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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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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Wildlife in York, 1932

While looking for information in association with the plans for Bootham Park, I found the document above, from 1932. It’s from a report from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, part of an appendix entitled ‘A Scientific Survey of York and District’, prepared for the York meeting. The Association met in York for its annual meeting from 31 August to 7 September 1932. (Its very first meeting had also taken place in York, in 1831.)

A J A Woodcock’s report includes the following interesting observations on the city’s wildlife in the early 1930s:

No account of the natural history of the district would be complete without a reference to the special charms of York itself. Though not at all a small city, its associations are essentially rural. Its older parts have generous gardens, even in the centre of the city, and the extent to which these are frequented by birds is quite unusual. The dawn chorus in the spring and early summer causes comment from the visitor from another town, when he hears it for the first time.

For several years a pair of kestrels has nested in the main tower of York Minster, a pair of barn owls in the turrets of the Theatre Royal, and another pair in Bootham Bar. A pair of tawny owls frequents Bootham Park, and another pair the Museum Gardens. The kingfisher, which is found along the banks of the Ouse, may be regularly seen on the river within the city boundaries. A few minutes’ walk from the houses in Clifton will enable one to put up a snipe, and curlews may often be heard calling when we walk through the streets during the quiet of night.

A pair of otters has for some years reared young on the river Ouse, and usually they may be seen during the night watches in the vicinity of the old Guildhall and Common Hall Lane — in other words, in the very heart of the city. Otters are often found along the course of the river Foss, and at several other points on the outskirts of the city. The grey squirrel frequently comes into the gardens of the houses in Clifton.

—source document, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library

I’ve read this several times and can’t quite believe that there was so much wildlife activity so close to the city centre back then. But it must be the case, this being a reliable source found in the archives.

Back then, the city’s suburbs were much smaller, of course, and owls and kestrels wouldn’t have had to fly so far to find open fields. There was also a larger area of open green space close by, not just the Bootham Park ‘gala field‘, which still exists, but what was then a cricket field to the north of it, where the city’s main hospital now stands.

Tawny owls can still be heard calling in the night, in the area around Bootham Park and the nearby football ground at Bootham Crescent. I’ve not heard anyone mention barn owls nesting in the city centre, or kestrels — though there are peregrine falcons on the Minster.

I recall reports a few years back of otters on the Ouse, and I know that kingfishers have been seen on the Foss. I think we’ve all seen grey squirrels, in and around the city centre. Not mentioned in the above, but now fairly common, are urban foxes.

If you’d like to read more about the wildlife and wider environment in the area around York at that time, you can view the document in full on this link.

Your comments and coffees welcome as always.

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Plans for Bootham Park: new buildings in the area around the chapel, from ERL planning application

Hard to believe that in a few days it will be exactly six years since Bootham Park Hospital closed. This month, after years of concerns about its future, and with various visions for it publicised, there’s an actual planning application available to view on the council’s planning portal:

21/02108/FULM

(if that direct link doesn’t work, go to planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/ and enter the reference number 21/02108/FULM in the search box)

Local media reports in recent months covered the sale of Bootham Park to ERL, and the ‘visions’ for how it might look. These included a rather idyllic looking representation of all kinds of lovely things going on in the green space in front of it.

How Bootham Park might look … (Image: ERL)

There would be a walkway around it, a picnic area, an edible garden, a sensory garden, sports pitches, and perhaps a pop-up outdoor cinema occasionally, and a temporary market.

I wondered how all that was going to fit in, and work together. Boring of me, perhaps, but I wondered about those messy but important details like dog poo on sports pitches.

Anyway, we now have the actual planning application, not just nice representations.

Inevitably, it’s an application with a huge number of documents and a huge amount of detail. It’s such a historic and complex site, containing many buildings from different periods, and a large area of parkland around them. Here’s an aerial view, from ERL’s website boothampark.co.uk:

Bootham Park site, aerial view, from boothampark.co.uk

Note that the application site is marked with the red line boundary. The plans aren’t for the whole of the site we think of as Bootham Park, as the NHS has retained in its ownership an area of land in the north-eastern corner.

I’ve written about this place many times before, being one of those locals who has a certain sense of connection to it, having lived in the area close to it for some time — 30 years. I probably took it for granted for most of that time, but certainly haven’t in the six years since the hospital closed, as it was clear that it might end up a gated, privatised place. For a while, after the hospital closure, it felt like it already was that, with a security guard on patrol to keep us off the field.

As I’ve said before, it seems to me that the most important aspect of any development is that the current access through the grounds, from Bridge Lane and Clarence Street to Bootham, is preserved, and protected, for pedestrians and cyclists. If not, then we would lose something many of us have valued for many years.

In the available planning application documents I looked for information on the right of way, specifically.

Apparently it isn’t, technically, a right of way at present, but under these plans would become one:

Pedestrians and cyclists can also access the site from the north and south running from Bootham/A19 to the south and to the north to the pedestrian pathway there, linking Grosvenor Road with Bridge Lane, that divides this application site from the
York Hospital site. The pedestrian/cycling route is called ‘The Avenue’; while the public make use of this it is not a Public Right of Way and remains in private ownership.
Should planning permission be granted then a formal right of way or similar dedicated right will be granted in perpetuity.

– Planning statement (PDF)

Sounds great, good news. But I also know that elements of planning applications get changed later, after public attention has moved on to other things, so I hope that this aspect is focused on and legally protected, and that the route through doesn’t end up as a ‘permissive path’, but a properly protected right of way.

The planning statement also emphasises that the developers are committed to preserving the wider public access to the grounds:

Enabling and securing (in perpetuity) public access, including sports pitches use by the adjoining school and other schools during term time. In addition, public access will be secured of the large open area in front of the main listed building.
This will include a 680-metre exercise route around the perimeter of the open space which will be accessible at all times. The open space area will include sensory planting/edible gardens, flexible break out spaces, seating, and spaces for
contemplation alongside natural play equipment as well as biodiversity enhancement. All, of course subject to the Council’s approval.

It looks convincing, and like it’s meant, and I’d like to believe it is. But there’s clearly going to be a huge investment in the site, and it’s clearly intended as a ‘luxury’ kind of place for its residents, so I can’t see how the kind of public access suggested is going to work, without more fencing off/gating of various parts, particularly at night.

Presumably there’s more detail on these aspects in the other documents submitted with the planning application.

A massive investment will of course be needed for all this. The mere cost of the work needed on repairing and repainting the rusting dilapidated railings around the site – a kilometre in length, apparently – will be huge. Which is why it seemed a bit ludicrous that at one time there were vociferous calls for the whole place to be kept ‘for the people of York’. How on earth would we pay for it, and its upkeep?

So into its new life it goes — eventually, when yet another massively complex application for yet another historically important site eventually works its way through the system. I really hope there are enough staff in the planning department to cope with all of this. So much interest in this blossoming/gentrified city, so much money coming in, so much of the old place becoming the new place.

There are other aspects of this planning application I’d like to cover, when I’ve looked at more of the planning application documents. Intending to return to it in stages, coming in from the edges. Near the edges of the site are many trees, and various interesting smaller buildings.

. . . . .

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The pond in the park: how it used to be, spring 1983

The small triangular park area on Leeman Road, across from the Memorial Gardens, was mentioned on the previous page. It’s pictured above in spring 1983.

A comparison view, how it looks now, in spring 2021.

How it is now, spring 2021

In the 1983 photo, a profusion of flowers around a pond, which appears to have a fountain in the centre of it. Benches and bins and fancy lampposts are symmetrically arranged around it.

Over the years various flowerbeds have been removed and turfed over, there’s now only a couple of the lampposts, the bins have gone and so have the benches. There are still flowers, but far fewer, and confined to the narrow beds by the paving. The paving is no longer ‘crazy paving’, but tarmac.

These changes have taken place in stages, over the years, and were presumably intended to keep maintenance costs down. I’ve written about it before, some years back.

Despite all the changes , the pond is still there. Recent research led me to thinking more about it: why it’s there, whether anyone notices it much. It has been difficult to find information online about this small triangular park, which is why I included the earlier page, and why I wanted to revisit.

Before the park and the pond

Previously this triangular area appears to have been covered with trees and shrubs, as shown in this old postcard of the area.

Postcard showing the triangular park covered in trees, with railings around, 1907 (thecardindex.com)

The pond in particular

When looking at the old maps of the area for the previous piece, I noticed that a fish pond was marked on the 1931 map.

1931 map (from old-maps.co.uk)

Judging by its rather distinctive shape, it’s the same pond.

So the trees and shrubs were cleared to make way for a formal pond, a fish pond, which evidence suggests has been there for more than 90 years.

Quite a ‘historic feature’ then. Perhaps it was constructed when the Memorial Gardens across the road were laid out.

I thought I’d revisit the area, to focus on the fish pond, and possibly peer into it.

Pond in triangular park, 10 May 2021

One person walked through the park while I was there, but otherwise it was empty. Perhaps because there are no benches to sit on, and the grass was too damp to sit on. A few geese were wandering about in the evening sunshine.

I wondered why the pond was still here. I thought I’d heard that it was going to be filled in. I doubted very much that it had fish in it.

I peered into it.

Pond, being peered into.

It looked better than I was expecting. Water lily leaves, other aquatic plants. A bit of movement of the leaves, in the breeze … but wait, a fish! There’s a fish!

Not your haddock kind of fish, obviously, but one of those small ‘ornamental’ ones, a little fishy, dark coloured, gliding about in there. (Apologies that there’s no photo, I can’t do underwater photography.)

There appeared to be several fish. I wandered around the edge and peered in from various angles, and was quite enchanted by it briefly.

It just shows that it’s important to fact check, and do a site visit if possible. When I first started to draft the text for this page I’d been convinced that there couldn’t possibly be any fish in the so-called fish pond. Mainly because I remember a big fiery beacon being lit on the plinth in the middle of the pond, back in 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

Beacon in centre of pond, 8 May 2015

It seemed at the time a strange site to choose.

There weren’t many of us there that evening, partly perhaps because the publicity about it referred to this place ‘Triangular Gardens’, and no one knew where that was.

But a comment added to a Press article the next day suggests that at least one member of the public was aware of the fish in the fish pond:

‘there was no consideration for the pond over which the beacon was built. This morning what was once a pleasant small pond full of fish was left as a blackened stagnant pool of water full of burnt bits of wood.’

Notes and queries

I know very little about fish, and their needs and preferences, beyond the obvious need to be in water. I wonder how they’ve survived in there all this time, and are presumably breeding, as it’s hard to imagine new fish have been added to a pond in a park that has clearly been modified to make it ‘low maintenance’.

When I wrote about the park six years ago I thought the pond should be removed, partly because it’s not very wildlife-friendly, with those curved concrete edges. Partly because it seemed to be just a thing in the way, in the middle of the path going straight across. If you can’t sit on a bench by it and look at it, what’s the point of it?

But now, having realised that it’s quite a historic structure, and that it does have life in it, I wonder why more hasn’t been made of it, and the area around it. Why everything has been simplified down to very little left. It may not be the most pleasant place to sit during the day when the traffic’s heavy, but there was very little traffic around in the evening when I was there, and it might have been nice perhaps to sit on a bench by the pond, like people used to, back in the old days of the 1980s.

By the pond, 1983

And a fountain?

The 1983 photos show that it appears to have had a fountain in the middle of it. The figure is possibly a flying Mercury? Similar to the one in Rowntree Park? I wonder what happened to it.

I can’t help thinking about the fountain in Parliament Street, and how many people were upset when it was removed, even though it was a relatively recent addition, and not particularly attractive. Meanwhile, completely under the radar, apparently generally unnoticed and unappreciated, this rather more historic structure, designed as a centrepiece, and appreciated in the past.

The park and its pond were clearly appreciated by my Dad, who took those photos of it one day in 1983, presumably after leaving work at the nearby railway offices.

Time to leave the park and its histories, noticing on the way that its low boundary wall still has the small stumps of the railings that once surrounded it.

Remnants of railings

If you have any information to add, comments are welcome below.

. . . . .

One walk in early May, with the purpose of looking at one building, has led to several pages, many connections, as so often happens. It’s all connected. Particularly perhaps here in the railway part of town.

We’re about to go through one of the arches in the walls to look at the building I was aiming for before all these diversions. More on that story later. In the meantime, thanks for your virtual coffees in support of these local ramblings.

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May evening, Clifton

Yesterday, 1st May, I attempted to catch up with some of the happenings regarding buildings. Today, 2nd May, I got around to doing what I really wanted to do yesterday but couldn’t for various reasons — I got out into the burgeoning green on the local patch. Not exactly on the doorstep, but near enough.

The recent situation seems to have made more people take more notice of local green places, and certainly I’ve noticed more people in the places where I used to walk and see hardly anyone. I can understand that it’s not very appealing in the long cold winter months. But now, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. If you’re too busy during the day, or finding it difficult to get motivated to get out into it, as I was, the bright evening light beckons. Some of the hawthorn blossom is just starting to open. Cow parsley in bloom soon. Just now is the right time to appreciate the ‘leaping greenly spirits of trees’, as the poet E E Cummings put it.

I’ve included a picture of these particular trees above before, some years back, five years back, while doing an ‘April daily photo‘ thing. I have thought about doing a ‘May daily’ this year, but if I can manage that, they won’t be very long. Just as this one isn’t. But anyway, just a reminder that when possible it’s a good idea to get away from staring at screens, and be thankful for

the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

— E E Cummings

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