BROWNS of York has a prime spot on the corner of Davygate and St Sampson's Square these days - one where it's visible from all the way up Parliament Street. But back in the day this prime location was home to another venerable York business...A.T. Howell, the fruit and potato salesman.
It made sense. St Sampson's Square was once known as Thursday Market, after all, and was for many years York's main food market.
Our first photo (top) shows the corner of St Sampson's Square in the late 1890s. Even then, Howell's doesn't exactly seem to have been thriving. But it's a busy street scene nonetheless.
This photo, along with the other photos of York city centre in the old days below, comes from Explore York's wonderful Imagine York website.
The other photos show:
St Helen's Square, 1933
T.S. Hopps, the wireless dealer who is prominently advertised here, only stayed in St Helen's Square for a very short time: the business moved to 76 Low Petergate in 1933. To the left of the picture and looming in the hazy background can be seen the heavy scaffolding around York Minster's central tower.
King's Court seen from King's Square, 1910s
Holy Trinity Church (on the left) was declared redundant in 1886 and subsequently used by the Shambles butchers as a holding pen for animals awaiting slaughter. It was demolished in 1937 to create a paved area which was recently improved and is still well used by buskers. The other premises, from left to right, are: G. Ackroyd's furniture brokers, W. Ellis butchers (he died in 1915) and W. Dawson's beer house which became the Grapes Inn. The picture dates from between 1908 and 1915.
Holy Trinity Church in King's Square in the 1910s
The church was demolished in 1937 to create the paved area where buskers still perform today.
Micklegate in the 1850s
The massive gateway in the centre of the left hand row belonged to the Priory of the Holy Trinity. The ground for the Priory was sold for building work in the 1850s and G.T Andrews suggested a scheme of houses around an oval garden. This was to be called Priory Gardens but the city planners chose to create Priory Street instead, which now exists where the arch once was.
- All these photos, 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/
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