What to See in York - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in York, England. The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant railway vehicles such as Mallard, Stirling Single, Duchess of Hamilton and a Japanese bullet train. In addition, the National Railway Museum holds a diverse collection of other objects from a household recipe book used in George Stephenson's house to film showing a "never-stop railway" developed for the British Empire Exhibition. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001.

As of 2019 the museum is about to embark on a major site development. As part of the York Central redevelopment which will divert Leeman Road, the National Railway Museum will be building a new entrance building to connect the two separate parts of the museum together. At the same time, the space around the museum will be landscaped to provide public spaces.

In 2020 architectural practice Feilden Fowles won an international competition to create the museum's new £16.5 million Central Hall building—a key element of the museum's Vision 2025 masterplan.^[1]

Iconic Gothic-style Medieval cathedral. The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the third-highest office of the Church of England, and is the mother church for the Diocese of York and the Province of York. It is run by a dean and chapter, under the Dean of York. The title "minster" is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title; the word Metropolitical in the formal name refers to the Archbishop of York's role as the Metropolitan bishop of the Province of York. Services in the minster are sometimes regarded as on the High Church or Anglo-Catholic end of the Anglican continuum.

The minster was completed in 1472 after several centuries of building. It is devoted to Saint Peter, and has a very wide Decorated Gothic nave and chapter house, a Perpendicular Gothic quire and east end and Early English North and South transepts. The nave contains the West Window, constructed in 1338, and over the Lady Chapel in the east end is the Great East Window (finished in 1408), the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In the north transept is the Five Sisters window, each lancet being over 53 feet (16.3 m) high. The south transept contains a rose window, while the West Window contains a heart-shaped design colloquially known as The Heart of Yorkshire.^[2]

Castle keep once used a prison and mint. York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruined keep of the medieval Norman castle is commonly referred to as Clifford's Tower. Built originally on the orders of William I to dominate the former Viking city of Jórvík, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences. After a major explosion in 1684 rendered the remaining military defences uninhabitable, York Castle continued to be used as a jail and prison until 1929.

The first motte and bailey castle on the site was built in 1068 following the Norman conquest of York. After the destruction of the castle by rebels and a Viking army in 1069, York Castle was rebuilt and reinforced with extensive water defences, including a moat and an artificial lake. York Castle formed an important royal fortification in the north of England.

In 1190, 150 local Jews were killed in a pogrom in the timber castle keep; most of them died by suicide in order not to fall into the hands of the mob. Henry III rebuilt the castle in stone in the middle of the 13th century, creating a keep with a unique quatrefoil design, supported by an outer bailey wall and a substantial gatehouse. During the Scottish wars between 1298 and 1338, York Castle was frequently used as the centre of royal administration across England, as well as an important military base of operations.

York Castle fell into disrepair by the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming used increasingly as a jail for both local felons and political prisoners. By the time of Elizabeth I the castle was estimated to have lost all of its military value but was maintained as a centre of royal authority in York. The outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 saw York Castle being repaired and refortified, playing a part in the Royalist defence of York in 1644 against Parliamentary forces. York Castle continued to be garrisoned until 1684, when an explosion destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower. The castle bailey was redeveloped in a neoclassical style in the 18th century as a centre for county administration in Yorkshire, and was used as a jail and debtors' prison. Prison reform in the 19th century led to the creation of a new prison built in a Tudor Gothic style on the castle site in 1825; used first as a county and then as a military prison, this facility was demolished in 1935. By the 20th century the ruin of Clifford's Tower had become a well-known tourist destination and national monument; today the site is owned by English Heritage and open to the public. The other remaining buildings serve as the York Castle Museum and the Crown Court.^[3]

Museum in York, England. The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of 10 acres of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along with the Yorkshire Museum which they contain.

The gardens are held in trust by the City of York Council and are managed by the York Museums Trust. They were designed in a gardenesque style by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith, and contain a variety of species of plants, trees and birds. Admission is free. A variety of events take place in the gardens, such as open-air theatre performances and festival activities.

There are several historic buildings in the gardens. They contain the remains of the west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum, including the Multangular Tower and parts of the Roman walls. In the same area there is also the Anglian Tower, which was probably built into the remains of a late Roman period fortress. During the Middle Ages, the tower was expanded and the Roman walls were incorporated into York's city walls. Most of the other buildings dating from the Middle Ages are associated with St Mary's Abbey, including the ruins of the abbey church, the Hospitium, the lodge and part of the surviving precinct wall. The remains of St. Leonard's Hospital chapel and undercroft are on the east side of the gardens. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society constructed several buildings in the gardens during the 19th and early 20th century, including the Yorkshire Museum and its octagonal observatory. The museum houses four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy.^[7]

Museum in England. The Yorkshire Museum of Farming is located in Murton Park near York in England. It is housed on a grass field site of approximately 14 acres, and is the only museum in the district specifically dedicated to the subject of farming. In the autumn of 2010, the museum was awarded full accreditation status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

The museum has built up a large collection of artefacts that illustrate the history of farm mechanisation. The collection also contains domestic items and other documentary material relating to the social structure of rural life in the area. Events are held throughout the year relating to rural and farming themes. There is also a children's play area and a cafe.

The site is also home to the last surviving stretch of the Derwent Valley Light Railway, part of whose archive is also in the museum's collection.

The museum shares the site with the Danelaw Centre for Living History. Living history facilities include a mock Roman fort called Brigantium, which is a disguised outdoor classroom designed to cater for up to 65 children at a time. There are also buildings dedicated to the Tudor and Viking ages, including a Dark Age village and how they farmed the land centuries ago.^[9]

Museum in York, England. Fairfax House is a Georgian townhouse located at No. 27, Castlegate, York, England, near Clifford's Tower and York Castle Museum. It was probably built in the early 1740s for a local merchant and in 1759 it was purchased by Charles Gregory Fairfax, 9th Viscount Fairfax of Emley, who arranged for the interior to be remodelled by John Carr. After the Viscount's death in 1772, the house was sold and subsequently passed through a number of local families before spending some time as a Gentleman's Club, a Building Society and a cinema. The property was bought by York Civic Trust in the 1980s and completely restored to its former grandeur. Fairfax House is now a museum open to the public and a Grade I listed building.^[18]

Park in York, England. Rowntree Park is a 20-acre park in York, England open to the public, featuring children's playgrounds, tennis courts, bowling greens, basketball court, skateboarding area and general areas for picnicking. The park also features a large lake, a canal and a water cascade, and is home to many ducks, swans and Canada geese. The park's outdoor swimming pool was demolished in the face of strong public protest in the 1980s.

It was created in memory of employees of Rowntree's who died in World War I, and was opened in July 1921 by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph Rowntree. The gates at the riverbank entrance are eighteenth-century and were given by the company as a memorial to the people of York who died in World War II. Rowntree Park celebrated its 85th anniversary on 16 July 2006 with an open day.

In 2006 the park won a Green Flag Award. This is awarded for reaching the English and Welsh national standard for parks and green spaces.^[23]

The North Eastern Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial in York in northern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to commemorate employees of the North Eastern Railway who left to fight in the First World War and were killed while serving. The NER board voted in early 1920 to allocate £20,000 for a memorial and commissioned Lutyens. The committee for the York City War Memorial followed suit and also appointed Lutyens, but both schemes became embroiled in controversy. Concerns were raised from within the community about the effect of the NER memorial on the city walls and its impact on the proposed scheme for the city's war memorial, given that the two memorials were planned to be 100 yards apart and the city's budget was a tenth of the NER's. The controversy was resolved after Lutyens modified his plans for the NER memorial to move it away from the walls and the city opted for a revised scheme on land just outside the walls; coincidentally the land was owned by the NER, whose board donated it to the city.

The NER memorial was unveiled on 14 June 1924 by Field Marshal Lord Plumer. It consists of a 54-foot (16-metre) high obelisk which rises from the rear portion of a three-sided screen wall. The wall forms a recess in which stands Lutyens' characteristic Stone of Remembrance. The wall itself is decorated with several carved swags and wreaths, including a wreath surrounding the NER's coat of arms at the base of the obelisk. The memorial is a grade II* listed building, and is part of a "national collection" of Lutyens' war memorials.^[25]

Gymnasium. Bootham Crescent in York, England, was the home of York City football club and York City Knights rugby league club. With a capacity of 8,256, it is near the city centre, just over a mile from York railway station.

York City leased land at Bootham Crescent from York Cricket Club as a replacement for their ground at Fulfordgate on the outskirts of the city. The ground was constructed in four months, and opened on 31 August 1932. In the Second World War, the Popular Stand was converted into an air-raid shelter, and the ground suffered slight damage when a bomb landed on houses along the Shipton Street End. York purchased Bootham Crescent for £4,075 in 1948. Floodlights were fitted at the ground in 1959, and replaced by ones twice as powerful in 1995. A number of improvements were made in the early 1980s, with a gymnasium, offices and a lounge for officials built.

The David Longhurst Stand opened in 1991 after a roof was erected on the Shipton Street End, named after the former York player David Longhurst who died during a match at the ground in 1990. Bootham Crescent hosted Football League matches from 1932 to 2004 and from 2012 to 2016, both spells ending after York were relegated into non-League football. The ground was renamed KitKat Crescent from 2005 to 2010 as part of a sponsorship deal with Nestlé. York City left Bootham Cresent and moved to the York Community Stadium in Huntington in early 2021, and the Bootham Crescent site will be used for housing.

Bootham Crescent comprises four stands: the Main Stand, the Popular Stand, the David Longhurst Stand and the Grosvenor Road End. The ground has held a league representative match, neutral club matches, and schoolboy and youth international matches. Other than football, it has hosted a concert, firework display, American football and rugby league matches and beer festivals. The record attendance of 28,123 was set in March 1938, for an FA Cup match against Huddersfield Town. The highest seasonal average attendance of 10,412 was achieved in 1948–49.^[26]

The Roman Bath is a public house in St Sampson's Square, in the city of York, in England. It is built above an ancient Roman bath house. The remains were uncovered during building work when the present pub was erected in 1929–31 replacing an inn. The exterior has Tudor Revival features including applied half-timbering. The pub is however more notable for the Roman remains which can be viewed inside.

The bath house apparently served the military personnel of Eboracum (Roman York). Not only was the facility in Eboracum's fortress (built in the 1st century AD to house a legion of about 5,000 men), but also tiles have been discovered at the bath house site which are marked with the identity of specific legions. The Ninth may have constructed the facility. The last attested activity of the Ninth in Britain is in AD 108.

Baths dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD have been excavated at Tanner Row on the other side of the River Ouse: these are believed to have served the civilian population of York.^[27]

Convent in York, England. The Convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Micklegate Bar, York, better known as The Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, is the oldest surviving Catholic convent in England, established in 1686. The laws of England at this time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents and as a result of this, the convent was both established and operated in secret. Frances Bedingfeld, a member of the Sisters of Loreto, signed the deeds for the land the convent was to be built upon on 5 November 1686 under the alias Frances Long.

Today, the Bar Convent is a popular York destination for tourists and offers bed and breakfast accommodation, meeting rooms, a gift shop, café and museum exhibition about the Convent's history.^[28]

St Sampson's Church lies on Church Street, in the city centre of York, in England. It lies on Church Street, near St Sampson's Square.

The church lies across the line of the wall of Roman Eboracum, and the first church on the site was probably built before the Norman Conquest, as a fragment of an early 11th-century cross has been found in the wall of a house on Newgate, within the former churchyard. Foundations of a Norman wall have also been discovered underneath the present church. The church was first recorded in the 1154, and from 1394 the advowson belonged to the Vicars Choral of York Minster. It is dedicated to Saint Sampson of York, the only church in England with this dedication.

The church was gradually rebuilt in the 15th-century, the south aisle being rebuilt in the 1400s, and the north aisle dating in the 1440s, while the west tower was rebuilt in the 1480s. In the 1549, there was a plan to merge the parish with that of St Helen, Stonegate, and although this did not happen, St Sampson did gain two bell from St Helen. In 1644, the tower was damaged during the English Civil War, and the Parliamentarian troops subsequently destroyed most of the monuments in the church.

Between 1845 and 1848, most of the church was rebuilt by Frederick Bell, and a vestry was added. The tower survived, but was reduced in height, being heightened again in 1910. Other pre-Victorian elements of the church include the east window of the north aisle, some roof bosses, the bell-frame and bells, the north and south doors, the piscina, and various monuments. In 1969, the church closed, and many of its fittings were removed. However, it was restored by George Pace, and in 1974 it reopened as a centre for the elderly. He inserted a mezzanine floor over the north aisle, to give space for offices, and placed a kitchen in the south aisle. The sanctuary was converted into a chapel, with a reredos from All Saints, Falsgrove.

The church was listed as Grade II in June 1954.^[29]

Theatre in York, England. York Theatre Royal is a theatre in St Leonard's Place, in York, England, which dates back to 1744. The theatre currently seats 750 people. Whilst the theatre is traditionally a proscenium theatre, it was reconfigured for a season in 2011 to offer productions in-the-round. The theatre puts on many of its own productions, as well as hosting touring companies, one of which is Pilot Theatre, a national touring company which often co-produces its work with the theatre. Additionally the main stage and studio are regularly used by local amateur dramatic and operatic societies. York Theatre Royal was one of the co-producers of the historic York Mystery Plays 2012 which were staged in York Museum Gardens between 2–27 August. The theatre reopened on Friday 22 April 2016 following a £6million redevelopment, with a new roof, an extended and re-modelled front of house area, a refurbished and redecorated main auditorium and with major improvements to access and environmental impact.^[32]

Church in York, England. The Oratory Church of Saint Wilfrid, York is a Catholic church in York, England.

A church dedicated to Saint Wilfrid has stood in York since medieval times. Catholics call it the "Mother Church of the city of York". It is in Gothic Revival style. The arch over the main door has the most detailed Victorian carving in the city. The present church was completed in 1864 and is considered to be one of the most perfectly finished Catholic churches in England, rich in sculptures, paintings and stained glass. In 2013, the church was entrusted to the Oratorian Fathers.

It is within the Diocese of Middlesbrough and was the second pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Beverley until its dissolution in 1878.^[33]