From our archives:

85 years ago

The Archbishop of York opened the Grove and North York Centre of the York Companions Club in Fountayne Street, Haxby Road. The club which was started by the York’s unemployed service committee provided recreative and educational facilities for those unable to find work. Standing alongside Mr Arnold Rowntree, the Archbishop was shown several demonstrations before commenting that it was a positive step that the club had dropped the word unemployment from its title. In Bridlington, damages estimated at £40,000 had been caused by a fire which had destroyed the Royal Victoria Rooms, the Fisherman’s Shelter and Museum, two houses and a buffet. And hot off the stage of London’s Palace Theatre, the slickest, pippiest, happiest and most efficient entertainment of its Kind, “No, No, Nanette,” was heading for York’s Theatre Royal.

50 years ago

Nearly three years of stop-go planning was finally coming to an end on October 20, when York’s third cinema would be opened by the Earl of Harewood. The new cinema, under the sponsorship of the British Film Institute had been incorporated in the central hall at York University at a cost of £5,500. The former manager of a clothier’s shop in York had returned to the city as Vicar of Upper and Nether Poppleton. The Rev Arthur West, who only decided to go into the Church in 1959 after 27 years in the clothing business, was instituted at St Everilda’s Church by the Bishop of Selby. And York’s supermarkets were joining the battle against selling cut price cigarettes. Small shopkeepers, tobacconists and public houses were however keeping their prices just the same, with just a wider choice.

20 years ago

British tourists in Florida were-on alert as Hurricane George raced in from the Caribbean, leaving in its wake more than 110 people dead and hundreds missing. Holidaymakers from the UK were among 100,000 people ordered to evacuate the Florida Keys. And one of York’s most prominent city centre eyesores was to be given a new life thanks to a multi-million-pound deal. Since Debenhams moved out of its grade two listed former home in Coney Street in 1990, it had been a shadow of its former self, occupied only by a car accessory shop. But now the site had been purchased for £7.15 million by Chartwell Land, who planned to create four smart new shops.