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Exploring what’s under our feet in York - History, cellars and tunnels.

23/06/2025

16 Parliament Street, built during the creation of Parliament St in 1836-1839. Named after the act of Parliament that enabled its creation. Roughly 50 buildings were demolished to join St Sampsons Sq to Pavement. Made wide enough to accommodate market stalls all the way down. In this basement part of the Roman fortress wall was found during work in 1987, this may be visible in one of the photos as resembles what I’ve seen in Harkers basement albeit possibly concreted over. Thank you to the charming Claire for giving me access.

07/06/2025

York Medical Society, 23 Stonegate. One of their old wine cellars is still rented out to a wine merchant and I was lucky enough to get a look around recently. Some of the tile like bricks are possibly Tudor according to John Shaw.

03/06/2025

30-32 High Petergate. Built in 1838 after the demolition of Peter Prison and the Minster Gate (shown on one photo taken from a framed picture kept in the basement). The large stone foundations seen are the same as in the under pavement passageways of Dean Court Hotel.

11/05/2025

Popped in for a flat white, got chatting to the owner Steve who was kind enough to open up the hatch in his cafe floor 😄 Quite small but lovely to see the old stonework at the base of the walls down there and an interesting blocked up doorway which Steve hadn’t noticed…the cellar doesn’t go the back of the cafe so why was the wall built and blocked up?

09/05/2025

36 Stonegate. Another prime example of a large basement i.e. a whole floor of a building being blocked off, unused and left to go damp. Amazing original features down there. Prime real estate. This would never happen in London as square footage is too valuable.

05/05/2025

Had the chance to look around 71-73 Low Petergate recently. A grade 2 listed timber framed building built in the early 1600’s, almost collapsed last year before urgent repairs, no less than 4 separate attics and one on the wonkiest floors I’ve ever seen! Unfortunately no cellars found. This will soon be an exciting new Japanese restaurant.

01/05/2025

York Railway Station basement, untouched for years. The underground tunnels between station and hotel still exist, largely unused, as are the old BTP cells and pub kitchen.

29/04/2025

The Retreat, founded by William Tuke was opened in 1796 in response to the inhumane treatment of a fellow Quaker, Hannah Mills, who died whilst in the care of Bootham Asylum; she’d been suffering from ‘melancholy’ following the death of her husband, none of her family were allowed to visit her and she died the month following her admission. Patients at the Retreat were known as family and they had access to the large gardens with a much more humane approach to mental health which was pioneering. 222 years later it closed to inpatients. Now this incredible building and 37 acres of grounds have been bought by in order to develop it into homes. I was part of a tour and was left feeling positive that the development will do justice to its legacy whilst giving the place a new lease of life.

20/04/2025

The Bar Convent on Blossom St was established in 1686, the oldest surviving Catholic convent in the British Isles. The laws of England at the time prohibited Catholicism and as a result of this, the convent was both established and operated in secret.

I had a great chat with Dr Hannah Thomas on a recent visit. We both fully believe that the old escape tunnels are there and hidden but we were unable to find definitive proof, just some obscure blocked up areas. The more she explained how the sisters worked the more it became apparent why there was no written proof of these tunnels on any plans. They did everything they could to hide their existence prior to 1829 when the final bill was passed legalising Catholicism. She explained they do have proof of wealthy catholic donors owning houses along Blossom St, so it is entirely plausible that some of the escape routes may have led to these houses. One is known to be under the crossroads as it was explained by an archaeologist during traffic light work some years ago that it existed but both entrances are blocked but the cavity is still under the road and hampers any construction work in that area. The entrance long discussed from the Windmill (as it wasn’t always a pub) is now paved over and not part of the small cellar that still exists (photos of this will be in a later post).

15/04/2025

Varvill’s Court, a 19th Century building, built for the Varvill family who had a few properties in the area. They were a family of toolmakers and had a warehouse on Queen’s Staith (still there and part of Tank n Paddle) and a large shop on the corner of Bridge St that then became Boyes. Their company began in 1793 by Michael Varvill. In 1829 the firm was called M. Varvill & Sons. In 1840 Michael’s son, Summers Varvill, took over and moved it to the Ebor Works, North Street. Summers died in 1862 and his brother Robert Varvill took over the running of the firm.

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