THE chimney at the Foss Islands depot may not represent everyone's idea of perfect beauty.

But to Peter Edwards, it is a daily reminder of York's proud industrial heritage. And something more, as well.

Every time he looks at it, he wonders at the care, effort and - yes - love that went into the brickwork.

"These days it wouldn't happen. You would just get something purely functional," he says. "To me, it expresses the confidence of the age."

A real candidate, then, for one of the "unsung" landmarks of York.

The BBC has launched its own search for the unsung landmarks of the UK.

The broadcaster isn't looking for the York Minsters or Tower of Londons of this proud nation of ours. Yes, they are the buildings that help shape our sense of national pride and identity. But they are too obvious.

Instead, with the help of readers and listeners, the Beeb has compiled a shortlist of eight less obvious landmarks - ones cherished by ordinary local people that wouldn't necessarily feature on the tourist's must-see list.

Shortlisted from the north of England are the Jodrell Bank telescope; the Humber Bridge (although that seems a pretty obvious one) and the Grimsby Dock tower.

Sadly, BBC viewers haven't seen fit to shortlist any landmarks from the York area. So we thought we'd get some of our readers to suggest a few of our own, instead.

York isn't short of architectural gems - the Minster, Cliffords Tower, the Bar Walls, the higgledy-piggledy medieval roofscape of the buildings clustered around the Minster.

But there are plenty of less obvious landmarks, too: places that fill York people with real pleasure or pride, without necessarily being on the main tourist trail.

Landmarks like the Blue Bridge, where the River Foss runs into the Ouse; the Iron Bridge at Holgate - or the already-mentioned chimney at the Foss Islands Road depot.

On the opposite page are the unsung landmarks a selection of York people suggested.

The BBC's shortlist of the eight top "unsung landmarks" in the UK

  • The Humber Bridge
  • Grimsby Dock tower
  • Samson and Goliath - the giant cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast
  • Greenock town hall tower
  • The Crystal Palace transmitter
  • The Jodrell Bank telescope
  • The New Severn Bridge
  • The Cardington airship hangers in North Bedfordshire, built to house Britain's R101 and R100 airships