewish riots motivated by economic grievances, anti-Crusade extremism and debts owed to Jewish moneylenders); the castle caught fire (either accidentally or by deliberate Jewish act to prevent capture): the majority of the community died in the fire or killed themselves (the kiddush hashem — the martyrdom to avoid forced conversion) rather than surrender to the mob).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideYork food and pub evening (the most characteristic Yorkshire food traditions and the historic pub culture of one of England's great historic cities): the Yorkshire pudding (the Yorkshire pudding — the most important culinary contribution of Yorkshire to English cuisine: the pudding baked from a simple batter of flour, eggs and milk (identical to the crepe/pancake batter) in a hot fat in a very hot oven (230°C) until it rises dramatically into the hollow, crisp-edged, soft-centred cup shape: the Yorkshire pudding (originally served before the roast meat course to fill diners up and reduce consumption of the expensive roast (the frugal original purpose) — now served with the Sunday roast as an accompaniment or as the traditional "Yorkshire pudding wrap" — the Yorkshire pudding split open and filled with roast beef and onion gravy (the most popular street food in York on Sundays))); the parkin (the Yorkshire parkin — the most characteristically Yorkshire baked good: the dense, moist, sticky gingerbread (the oatmeal-and-treacle gingerbread from the West and North Riding of Yorkshire traditions) baked for Bonfire Night (November 5) and the autumn period: the key ingredients (the treacle (black treacle — the darkest grade of molasses; the most flavour-intense sweetener in British baking), the oatmeal (the pin oat or coarse oatmeal from the Yorkshire Dales oat-growing tradition), the ground ginger and the stem ginger)); the historic pubs (the oldest pub in York: the Golden Fleece (on Pavement, York — one of the candidates for the oldest pub in York (17th century building, reputedly haunted by the ghost of "Lady Alice Peckett"), near the Shambles); the Ye Olde Starre Inne (on Stonegate — the oldest licensed pub in York with continuous licensing records from 1644 (the English Civil War period; Royalist troops were stationed in the pub during the 1644 Siege of York)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideYorkshire Museum (on Museum Street, in the Museum Gardens — the most important regional museum in northern England; part of the York Museums Trust): the setting (the Yorkshire Museum is housed in the Greek Revival building of 1829 (the architect William Wilkins — who also designed the National Gallery in London): the building in the York Museum Gardens (10 acres of landscaped public gardens containing the ruins of the St Mary's Abbey, the Multangular Tower (the 300 CE Roman corner tower of the Eboracum fortress), and the St Leonard's Hospital ruins (the medieval hospital founded by King Athelstan in 936 CE)): the Yorkshire Museum Gardens are one of the finest urban garden ruins in England (the St Mary's Abbey ruins (the Benedictine abbey founded 1088 by William Rufus, dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539) form the most spectacular medieval ruin in central York)); the collection (the Yorkshire Museum holds the most important collection of Roman, Viking and medieval artefacts from York): the Roman collection (the Roman Eboracum (the most important Roman artefacts from York): the Ivory Bangle Lady (the skull and associated jewellery of a high-status Roman-period woman (c. 350 CE): the isotopic analysis of the bone chemistry indicates she was born in North Africa and came to Roman York as an adult — the most widely cited evidence for the ethnic diversity of Roman York); the Viking collection (the Coppergate Helmet (the 8th century Anglo-Saxon helmet with the iron nasal bar and cheek plates, the brass nose guard, and the mail coif riveted to the helmet rim (the finest surviving Anglo-Saxon helmet in Britain)); the medieval collection (the Middleham Jewel — the 15th century gold pendant with a sapphire set in the centre and the image of the Trinity on the front and the nativity scene on the back: the most important piece of English Gothic goldsmithing surviving outside a royal collection).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideYork Castle Museum (in the two former debtor's prisons of York Castle (the Female Prison (1780) and the Male Prison (1705, rebuilt 1777)); the most visited museum in York and one of the most visited regional museums in England): the collection (the York Castle Museum was founded in 1938 by Dr John Kirk (1847-1940) who spent 40 years collecting the objects of everyday rural and urban Yorkshire life (the tools, the domestic equipment, the clothing, the signs and the shop fittings) that were being discarded as Yorkshire industrialised: the Kirk Collection is the largest single collection of English everyday objects from the Victorian period): the Kirkgate (the most famous exhibit: the reconstructed Victorian street (the "Kirkgate") inside the museum — the indoor street built to 1/4 scale representing the commercial streetscape of a Yorkshire market town of the 1880s-1890s: the reconstructed shop fronts (the ironmonger's, the confectioner's, the haberdashery, the print shop, the chemist, the tobacconist, the gunsmith and the pawnbroker) with the original shop fittings from dismantled Yorkshire shops (the original gas street lamps, the cobblestones, the shop signage); the Halfpenny Street (the reconstructed Edwardian street of the 1910s-1920s adjacent to the Kirkgate: the contrast between the prosperous Victorian Kirkgate and the poorer Edwardian urban environment); the Dick Turpin cell (the Dick Turpin (1705-1739) cell: the highwayman Dick Turpin (the most famous English highwayman and the subject of the popular legend of the ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess (which did not actually happen — the ride was a romantic literary embellishment by William Harrison Ainsworth in his 1834 novel "Rookwood")) was held in the condemned cell of the Male Prison before his execution on the Knavesmire (the York gallows) on April 7, 1739.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCastle Howard day trip (Castle Howard — the 18th century baroque country house 24 km northeast of York (45 min by car or bus from York centre); one of the most architecturally significant and historically important country houses in England): the house (Castle Howard was commissioned in 1699 by Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and designed by John Vanbrugh (the playwright-turned-architect who had never designed a building when he received the Castle Howard commission (1699): Vanbrugh was best known as the author of the Restoration comedies "The Relapse" (1696) and "The Provoked Wife" (1697); his only previous architectural experience was redesigning his own house; Castle Howard was the first work of architecture by Vanbrugh and the work that established his reputation as the dominant English Baroque architect, together with his later masterpiece Blenheim Palace (1705-1724)): the building (the Castle Howard main house (1699-1712): the 200 m east-west facade with the central dome (the first dome on an English private house: 23 m internal diameter, the largest domestic dome in England — predating by 3 years the Greenwich Naval Hospital dome by Wren, which it resembles): the dome was completed after Vanbrugh's death by his collaborator Nicholas Hawksmoor; the grounds (the Castle Howard grounds (1,000 acres of landscaped parkland designed by the landscape architect George London (early formal gardens, 1699-1712) and later informally redesigned (the 18th century English Landscape Garden movement (William Andrews Nesfield, 1850s)): the Temple of the Four Winds (Vanbrugh, 1726 — the Ionic rotunda at the east end of the garden: the most perfect small-scale Baroque building in England); the Mausoleum (Hawksmoor, 1729-1736 — the burial mausoleum of the Howard family: the most important English Baroque tomb building); the Brideshead connection (the Castle Howard was used as the filming location for the TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" (1981, ITV) and the 2008 film — the most famous country house in English television history).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideYork farewell evening (the medieval alleyways (the "snickleways") and the craft gin culture of modern York): the snickleways (the snickleways of York — the narrow medieval pedestrian passages (the "ginnels" and "snickets" of the Yorkshire dialect) connecting the medieval streets of the York city centre: the most famous York snickleways (the passages listed in the 1983 book "A Walk around the Snickleways of York" by Mark W Jones (the book that coined the word "snickleway")): Coffee Yard (off Stonegate — the narrowest passage in the York centre: 45 cm at the narrowest point); Hornpot Lane (behind the Shambles — the medieval alleyway connecting the Shambles to the Dean's Court); Pope's Head Alley (a medieval passage documented since the 15th century)); the York craft gin scene (the Yorkshire gin tradition: Yorkshire has one of the most dynamic craft gin scenes in England (the most notable York distillery: the York Gin (the York Gin Company, established 2018 at the Station Road site, the first distillery in York since the 18th century): the York Gin range uses locally sourced botanicals including the rosehip (Rosa canina from the North York Moors), the lavender (from the North Yorkshire Dales) and the rowan berry (Sorbus aucuparia — the "Rowan and Rag" gin)): the York Gin distillery tours and tasting (available by appointment) and the York Gin bar in the city centre); the dusk in York (the most evocative time in the York city centre: the medieval buildings of the Shambles, the Stonegate and the Goodramgate in the last light, the York Minster floodlit from the Museum Gardens, the wall walk (the city walls are illuminated at night) — the 2,000 years of Roman, Viking, Norman and English architectural history compressed into a 3 km walkable medieval city centre).
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