Doors 346 – Doors from the City of York, (Part VII), June 2024

Today I bring you the final selection of doors from York, which were mostly photographed in the area around Monk Bar, a gate and tower north of the city centre – the following is a synopsis of Monk Bar from the excellent Jorvik website:

Monk Bar is the tallest and most elaborately designed of York’s four Bars, standing 19.2 metres high and forming the north-east entrance to the city. Built mainly in the early 14th century, with a fourth storey added in 1484 by King Richard III, it was designed so that each of its four levels could be defended independently. It once included a barbican (demolished in 1825) and still contains the city’s only working portcullis, which was last lowered in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The rooms above the gateway originally provided access to murder holes used to attack enemies, but today they house the Richard III Museum. Over time the upper floors have also served as a jail and a policeman’s residence, remaining inhabited until 1914. Later alterations included the addition of side arches in 1820 and the widening of the main arch for traffic in 1861, although the narrow, low stairwell leading inside the Bar remains unchanged.

It has been fun sharing these doors from York, and I’ll be moving on to pastures new next time, enjoy!

When walking around York, if you look up at the buildings (something I do a lot of), you’ll see a number of cats on walls or resting on ledges – this is another wonderful curiosity of the city, and there is a cat trail that you can go on to find all 51 of them. I found a few on my trip, but at the time didn’t realise it was a thing, so wasn’t really looking for them. There is one above the door in the last picture.

I now have the joyful challenge of deciding what to dig out of my archive for next time, until then, have a great weekend.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.