LENDAL is an interesting corner of York. It boasts some fine old buildings - the former city post office, for one, and the Judges Lodgings, which were built between 1718 and 1725 as a private town house and later used to house circuit judges attending the quarter sessions at York Assizes.

An even more impressive building once stood on the street's southern and western side, between it and the river - an old Augustinian friary, which was used by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III) on his visits to York. In Richard's day it would have stretched most of the way along Lendal from where the former post office is now to Museum Street - though it may well have been hidden from Lendal itself by a row of houses. They were secretive types, those friars.

At the north end of Lendal there was once an even older structure - a part of the old Roman fortress wall. An archaeological dig on the corner of Lendal and Museum Street in 1974 uncovered direct evidence of this, says John Oxley, York's sadly soon-to-be-retired city archaeologist - and of a many-sided 'interval tower' that stood part way along the wall.

That tower - which projected out from the wall and also inwards into the interior of the fortress itself - was one of six 'interval towers' along the stretch of wall which ran from the Multangular Tower in today's Museum Gardens to a similar corner tower beneath what is now Costa Coffee on the corner of Market Street and Coney Street, says Dr Peter Addyman, the doyen of York archaeologists.

Lendal itself is effectively a continuation of Coney Street to link through to Museum Street - so it is no surprise to discover that it was once known as 'Ould Connystrete' - or Old Coney Street. According to the 'York streets and buildings' page of the 'England's North East' website, the street's modern name comes from the fact that there was once a landing place for St Leonard's Hospital here during medieval times: the area was then known as St Leonard's Lendinge.

The modern street is often used as a route from the city centre to the Museum Gardens, Lendal Bridge and the railway station. But it has long had its own attractions - the fine Victorian post office, for a start, and the much-loved Banks Musicroom. On and off between the 1960s and 1980s it also had its very own 'statue: a life-sized figure of Napoleon which once stood in the doorway of The Kiosk, much to the delight of passing children...

We've dug out a selection of photos of Lendal down the years from a digital folder we found on The Press systems. They mainly show the changing face of the corner of Lendal and Museum Street. But there are also a couple of images of Napoleon for good measure - and a great 1960 view looking along the street from high up (maybe from the top of a building on the south side of St Helen's Square) showing Lendal's full length and Museum Gardens in the distance...

1. The old Phoenix Assurance building on the corner of Lendal and Museum Street in 1958

2. The corner of Lendal and Museum Street in August 1974. The Phoenix assurance building has been demolished, and archaeologists are excavating the site. Evidence of part of the Roman fortress wall was found.

3. By 1982, a new building was beginning to take shape on the corner of Lendal and Museum Street

4. The 'new' Sun Alliance building on the corner of Lendal and Museum street in 1985

5. A 1960 view along the length of Lendal towards Museum Street, taken presumably from high up on a building on the south side of St Helen's Square. The shop that was later to become Banks was still, at this time, used by Rowntrees

6. Children chat to Napoleon in 1979

7. Napoleon stands lookout from the doorway of The Kiosk in 1985.

Stephen Lewis