Old technology, from the old days … (Marygate, Jan 2004)

After a longer than usual break in adding anything to these pages – over 18 months – I thought I should get around to some kind of update, and it made sense to get around to doing that today, as it was twenty years ago today, 8 January 2004, that I went out for a short walk towards the city centre, in the last light of that day, with my first digital camera. That was the start of what became York Walks, then York Stories. I wrote a piece about this ten years ago today, on the tenth anniversary.

York Walks/York Stories was a project I found fascinating, and rewarding on many levels. Including in that it got me out walking a lot, which is of course good for health, including our mental health. Putting the website pages together, text and photographs, was time-consuming, but I felt inspired to carry on, and particularly so when I got so many emails from people who were enjoying reading the pages.

For a few years, particularly from late 2011 until late 2014, this site was a busy place I was able to put a lot of time and enthusiasm into, and always appreciated comments and contributions adding to this record of York and its changes.

Eventually, of course, the postings became less frequent, as it can be difficult to retain enthusiasm for such a long-running project, and to find time for it and retain interest in it as changes happen in life and there are other things more important to focus on. Like losing parents, as I have in recent years, which brings a different perspective.

There have been gaps before, and some of them have been quite lengthy, and they became more frequent. Most recently, additions to these pages stopped for more than 18 months. This followed the death of my Mum in June 2022. Mum was 90 and had been having health problems for quite some time.

Since then I’ve been focused on other things, and haven’t been able to write, haven’t wanted to, about York or anything much else. I’ve been coming to terms with many changes of recent years on a personal level, rather than changes in York. I look at the local news websites every day, but beyond that haven’t felt any engagement.

Now, however, I find I start this new year feeling that I perhaps should return to my old stomping ground, make time again for local walks in and around the city, again take note of the changes. Mainly because of this rather significant anniversary – 20 years. Also because I realise that there are areas of York I haven’t been to for a few years. Probably most areas of York, in fact. I’m familiar with the changes in my area, but haven’t been able to keep up with the rest.

I may revisit the places I took photos of back in 2004, or some of them. Whether I’ll want to post photos online and write about them I don’t know. I’ve spent a lot of time over many years in front of computer screens, and the kind of blogging activity I spent a lot of time on doesn’t have the appeal now that it did. I don’t want to be too online too much of the time, and I don’t want to spend time on social media.

But, I recognise that I have a large archive of images spanning 20 years, and in early 2022 I started to compile an ebook based on them. I might continue with that, and might add a few items from it here. Or perhaps walk along the bar walls from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar, as I did back in 2004, and see where that leads.

Today, I had thought about revisiting Marygate, but having done that on the tenth anniversary, and in recognition that there haven’t been any hugely significant changes down there, as far as I know, it didn’t seem like a good idea after all. Added to that, it’s not a sunny day, it’s cold and overcast and miserable. I usually avoided photography-based York walks on days like that even when I was all those years younger, so thought I’d avoid it today too.

There may be some additions in due course, if it’s a sunny day and I feel like a local wander. In the meantime, just want to say how much I’ve appreciated hearing from so many people via the comments, and email, over the years. And I also appreciate, and will never forget, that in a particularly difficult time – the year of that tenth anniversary – financial contributions helped it all stay afloat, when it looked like it wouldn’t.

More later perhaps. For now, all the best, dear readers, and a happy new year.

The post It was Twenty Years Ago Today … appeared first on York Stories.

Library lawn, 30 March 2022

Next to York Explore, the city’s main library and archives, there’s a lawned area. It’s a place I’ve often sat for a while, on one of the benches, after visiting the library. It’s one of those ‘steeped in history’ places, very special. From the benches you look at the Multangular Tower on one side, the Roman wall in the middle, and the remains of what was St Leonard’s Hospital in the other corner. Or just enjoy the greenery and quiet.

Like all the land here in central York between the river and the Minster it has a long and complex history.

In the reports and articles I’ve been reading while compiling this page I’ve seen many references to this area being ‘underused’, ‘overlooked’, that people don’t know it’s there. The word ‘underused’ should probably ring alarm bells, as it often seems to mean that only the locals appreciate it and that it isn’t making any money, so some commercial activity is probably looming. As seems to be the case here.

There’s a nice description of this place included in documents on the planning portal:

The green colour of the grass is the dominant colour of the area, contrasting strongly with the orange brick of the library and the greys of the ruins. As a quieter secluded space from the surrounding business of the Museum gardens and shopping streets, it is used by local people in fine weather. It is enclosed and intimate and ‘off the beaten track’.

– Design and Access Statement, p18 (PDF)

Library lawn, 30 March 2022

When I first heard mention of plans for a mini-golf course here I thought it was an odd and inappropriate idea, and seemed so odd that I thought it was just one of those things that wouldn’t progress any further.

But it did, and now there’s a planning application. A rather controversial one.

Planning application

21/02758/FUL | Change of use of land to form a 12 hole mini golf course for a period of 7 years | Central Library Gardens Museum Street York

I’ve been reading the pre-application advice included on the planning portal, and was struck by the response from the council’s Development Management Officer, given back in March 2021, which wasn’t exactly encouraging:

In conclusion, officers advise that the principle of the development in this location would not be supported and we would not support the grant of planning permission. If however, notwithstanding this advice, you intend to submit a formal application, we would advise referencing the full advice from the conservation officer […]
Please note this advice does not negate his and our fundamental objection to the principle of the proposed scheme and notwithstanding, an improved design would similarly not be supported by officers.

– p23-24, Design and Access Statement (PDF)

Since then, and despite this rather negative response, work has clearly progressed on the application, which was submitted in December.

The application, submitted by York Mini Golf Ltd, states:

The presence of the mini golf course will mean that a currently much underappreciated area of York that is rich in heritage will be known and enjoyed by a wider audience, including people who wouldn’t normally visit a historic space.

It clearly isn’t underappreciated, as the large number of objections makes clear, as reported in an interesting piece by Gavin Aitchison in York Mix, on 2 Feb.

There’s plenty of information available about the significance of the site and the various buildings and structures around it, for anyone who wants to know more.

Having read some of the comments made by residents, I was interested to see what the statutory consultees had to say in response to the planning application. As with all planning applications involving sensitive historic sites and buildings, various relevant organisations are invited to have their say. And of course they have a defined remit for any objections, based on the organisation’s area of expertise.

Historic England and the Council for British Archaeology have no objections to the plans. There are no concerns about damage to archaeology, or to neighbouring historic structures. Historic England’s response states:

The mini golf proposal offers an interesting ‘meanwhile’ use for a limited period. It has the potential to serve as an introduction to the history of York, but in a different and entertaining manner that could appeal to a wide range of people and age groups. The York heritage ‘offer’ is certainly broad enough to accommodate different approaches.
(source – PDF)

Sense of place

Yes, it is an interesting idea, and yes, different approaches can be accommodated. But perhaps not on one of the most sensitive and profoundly interesting bits of the city centre. And this isn’t just for one summer, it’s for 7 years, perhaps longer.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why some places matter so much to so many people, and in particular thinking about that deep connection some of us feel to certain places just as they are. And why it is that other people, looking at the same place, see it differently.

This area is so historically significant and resonant that there’s probably nothing much that could ‘improve’ it as a long term intervention. Just my view. Shared by others though, I think.

I wonder how many of us who appreciate this place as it is would want to sit there in future with a mini-golf course in the middle of it. It will of course fundamentally alter the nature of the place, making it a different place entirely.

The ruins of St Leonard’s Hospital, at one side of the site, will also be utilised:

It is anticipated that part of the room in St Leonard’s undercroft will be used as a ticket office and place where players can collect and return their clubs

Library lawn, from St Leonard’s hospital, 30 March 2022

That doesn’t seem appropriate either.

Several comments on the planning application suggest other more appropriate locations. But clearly the proposed visitor attraction is intended to help raise funds for the library, which is why this location has been chosen.

Ownership, income and the ‘disposal of open space’

I’ve wondered before about the ownership and management of this area of land next to the library. It is owned by the council, but was recently leased to York Explore, as reported in York Mix in October 2020.

There was apparently a public consultation, in 2020, and advertising, as required by law, of ‘the Council’s intention to dispose of open space’.

The Section 123 Open Space notice was published in the York Press on 13th August and 20th August 2020. … Only one comment/objection was received in response to the Notice
(Library lawn lease report, 22 Oct 2020, PDF)

I wasn’t aware of this at the time, and perhaps not many people were, if only one comment was received in response.

A council Executive meeting on 22 Oct 2020 (agenda item 51) agreed:

“That approval be given to grant a lease of Library Lawn and the St Leonards Hospital Ruins (Store) to Explore York and Archives Mutual Limited (Explore) until 31 March 2034 … To allow Explore to use the space in connection with the operation of York Explore library and to sub-lease to third parties in order to generate income.”

The current planning application is presumably a result, with a third party putting forward proposals to generate income.

In July 2020 another possible ‘new flagship attraction’ was also suggested for the area, though so far only the mini-golf idea seems to be at planning application stage.

Thoughts, queries

Many thoughts and queries have come to mind over the time I’ve been writing this page.

I’ve wondered what’s wrong with a place just being quiet and serious, as this place is. We all recognise the appeal of what would be called ‘fun activities’, and York is full of them, but they’re surely better placed in areas where there’s nothing much of interest there already. I’ve wondered why imposing some intrusive intervention into a place like this is seen as somehow necessary and beneficial. Why not wait for appreciation of historic places to happen naturally, as it usually does? And with so much information available so easily now, via the devices so many of us carry with us, surely it’s possible to provide more information, linked to place, in small-scale ways, for anyone wanting to understand more?

Would this not be a good place for outdoor plays, over the summer months? Like the Mystery Plays that were held in the Museum Gardens, but on a smaller scale? That could bring in income and seems to fit with the setting. Maybe that has already been considered and dismissed.

I’ve wondered too about what’s going to happen to the Anglian Tower, just behind the library, a rather magical and atmospheric place which I’ve written about before, some years back.

Maybe you have to visit at the right time to find places magical and atmospheric. Maybe I’ve just been lucky to have seen the Anglian Tower and the buildings around library lawn in particular light, at particular times, when there’s been no one else around, when the history and complexity of it is so apparent.

The kind of moment you won’t probably get next to a mini-golf course full of people.

But then of course there’s no money to be made in people just wandering through or sitting and quietly appreciating. And we have to fund our libraries somehow, as libraries too are special and important places.

Your thoughts?

There have been comments in support of the planning application, alongside the objections. You can add your own comments or read the other comments and documents on this link to the planning application. And of course comments are welcome here on this page, below.

. . . . .

Welcome to everyone who has joined the mailing list recently, I hope notification of this page has reached you. Thanks too for your ko-fi coffees, which are always appreciated, either in recognition and support of the large archive of pages hosted here on York Stories, or to power more pages in the present time. There’s a lot to cover as I try to catch up. For various reasons this page has been in draft form for many weeks, and it’s good to get it published at last. Rougier Street next I think …

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Turnstiles, Grosvenor Road end, 24 April 2022

At the end of the previous page, after looking at the clearance work on the Duncombe Barracks site, I said we were on our way to the library next. But on the way, turning from Burton Stone Lane onto Grosvenor Road, we pass Bootham Crescent, and it’s not really possible to ignore the fact — though in many ways I’d like to — that clearance work has started here too in the last couple of weeks.

In late afternoon sunshine there’s still a certain charm to the familiar red-painted turnstiles. Some of them, and the nearby gates, have been boarded over quite a few times, attempts to keep out young intruders who kept finding ways in.

Since the sale of the ground was completed, and in preparation for the demolition, security guards have been on site. Presumably in connection with that, lights above the turnstile gates were on again in the evenings. Odd to see that again, reminding me of evening games, queues here, supporters passing and laughing, police vans parked.

I think – I hope – that we all understand the cultural significance of old traditional football grounds like this one. And also that for fans of this particular club, the end of this one has been poignant and painful.

An excellent piece by Tony Cole in the Guardian describes the importance of Bootham Crescent from a fan’s perspective.

Dear old place. It looks so humble, small, unassuming, this part of the Grosvenor Road end. Hard to imagine the tall townhouses that will in due course be built here.

Inside the ground, in recent days, machinery has been lifting the once carefully-tended turf, scooping it up. Turf and earth piled on what used to be the pitch. Green grass and yellow dandelions now in mounds of brown.

Outside, some distance above the ground, on the grey-brown wall of the Grosvenor Road end, a plant, a corydalis, green leaves and yellow flowers. Still surviving up there since arriving as a wind-blown seed some years ago. Below it, several clumps of its offspring.

For now, while the heavy plant machinery does its work inside, the little plant outside blooms on.

It may have time to set seed again before this wall comes down. So maybe some day, when this wall is gone, a crack in a pavement or a townhouse forecourt might give a new home to its cheery yellow and green.

But for now, by York City’s old home, I’m remembering the red and blue.

Goodbye Bootham Crescent, dear old neighbour.

The post Goodbye Bootham Crescent appeared first on York Stories.

View across the Duncombe Barracks site, 22 March 2022

Previously, a wander on the equinox brought us to the Duncombe Barracks site on Burton Stone Lane. The light was fading then, so I revisited a couple of days later.

I’ve written about this site before, in 2018, when the city council was thinking about buying the land, which it later did. A planning application was later submitted, and approved in March last year.

In recent weeks, in preparation for the housing development here, the site has been cleared of the vegetation that had grown up in recent years, as well as some of the longer-established trees and hedges on the boundaries. It’s now easier, with the clearer view from the street, to appreciate the size of the site and see how it sits in context with neighbouring buildings.

This is I think one of the most interesting development sites in York. A few reasons for this:

• It’s going to be housing – including affordable housing, and we need more of that
• It’s not just ‘bog-standard’ housing, but part of what is ‘arguably the UK’s most ambitious council-led housing programme in a generation’, according to an article in the Guardian
• It’s right next to another interesting development site, the Bootham Crescent football ground
• It’s in a popular and well-connected location, close to local amenities
• On a personal level – I live close to this site, and have done for 25 years, so feel I know it well, and care about its future. Also it’s not far to walk to have a look at any developments taking place …

A few photos then, all taken from the front of the site, on Burton Stone Lane.

Across the front part of the site, from Burton Stone Lane

There are a few of the old barracks buildings on the site, on two of its boundaries, including a small block of houses that never looked occupied. These will all be demolished in due course.

Duncombe Barracks site: view across from one corner to another, 22 March 2022

There’s still a Duncombe Barracks, on a smaller site, to the side of this part of the site that was sold.

The church of St Luke’s is next door, on the other side.

St Luke’s church, and one corner of the barracks site

The planned development is designed to be set back on this corner.

‘the removal of the existing building allows the creation of a community garden in front of the west end of St. Luke’s Church, which directly engages the site with Burton Stone Lane and the wider community, and gives the church greater status in the street.’
(Committee report, 30 March 2021)

The adjacent Bootham Crescent football ground is now disused and demolition and development work will presumably start there soon. The top of the David Longhurst stand, at the Shipton Street end of the ground, can be seen in the distance, behind the remaining barracks buildings.

Looking across the site to the boundary with the football ground

The red painted corrugated iron is the back of the Popular Stand.

Looking across the site, 22 March 2022

The site clearance removed a few mature trees, with some of the stumps visible on the far boundary.

When I first moved into the area 25 years ago there was a line of handsome mature trees along there. Two were felled in years past, a few were left when the council bought this part of the site. After the recent clearance work one now remains of the original line. Always sad to see trees removed, but in this particular case probably justifiable to facilitate this particular development.

This is just one site in what is seen as an ambitious building programme by City of York council. (This article gives more context and detail.) The plans for the site have received a fair amount of media coverage, including most recently Senior councillor defends building £500k homes on York council land.

Some of the housing on this site is to be sold on the open market. The Press article quotes the council’s director of economy, regeneration and housing, Tracey Carter:

“We are unapologetic in the fact that the open market sales are subsidising the quality and the volume of affordable housing that we’re able to deliver.”

This area is apparently a ‘highly sought after location’, according to estate agents, who often also mention proximity to two of the region’s leading independent schools (St Peter’s and Bootham). It’s close to many shops, and a local primary school.

It’s also not far from the city centre. And from here, the Minster is visible on the horizon.

You can see the Minster from here …

(Whether the Minster towers will still be visible when the football ground is built on, I’m not sure.)

Apparently there were no objections to the planning application (ref 20/01902/FULM) when it was open for comment on the planning portal. Which seems highly unusual. So presumably everyone is feeling generally positive about the housing soon to be built here? Comments welcome below, dear readers. Ko-fi coffees also welcome, to power perusal of various other plans and changes, as we work our way towards the city centre. (Library lawn next …)

The post Progress on Duncombe Barracks site appeared first on York Stories.

By the front of the hospital, down Wigginton Road, escaping away from the traffic down the path by allotments, descending the sloped path where greenery is already brightening, down onto the lower level where the trains used to run, under the curved brickwork of the bridge. Turning left, onto a daffodil-lined path, passing a solar-powered clock, a reminder of the old factory. Part of its old cleared site on the right, Cocoa West.

Then along the stretch of road rather dull to walk in winter, now livened up by so much greening over of hawthorn in the hedges. Wild things beginning their spring growth and flowering beneath. Daisy, dandelion, celandine.

There’s still a factory, on this site next to the old cleared one, and from it, on this sunny Sunday, comes the scent of cocoa.

On its boundary, forsythia and flowering currant — those old stalwarts of so many suburban gardens — fling their bright and brazen flowers into the midst of subdued hues from tree branches whose buds are yet to open.

Past two stone gateposts, perhaps marking the site of the long-gone herdsman’s cottage. Across a wide road into the factory site, to the cycle track into Bootham Stray, and an escape from the road and its traffic.

Looking for blackthorn in flower, and heading for a large area of it I’ve appreciated in other years. Climbing over a stile, into the piece of land between the railway line and the cycle track. The road isn’t far away, but it feels forgotten about now, here in this wilder place.

The blackthorn remains budded, no flowers yet, despite the sun beaming down on it across this open land.

I head for the convenient gap in the hedge, across a bit of ditch which thankfully isn’t water-filled, and emerge back onto the cycle path side, after a brief period of being caught up in brambles and stumbling out to startle a passing cyclist.

Back then, to continue the wander on another bit of the stray, on the other side of the road.

A gate here is sometimes left open and sometimes closed. It’s clearly controversial.

(Rude word obscured)

At the level crossing, walking over the line slanting its way across the road, lines in the light, heading for Scarborough.

Across the road, a cockerel crows from the allotments. On the strip of grass between the allotments and the road I walk past pollen-filled catkins and the bright soft leaves of hedge mustard.

Then through another couple of gates in this strangely divided-up place, back to having to cross the road again, where a public footpath sign on the other side points the path across this grassed land. I head for the middle of it and stand, and look back towards the city, the factory, the railway line.

Thinking about how long it’s been since I went towards town to look at developments on those brownfield sites. Generally preferring the green fields, and heading outwards. Looking at plants more than buildings.

When the housing is built on Cocoa West and the old factory building is filled with flats I guess more people will be out here, walking on the stray. At present I rarely see anyone else, beyond the many cyclists using the cycle track through part of this stray land.

It’s just as well there’s no one else around, as I may look odd picking nettle tops. As I do, after donning the necessary gloves and getting a bag out of my rucksack. A traditional springtime tonic, apparently, though I didn’t know this until a few years back. They need a lot of washing, back home, then steaming to get rid of the sting, then they’re a welcome green thing to eat just as the new green things are emerging.

Time to head back home, across the field and the road, by the allotments where the cockerel crows. To the edge of the stray, where the housing begins.

Past an old faded wooden street sign on a house wall, denoting one end of Burton Stone Lane. A wide road lined with lime trees on the verges and generously sized interwar houses down both sides. Forsythia in bloom in the front gardens. The sound of children playing, shouting. Passing the park, with families just leaving, heading home for tea.

I can smell someone’s tea cooking, and realise how hungry I am, and remember how long Burton Stone Lane is, and how I’m heading for the other end of it. It seems longer than usual, and I hope that at home we’ll have something else to eat and not just the steamed nettles.

Past the shops, past the church, past gardens with daffodils brightly bobbing in the breeze, and pausing a while to looked at the cleared part of the former Duncombe Barracks site. More on that story later perhaps.

. . . . .

A lot to catch up on. Your ko-fi coffees help pay the bills and power more pages. Thank you.

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Sunset over Clifton, with Bootham Crescent floodlights, Jan 2021

The photo above was taken from Crichton Avenue bridge, looking across the Clifton area of the city, in January this year. I’ve included it as the first image because this skyline, so familiar to me and many others, has since lost something. To the left, silhouetted against the sunset sky, are two of the floodlights that lit the Bootham Crescent football ground for so many years.

I’m writing this at 7pm on the last day of December. Technical difficulties and other issues earlier mean I won’t be able to send out a mailing list email about this, or the previous page, so perhaps no one will realise it’s here and read it, but I thought I should make the effort anyway, as this end of year review is now a tradition.

Also, there were quite a few things I wanted to add to these pages and didn’t, so this seems like a good time to at least give them a brief mention.

In January, plans to build a multi-storey car park at St George’s Field were approved – part of the wider Castle Gateway plans. (Approval doesn’t mean it will happen, as this proposal was seen as controversial, and sparked debate and disagreement, which continues.)

At the heart of the Castle Gateway plans is of course the castle – Clifford’s Tower – which back in February was surrounded by an impressive scaffolding structure.

Clifford’s Tower surrounded by scaffolding, Feb 2021

Major conservation works to the tower’s historic fabric have been taking place, alongside the installation of a new free standing roof deck.

In February came ‘the most shameful and absurd decision any committee has ever made‘, according to the author Terry Deary. Quite a claim. He was speaking to BBC Radio York, in response to a planning committee decision to refuse plans for a ‘Roman Quarter’ on Rougier Street. ‘They have put a knife into the city,’ he said.

I’ve just looked at a draft page I did on this, which didn’t get finished and published. I want to just include a couple of images from it.

This is how the end of Rougier Street looks at present (photo taken one evening earlier this year when I was up that way looking at the Triangular Gardens):

Approaching Rougier Street, 2021

As you pass through the archway in the city walls, this is what would greet you if the Roman Quarter proposals had gone ahead.

What had been proposed … Roman Quarter (Image: planning application documents)

Presumably the massive great bit on the top was intended to finance the interesting bit underneath. Glad it wasn’t approved, and still surprised at Mr Deary’s hyperbole, all these months on. As far as I know he doesn’t live in York so wouldn’t have to see the huge thing as often as we would.

Anyway, moving on. It was spring next.

Daffodils on Bootham Stray, 20 March 2021

Daffodils on the bar walls are a familiar sight, and have clearly been deliberately planted in that city centre location. But it’s always interesting and a bit odd to see tidy clumps of large-flowered daffodils in more remote locations. These were a surprising sight in the middle of Bootham Stray, a clump of yellow standing alone in what was otherwise a landscape made up mainly of grass and nettles. Presumably deliberately planted here by someone. Or perhaps brought in in soil dumped from somewhere else.

Back to the built environment, moving on into April.

In recent years the city has seen many blocks of purpose-built student accommodation built, and although it might have seemed like there must now be enough to satisfy demand, apparently that’s not the case, with plans for more still being considered. In April plans for another new block – on the former Plumbase site on Fawcett Street, came before the planning committee. Concerns were expressed about ‘teeny tiny rooms’. The application wasn’t approved, but deferred. It came back before the committee again during the course of the year.

Also in April, the floodlights at Bootham Crescent came on for the final time. Those of us living close to the ground perhaps thought that we’d already seen the last dimming of the lights before that, with the disruptions caused by Covid meaning that there wasn’t an obvious farewell game. For those of us who cared, fans, and neighbours, this final switch-on was significant and important. And also very nicely done. (As reported in yorkmix.com.)

In May … oh lovely May. I had some notes about things I could include, but …

Clifton Park, May 2021

… it was May, and it was green and lovely, as it always is.

I wrote a flurry of pages back in May.

In June, the plans for student accommodation on the former Plumbase site on Fawcett Street were back with the planning committee. Though the officer report recommended approval, the committee voted to refuse.

In July, after their last switch on back in April, the Bootham Crescent floodlights came down. Lowered slowly onto the now meadow-like long grass of the pitch. Such a familiar part of the skyline, and so familiar to me after so long living nearby. It took some time to adjust to their absence.

In August, the Press reported that a new area of woodland near Knapton in York was to be named York Community Woodland. It’s a place I’ve wanted to cover here on York Stories but haven’t got around to yet. More information on this link.

In September, plans for the former Plumbase site on Fawcett Street were back with the planning committee again …

Away from the buildings, I find I appreciate more and more a walk by the Foss, and had a pleasant stomp down this way in September.

By the Foss, 10 September 2021

In October, plans for the closure and redevelopment of part of the Barnitts shop on Colliergate were approved, having been deferred at an earlier planning committee meeting.

The Barnitts store on Colliergate remains, and clearly that’s the most important thing.

Early on, I looked at the plans to turn the former Drill Hall into townhouses and apartments, and it looked like just another development of more cramped housing with not much light, which was a bit disappointing. It has been suggested to me that it would make a good music venue. Makes sense. We’re rather lacking in those now, here in York. But perhaps not financially viable.

In November, plans for more student accommodation went to the area planning sub-committee. On this occasion, not in the former Plumbase premises on Fawcett Street, but at the Castle Howard Ox pub on Townend Street, off Clarence Street. The application was refused, despite the officer recommendation to approve.

Moving on to November. In November, and at many other times through this year (and previous years), I walked through Bootham Park.

Bootham Park, November 2021

I was trying to get a better sense of the plans for its redevelopment, as discussed in a page earlier this year, particularly in regard to the loss of trees, and what looks like an unreasonable amount of car parking proposed, for a site so close to the city centre.

In December, the planning committee approved plans for the Cocoa West development, as mentioned on the previous page.

The same committee meeting discussed a planning application for the former Mecca Bingo building on Fishergate – replacing it with purpose built student accommodation – 276 rooms. The application was deferred.

Presumably still a lot of money to be made from providing purpose-built student accommodation, hence the high number of applications still coming in, for various sites, and the way that the former Plumbase plans kept coming back through the year.

Away from the buildings, sidling gently into December’s quietness and its winter skies, and the tree branches against them. In December, doing my best to appreciate all the local and good things, as I always try to do, I had a walk up to Clifton Park to hug a couple of old beech trees and watch the sunset to the west.

Clifton Park, December 2021

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Thanks to everyone who has supported the site this year with virtual coffees, and added comments with information and memories. I also appreciate the good work of the local journalists and local democracy reporters who have so helpfully covered the many planning applications this year and continue to keep us all informed.

Best wishes to everyone for 2022.

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