King’s Square: moments captured, remembered

As the ‘reinvigoration’ of King’s Square is due to start in a couple of months I’m adding a few more pages recording how it was, how it is.

York Street Band remember Nellie and the bikers

An extract from a half-hour video about the York Street Band, from WLMArchive. In this snippet they’re talking about memories of busking in York (late 70s/early 80s) and a woman called Nellie who used to dance when they played. Most memorably one occasion in King’s Square, with some Hell’s Angels.

Pamela Ward’s account of York included in the Esher report of the late 1960s refers to ‘the rockers with their huge motor bikes and black leather congregating in King’s Square’.

Night falls on King’s Square, 2012

A short film — time lapse photography of King’s Square, a few hours one evening last year. A valuable record, from skyfilming.com. The most obvious features are the soon to be removed mulberry tree, without the Christmas lights which now adorn it apparently permanently, and the vehicle parked right in the middle of the square for no apparent reason.

See also Benches in King’s Square (the one in the foreground to the left is ‘Wooz’s bench’, furthest from the camera is the bench provided by Sound Effect).

More info

See the Women’s Liberation Music Archive page on the York Street Band. Includes a sketch of the band by Baz Ward (the York artist whose painting of the Bile Beans wall is featured elsewhere on this site).
The interview above was part of the Music and Liberation Project.

And, fab — a photo of Nellie, and more photos of the York Street Band, and Nellie (in St Sampson’s Square, 1979)