Stonegate

The street, leading from St Helen's Square to Minster Gates at the foot of the Minster, was originally the Via Pretoria of Roman York.

It led into the heart of the busy fortress which stood where the cathedral now stands.

The street name comes from when the Minster was built and the great stones were carted up from the river to the cathedral building site. Today, the street is paved with York Stone.

There is plenty to see in Stonegate apart from the elegant gift shops.

A tablet on a wall shows where Guy Fawkes spent part of his life. The colourful front on number 10 is a testimony to the art of the tiler from another time.

A sign to Stonegate Gallery also leads down a narrow alleyway to the remains of a Norman 12th century house.

This was a two-storey building and thought to be the Prebendal house of Osbaldwick. A house on this site was used by the Minster clergy until the 19th century.

The Punch Bowl Inn, on the right as you walk towards the Minster, has beautiful carved wooden eaves and just up from there a figurehead from a late 17th century ship guards the door to a shop.

In the 1500s, Stonegate and its courtyards became famous as the site of the earliest known York press and the street became renowned for its book shops and printers.

Number 33 Stonegate was the home of a printer and there squatting under the eaves is the Red Devil, a reminder of the printers' devil who used to carry the hot type. The Devil has recently been restored after being bumped by a lorry.

Above the door of number 35 hangs a large Bible showing that it was originally a bookshop.

Ye Olde Starre Inne is one of the oldest recorded pubs in the city and the narrow passage, or snicket, from Stonegate to Grape Lane is known as Coffee Yard.

This is from the days when printers and publishers would meet at a coffee house called The Saracens Head which was situated in this historic and busy street.