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I've been wanting to visit York for years now after hearing all sorts of wonderful things about the city from the LU London Centre director, Christine Harris. York is a beautiful English city that can be reached in just two hours by a fast train from London King's Cross. It's skyline is dominated by an impressive medieval cathedral, York Minster. Though the skies were completely clear in South Kensington as I left my building around 7am, I was amazed to see snow falling within the first 30 minutes of my train ride north. Snow is quite rare in London (I think it snowed twice here all winter, each time for less than an hour) and ground accumulation is essentially unheard of in the city--it usually melts on contact with the ground. So, with that said, it was rather striking to find York blanketed by a good inch or two of snow when arrived at ten that morning.  Clifford's
Tower, York.
Upon arrival I decided I would walk through the bulk of the city to get a feel for it before going into any of the various attractions. After crossing the river Ouse and walking for maybe 15 minutes through the winding streets I came to Clifford's Tower, a rather dramatic old (13th century) keep on top of tall mound. This, along with the Minster, is one of the most popular images of York and is featured liberally in much of the city tourist propaganda. The picture above, which I took that morning, is the picturesque postcard view of the tower. In the interest of being completely honest, though, I feel compelled to reveal that 1) the photo was taken from a side walk immediately adjacent to a busy road and 2) the other side of the mound is surrounded by a large and decidedly un-picturesque parking lot. So now you have a choice to make: you can either preserve the illusion that the above vanity shot gives of a tower silhouetted on an isolated mound or you can click here and see the awful truth. You've been warned. Don't get me wrong--it's still a really cool thing to find in the middle of a city. And the mound is covered in daffodils, which were just starting to bloom despite being covered in snow. For a couple pounds you can enter the tower and walk along the parapet on top to get views across the city. There wasn't much to look at within the tower itself--after all, it was built as a defensive structure and its a relatively small one at that. The views from the top weren't bad, though, as illustrated by the photo below:  The York skyline as seen from the top of Clifford's tower. The large church in the distance is the Minster. The steeple in the foreground (St. Mary's, Castlegate) rather hurts the composition, but I'm afraid it couldn't be helped... After my visit to
Clifford's Tower I went to the nearby York Castle Museum, an excellent
museum featuring a unique collection of everyday items and furnishings
arranged into period rooms and, in two cases, street-scapes. The
museum is in an old prison and is surprisingly extensive--you could
easily spend half a day there if you wanted to. The large indoor
Victorian 'street' is very well done which perhaps explains why its
pictured in pretty much every York guide book available.
After spending an hour or so in the museum I headed back through the city to go inside the Minster. I was lucky to be able to join up with a free guided tour (free as in included in the admission price) given by a great guide who spoke very knowledgeably about pretty much everything. Several of the stained glass windows are apparently superlative examples for their styles and periods. Our tour guide was given an extra challenge half way through the tour when an organ recital began producing extraordinarily loud music. While I'm not exactly a pipe organ expert, the 50+ foot tall metal pipes prominently installed in the transept of the minster (pictured below right) might help to explain the occasional bursts of (literally) cathedral-shaking sound. After experiencing that up close the THX trailer at the movies will never impress me again. After departing York Minster I decided to continue wandering the city, stopping briefly to enjoy a cheap fish and chips at a local 'chippy'. York is full of little back streets with picturesque old buildings bulging out this way and that. The most famous of these areas is probably that known as 'The Shambles', once home to York's butcher shops. (Now home to cute tourist-oriented boutiques and chocolate stores.)  One of the
oldest and most atmospheric parts of York: The Shambles.
On Christine's recommendation I sought out Holy Trinity Church, Goodram Gate, an old parish church that's has hardly any modern intrusions. The church has no electric lighting and features 15th century stained glass and 18th century box pews. Very nice and quite atmospheric.  The interior of Holy Trinity Church, Goodram Gate. I finished my tour of the city
with a walk along the River Ouse and a visit to the National Rail
Museum. The museum is full of everything to do with train
history, including several cars built to carry past kings and queens of
England. Also present is the famous Mallard (ok, I hadn't heard
of it before either--apparently its the fastest steam locomotive of all
time having traveled at 126 mph) and the front car of a Japanese bullet
train. The museum is large and, quite happily, completely
free. The only draw back during my visit was the presence of a
temporary Thomas the Tank Engine exhibition for the kiddies that
entailed them playing music videos from the show on a large projection
screen while blasting the music on several speakers. While I
appreciate that this is intended for a younger crowd, I have to say it
really was thoroughly horrible and my deep sympathies go out to all
parents and siblings out there that may have had to endure this
show/torture.
But that's enough of my cynicism. York's a great place and I could have spent many more days exploring it--with any luck I'll be back again some time this year. |
 The front facade of York Minster.  Daffodils on Clifford's mound.  The organ in York Minster.  You'd look crabby too if you were in this position for four centuries: a monument in the Minster.  High windows in York Minster ('The Five Sisters')  Part of the pipe organ at York Minster-- each two to three feet in diameter.  Another view of the Shambles.  Two snow men enjoy the day in front of the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey in Museum Gardens. |
