St Lawrence's Church is famously the second-largest religious building in York, after only York Minster.

It hasn't always been that way, however. Until 1881 there was a much smaller church, of which now only the tower remains. This church was demolished in 1881-83 to make way for the new, bigger church nearby. The 'new' church's spire was added between 1891-93.

While browsing on the wonderful Imagine York website of archive photos kept by Explore York, we stumbled across a series of photographs showing the new church's spire being built, and still shrouded in scaffolding. Several of the photographs actually show the new spire and old tower in juxtaposition, giving a clear idea of just how much bigger the new church was than the one it replaced.

Other photos show the 'new' spire completed. And there is also a great image of the wooden stocks in St Lawrence's churchyard.

A search on 'Lawrence Street' on Imagine York also brings up a couple of unrelated photographs which show 'outings'. One, taken in June 1901, shows members of the No. 17 District Conservative Party gathering on Lawrence Street, outside the Tam O'Shanter Hotel, for a drive round Buttercrambe Woods - a round trip of about 25 miles. The waggonettes for the jaunt were supplied by John Burland of Fetter Lane, the caption to this photograph helpfully assures us.

The second 'outing' photograph may actually have been taken on the same day - and may show one group of Conservative Party day-trippers from Lawrence Street actually at Buttercrambe Woods themselves. And a very nice day out it seems to have been...

Stephen Lewis

All the photos on these pages, 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/