WE have carried several photographs down the years showing Tower Street with the walls of the Victorian prison running along one side. But perhaps none of them have ever matched the photograph above for sheer, brooding power.

The millstone grit outer wall of the prison looms over the street like a forbidding shadow, grim and dark. The horse-drawn cab and the Victorian gaslamp only add to the atmosphere.

The photograph, which comes from Explore York’s extraordinary online Imagine York archive of photographs, is thought to date from the 1890s. Tower Street itself seems to have been paved with brick. In the distance, looking straight ahead southwards, you can see what is today Tower Gardens.

The Victorian prison stood for almost exactly 100 years. It was built between 1825 and 1835. The huge wall which we can see so clearly here enclosed the whole castle site, cutting it off from the rest of the city and turning York Castle into York Prison. Inside, standing beside Clifford’s Tower on what is now the car park, were four prison blocks, radiating like spokes from the new governor’s residence in the centre.

The complex was used as a civil prison until about 1900, according to the History of York website. It then became a military detention centre for about 30 years, finally being closed and demolished by the city council in 1934. At the time the photograph on these pages was taken, however, it was very much still a civil prison. And you can see how accustomed York people had become to its forbidding bulk. A boy cycles cheerfully past at the very feet of the wall, while on the pavement opposite several women dressed in long, severe Victorian costumes walk by unconcernedly.

Another almost equally dramatic photograph shows a horse and cart making deliveries in Shambles. This also comes from the Imagine York website, and also dates to the 1890s.

York Press:

A horse and cart in Shambles, 1890s. Photo: Imagine York

Shambles was the ‘street of butchers’.

You can see several butchers standing in the doors of their shops, and even sides of what look like pork hanging from shop-fronts. At first glance you might think the cart is actually delivering cuts of meat: but look more closely and it actually appears to be piled with what look like animal hides or pelts. Perhaps the butchers were selling these. in which case the cart would have been making a collection rather than a delivery. if anyone knows more, we’d love to hear from you.. The pub on the left of the photograph was the Eagle and Child.

Both these photos come from Imagine York, as do the ones below:

Horses and carriages waiting outside the south door of York Minster, probably in the late 1880s or 1890s. The middle horse is enjoying a nosebag, presumably while its owners attend a service.

York Press:

Horses and carriages outside York Minster, 1890s. Photo: Imagine York

A glorious huddle of rooftops at Tanner Street in about 1933. The building on the far left at the back of the photograph was the NER offices, with the Station Hotel in the far distance behind it. The peculiarly shaped tall building dominating the middle distance was the old horse repository, which looked out on to Lendal Bridge, and which became Leedhams (having had its top storey removed).

York Press:

The view from Tanner Street in about 1933. Photo: Imagine York

In its heyday the horse repository was effectively a “multi-storey parking place for horses (with) ground floor parking for carriages,” as Press reader and local historian Peter Stanhope once memorably described it. By the time this photograph was taken, however, it was already a car showroom.

A police officer directing traffic at the junction of Tanner Moat, Lendal Bridge and Railway Street, probably in the 1920s. Walker’s horse repository (mentioned above) is on the left, with next to it (and dwarfed by the buildings on either side) the Lendal Bridge Hotel. The building furthest to the right is JB Beal’s motor engineering works.

York Press:

A police officer at the junction of Tanner Moat, Lendal Bridge and Railway Street in the 1920s. Photo; Imagine York

See more great photos

All the photos here, and thousands more, are held on Explore York’s wonderful Imagine York archive. You can browse it yourself for free just by visiting imagineyork.co.uk/

Use the search box to look for images of your street or area, or for any events such as parades or street parties you remember from childhood.