York Civic Trust plaques

Bootham

Location of plaque: wall of the White Horse pub

The mellow stone wall of St Mary's Abbey which runs along the south west side of Bootham and which can occasionally be seen through gaps in buildings helps to give this ancient street an air of venerable respectability today (an air which the constant queues of cars waiting to get through the junction beside Bootham Bar do their best to destroy).

When those walls were built in the 1260s, however, it was for anything but a respectable reason.

They were put up by the Abbot of St Mary's following a disturbance in 1262 when a 'town mob' killed some monks.

This disturbance may have been related to the ongoing disagreement between St Mary's and the people of the city itself about access from the river and the 'status' of the suburb of Bootham - ie who should collect the rent.

The street was the major road north from York and is thought to have been lined with stalls and houses belonging to craftsmen (hence the name Bootham, from the Old Norse word 'buδum', meaning 'at the booths'). But by 1298, the ongoing dispute over who was responsible for it had reached such a state that the street was 'in utter disrepair' and the air 'corrupted by pigsties and dunghills in the streets and lanes'.

By building the abbey precinct wall in 1262, the abbey effectively turned its back on this noisome mess. The Abbot's house, now King's Manor, could only be approached through the gatehouse on Marygate or else from the abbey's wharf on the River Ouse.

In 1354, however, the dispute between the abbey and the city was finally brought to a conclusion: it was agreed that the city owned Bootham and its associated rental income. In return, the abbey retained access to Bootham and the city was allowed access to Marygate. A lesson there for anyone involved in a dispute with neighbours, perhaps. It only takes a century of talking to resolve...

The street now known as Bootham is as old as the Roman fortress that once stood in York. Bootham Bar stands on what was the Roman gateway (look through a window set into the stone of the building beside the bar as you walk through and you can see, visible under glass, some Roman remains).

The bar itself has been much altered and repaired, however, and the oldest stonework visible today is Norman. The bar used to have a barbican similar to that at Walmgate Bar, but this was removed in 1832, partly to allow access to the new St Leonard’s Place.

Apart from the abbey precinct wall, there is little left in the modern street from the medieval period. The Civil War is partly to blame for this. William Cavendish, the 1st Duke of Newcastle, who was commanding the Royalist forces holding York during the Parliamentary siege of 1644, gave up his outer defences on June 6, withdrew all the Royalist troops and inhabitants into the city, and set fire to the suburbs, including Bootham, so they would not provide shelter for Parliamentary soldiers attacking the walls.

In the 18th century, Bootham became one of York’s most desirable addresses and impressive Georgian townhouses now line the street. One of York’s earliest Georgian terraces, built in the 1740s, remains at 39-45 Bootham. Bootham was also chosen as the location for the York Lunatic Asylum, later Bootham Park Hospital, designed by John Carr and built between 1772 and 1777.