Early altered images (From York Press)

Views of York that have been lost or changed

10:48am Monday 26th December 2011 in History articles By Stephen Lewis

TAKE a long look at our main photograph today... and then look again. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. It really is the River Ouse, with the distinctive shape of the Guildhall backing onto the river and, on the left of the photo, Lendal Tower.

Both the buildings look comfortingly familiar. The only thing that is missing is Lendal Bridge.

There is a reason for that. This photo was taken by one George Fowler Jones in 1853... before the bridge was built.

The photo can be found by visiting City of York Council's Imagine York website, and typing “early photograph” into the search engine. The caption is very informative. A ferry had operated across the river at this point since medieval times, it says.

“When the Old Railway Station was built traffic increased, and there was an immediate need for a better crossing.” But there was a dispute between the city corporation and the railway companies about who was responsible for funding. The city council finally agreed to a bridge in June 1857. “But it wasn’t opened until 1863,” the caption notes.

All our photos today come from Imagine York – and all from that “early photographs” section. They show views of York that have since been lost – or else have changed dramatically.

The windmill, for example. This isn’t some rural corner of East Yorkshire. It is Burton Stone Lane in the heart of Clifton, in the 1860s. The windmill was known as Clifton or Lady Windmill.

A mill had been mentioned on the site in descriptions of the city boundaries from the late 14th century on, and a newly built brick windmill was offered for sale in 1817 – presumably the one in our photo, no part of which remains today.

Another view that has changed utterly is that of the west front of York Minster, from Duncombe Place. Except that it wasn’t Duncombe Place in 1853, when William Pumphrey took the photo. It shows the view from Museum Street looking towards the Minster.

The buildings blocking the view of the great cathedral were on what was then called Lop Lane. They, and all the buildings to the right of the photograph, were demolished a few years later to create Duncombe Place – so named in honour of Dean Duncombe, whose idea it was.

Talking of the Dean and the Minster, we also have today a photo of the old Deanery. It was demolished in 1938, and replaced by a new building in Minster Place, but in our 1853 photo is still stands, in all its mock-Tudor elegance, on the south-east side of Minster Yard, with the Minster library to the side.

And finally, we have another view of the River Ouse: King’s Staith in 1853, to be precise. The large building with the Georgian façade is Cumberland House. To its left is the Ship Inn. The houses to the right of the photograph were demolished in 1882 as part of the clearance of the slum areas of the “water lanes”.

William Pumphrey, who took the photo, said in his caption that “the old houses… on the staith are types of the old timbered and plastered houses of the 17th century; many of this class of buildings are situated in such narrow and dark lanes as not to be reproducible in the camera”.

What a shame.

• All these photographs, and hundreds more, can be viewed on the City of York Council’s Imagine York website, at imagineyork.co.uk

The old Deanery