Coppergate Centre multi-storey car park and Clifford’s Tower, from Foss Bridge (2006)

On the previous page, after serious thoughts, and not wanting to ‘close low’ on this series of pages on the Castle Gateway area, I thought that it might be nice to take imaginary flight, picturing perhaps one of the city’s pigeons, so that we didn’t have to concern ourselves with the mundane issue of crossing the busy road of Tower Street.

Flying a short distance we find ourselves at the multi-storey car park attached to the Coppergate Centre. From up there on its higher levels we get a bird’s eye view of the area around it. Ten years ago I took a few photos from up there, and revisited this summer to capture similar views ten years on.

Here’s the first 2007 view, looking over part of Piccadilly:

Piccadilly buildings from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

Note the building in the foreground, with greenery growing from its gutter, a former car showroom apparently. To the left, a little further back, the old Reynard’s Garage (and former Airspeed factory). Also prominent is Ryedale House.

And here we are in 2017:

Piccadilly from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

Ten years on, the building in the foreground looks smart and clean. It’s now known as Piccadilly Lofts. I always liked that building, and it’s pleasing to see that it’s still here alongside the Foss. Also striking, I thought, in the photo above, is how Ryedale House looks better now it’s empty, without the various colours of blinds and curtains at its windows. Though there were plans to convert it to residential accommodation there’s been no progress on that front.

The other major difference is that the Reynard’s/Airspeed building on Piccadilly has been demolished. As previously mentioned, the cleared site is to be home to Spark:York, housed in shipping containers.

The former Reynard’s garage is more prominent in this closer view of Piccadilly, again from summer 2007:

Piccadilly and the entrance to Merchantgate, view from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

And this summer:

Piccadilly from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

In 2017, there’s an open area where the Reynards/Airspeed building used to be, and on the back wall of it a colourful mural is visible.

We’re close to the Foss, and moving to the left, we’re looking out over and along it, upstream. In 2007:

River Foss from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

And 2017:

River Foss view from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

The main difference is the new large St John Central building, student accommodation, in the Hungate development area, closing the view along the riverside towards Peasholme Green/Foss Islands. But the ‘Destructor’ chimney is still a landmark, as is Rowntree Wharf, to the right.

We’ve now moved beyond the ‘Castle Gateway’ area, as it has been defined. Here’s another view from ‘on high’, in 2007, taking in the wider landscape, to the Walmgate/Navigation Road area.

View across the Piccadilly and Walmgate area from the multi-storey car park, July 2007

We’ve moved to the right of where we were before. The building now known as Piccadilly Lofts is in the foreground, with the Foss just below it. Piccadilly is behind it, hidden from view. St Denys’s church on Walmgate is a landmark. There’s a large crane to the left of the church. In the far distance, hills are visible, an open landscape.

So much change, in the ten years since. Summer 2017:

View across the Piccadilly and Walmgate area from the multi-storey car park, August 2017

Student accommodation blocks on the horizon to the left, in the Walmgate/Navigation Road area. Close to St Denys’s church a development of town houses on a back plot behind Walmgate, next to the Spark:York site. Looking at them, with the grey and rather boxy/industrial upper storey, and noticing a similar look to other bits of the skyline around here, I’m wondering why there were so many comments suggesting that the Spark:York shipping containers were going to look horribly out of place in this area.

Here’s a closer view:

Piccadilly and Walmgate area rooftops, August 2017

In 2007 I didn’t take many photos of the views from up here. But on the recent visit the light was wonderful and everything was looking bright and handsome, so I took quite a lot, including, of course, a fair few of Clifford’s Tower.

Clifford’s Tower and its car park, August 2017

Recently there’s been so much focus on the more familiar view of this building, from the street level, from the front and the steps. Interesting to see it from up here. From here it looks a bit odd, that green mound, like the car park was there first and the historic structure has been plonked down on it. It reminded me of a jelly mould. A wider grass ‘apron’ around it might be more elegant and appropriate.

Clifford’s Tower, a less familiar view

And then here, it was like seeing a familiar thing afresh, and I realised that I rarely look at it from this side, or of course from so high up. From up here, looking across to it, it was good to see it framed by the greenery of trees rather than surrounded by tarmac.

Then to move round to another viewing point and see it rising above brick and pantile.

Clifford’s Tower across rooftops

And alongside the standalone iconic structure of Clifford’s Tower I also admired this pleasing streetscape, looking towards Peckitt Street, heading down to the Ouse. Again, the trees enhance it.

View across Tower Street towards Peckitt Street

To finish this page of ‘bird’s eye view’ images, a view of the Foss.

View of the river Foss by Piccadilly, looking towards Castle Mills, Aug 2017

So pleasing, I thought. It’s clear, from up here, that a green corridor has been formed by the Foss and the trees, shrubs and weeds around it, and on its (usually slow-moving) waters. We’re looking downstream, towards Castle Mills, the Foss Basin and the confluence, where we were on the previous pages. On one side of the river we have the Castle car park, stretching almost to the river’s edge, with a bit of walkway, grass and trees at its edge. At the other side, by Ryedale House, there’s the rather scruffy building, with the humped low roof. I’ve always found it rather pleasing.

Looking at this we then have to imagine what the proposed developments might change here. There’s an application to build a hotel (17/00429/FULM) on the site where the single storey building is now. That, of course, will be much taller, five or six storeys. Much loftier and more dominant than what’s there now. And if we lose the Castle car park and get more public space close to Clifford’s Tower we’re likely to get another sizeable building at the river’s edge, as suggested in published plans. So the reflections in the river will change, reflecting buildings, not light and sky so much.

Time to leave this area and focus on other things. There’s a lot to cover, and I’ve been thinking about Holgate. Time to fly off over there.

. . . . .

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The post Castle Gateway and beyond: from a different perspective, 2007 and 2017 appeared first on York Stories.

Blue Bridge, at the entrance to the ‘Foss Basin’

After crossing Blue Bridge, where we ended the previous page, I continued on from the confluence back towards town via the short length of towpath alongside the other side of the Foss, towards Castle Mills Bridge. This area is known as the Foss Basin. Again, as on previous pages, I find myself thinking about names, and looking at signs.

Before we ponder the names and the signs, a couple of ‘then and now’ views. Not going back many decades, just the one decade, to begin with.

Ten years ago, in July 2007, I went for one of my exploratory/photographic wanders and ended up here in the Foss Basin, taking a few photos, including this one, from the side of the Foss Barrier, towards the Castle Museum buildings in the distance.

Foss Basin from Foss Barrier, looking towards the castle area, 16 July 2007

No vessels moored here, in mid-July 2007. This may have been because of the high river levels and flooding in summer 2007. There are several men fishing, from the walkway on the right.

I revisited this July, ten years on, not quite to the day, but as near as I could manage.

Foss Basin from Foss Barrier, looking towards the castle area, 19 July 2017

There are bits of fencing up around the Foss Barrier structures to the left, because of the work to upgrade it. Here in the Foss Basin in 2017 several vessels are moored, including Selby Tony, aka the Arts Barge. No fishermen fishing, or at least not on the day I visited. There’s more greenery, from this viewpoint — the trees/shrubs have grown, most obviously.

Looking at images taken ten years apart in the same place prompts the question: what might the place look like ten years on from now? My Future York used the ten year period to encourage us to think ahead in a creative way, in a utopian kind of way. The My Castle Gateway consultation, currently gathering ideas, focuses on this particular part of York, an interconnected series of places now under the umbrella of ‘Castle Gateway’, of which the Foss Basin is a part.

It may not have changed much in the last ten years, but the changes a couple of centuries have brought are, as you might expect, more dramatic. This watercolour by Thomas Shotter Boys records how it used to look:

A view of Castle Mills bridge by Thomas Shotter Boys (Image courtesy of York Museums Trust. Public Domain)

And here’s the 2017 view. Ryedale House on Piccadilly is rather prominent, behind Castle Mills bridge.

It’s changed a bit … Castle Mills Bridge and the Foss Basin, July 2017

Castle Mills Bridge offers another good vantage point over the Foss Basin. Here’s another of my photos from July 2007.

Foss Basin from Castle Mills Bridge, 16 July 2007

In July this year, ten years on, also from Castle Mills Bridge:

Foss Basin from Castle Mills Bridge, 19 July 2017

At this end of things, the 2017 views seem less green than the 2007 ones. In the background is the scaffolding and other structures connected with the Foss Barrier upgrade. The most obvious thing is that the basin seems busier with barges and other vessels. Still quiet though, hardly anyone around.

Castle Mills lock from Castle Mills Bridge, 19 July 2017

This time I paid more attention to the details.

Castle Mills lock, detail, 19 July 2017

All the way from Stockton …

Castle Mills lock, detail, 19 July 2017

A highlight was again the wildlife, swans and their cygnets this time. The cygnets approached with low excited cheeps, then drifted off again, towards the confluence.

Cygnets in the Foss Basin, 19 July 2017

The naming of places

I wondered how long the term ‘Foss Basin’ has been in use. It sounds comparatively modern. In a book published in 1911 Thomas Parsons Cooper mentions it as ‘the pool which we to-day designate the Foss Basin’. When the name came into use it’s hard to tell, but it doesn’t say much about the history of the place, and sounds rather drab.

Castle Mills, on the other hand, does serve to remind us of structures that once were here, by the banks of the Foss. Though hard to imagine all that now, with the traffic rushing by, up on Castle Mills Bridge.

There’s another evocative name here, on a sign on the wall by the steps down from Castle Mills Bridge.

‘Brownie Dyke’ sign, by Castle Mills Bridge/Foss Basin

I’m sure I remember a wooden sign here originally, decades back. I wanted to get a photo of its faded charms, and perhaps did so, but I can’t find it. (As I recall it was similar in style to the one on Marygate.)

It’s a lovely old name, isn’t it. I wanted to find out more about ‘Brownie Dyke’, but couldn’t find anything much from an online search, until I tried a different spelling. Searching for ‘Browney Dyke’ unlocked it, and found a few references.

Browney Dyke, mentioned in a guidebook from 1855

The sign on the wall raises thoughts/questions about how careful we should be when adding official names to a place. I wonder when the first official sign went up to denote ‘Brownie Dyke’, naming it with the ‘ie’ rather than ‘ey’. Perhaps if any new signs are added explaining the history of the place they could include this older variation of the spelling, to aid anyone researching.

Access, or lack of it

I realised, as part of my ponderings, that I don’t think I’ve ever walked all the way along the Brownie Dyke path alongside the Foss Basin until this recent visit in July 2017. On the occasions I’ve been in this area I’ve approached it from the Blue Bridge end, rather than the busy traffic of town, and after going to the Foss Barrier to take photos of the view towards the Castle Museum I’d backtrack to Blue Bridge and use the riverside path by the Ouse, past Tower Gardens, to get back into town. This seemed to make more sense than climbing the steps by Castle Mills bridge at ‘Brownie Dyke’, which only takes you onto a road that is usually too busy to cross safely.

Castle Mills bridge has been rebuilt several times. This one is rather dull.

Castle Mills Bridge, from Castle Mills lock

In This is York, published in the early 1950s, C B Knight describes the previous bridge, which sounds far more interesting: ‘Much of the original construction can still be traced if you walk down by the side of the bridge.’

Not much of interest in the construction of the present bridge here, but I was struck by this enticing view under it. Framed by the bridge, the opposite bank on the other side of the bridge looked attractive, with a small section of riverside path, and all that pleasing greenery.

A view through: under Castle Mills Bridge, 19 July 2017

Attractive but inaccessible. Railings prevent us getting close to the water by the lock, there’s no way of crossing to the other side and no continuation of the towpath under the bridge even if we could. That green area over there is only accessible at present from the back of the Castle Museum. (It’s the site of Raindale Mill, which I admired on a page some years back.)

Plans for the Castle Gateway area might include new extended riverside access here. It’s an idea many people are keen on. It would indeed be nice to be able to go under the bridge rather than over it into the traffic.

But we are going over it, for the next page, as we head for a small bit of land on the other side of Castle Mills lock.

Up the steps to the Travelodge …

Further information

History of Castle Mills Bridge – York Press

Archive images of Castle Mills

. . . . .

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Foss barrier, construction work in progress on temporary platform, 17 May 2016

Some weeks back a planning application was submitted in connection with the essential work on the (recently failed) Foss barrier. I’d been wondering what had happened to it and why I’d not heard any more about it. Here it is:

16/00803/FUL | Erection of 20m x 30.40m concrete platform to hold emergency meica kit with associated works | Foss Barrier Tower Street York

Meanwhile, a wander down there yesterday showed that work is well underway on this temporary platform which will, apparently, be in place for around two years.

If you want to see what it will look like when finished, see the ‘temporary platform visualisation’ via the link above. Or, alternatively, just wait a while, as it looks like it’s almost finished, a fact acknowledged in the email correspondence also available on the link above. ‘I would like to deal with the application as soon as possible given that the development is almost constructed on site.’

Email correspondence from the Environment Agency summarises the work currently underway:

the temporary platform which will elevate the MEICA kit above the extreme flood level to facilitate the major refurbishment works on the Foss Barrier pumping station will be in use for 18 months to 2 years according to our latest programme of works. This is an estimated date and we will continue to update the COYC throughout so we can advise the members of the public on the latest, estimated end date. Essentially, the Environment Agency wants to complete the major refurbishment works on the Foss Barrier as quickly as possible.

Difficult to see anyone objecting to these necessary works, after the failure of the barrier in December had such a devastating impact on so many homes and businesses. There are, inevitably, some letters from nearby properties expressing concerns, including one suggesting — jokingly I think — that because of the inconvenience a reduction in council tax payments could be arranged?

Interesting to see the rapid progress on this temporary platform. A couple more photos follow, and information about an event happening this weekend, where you can find out more.

Foss barrier, work on temporary platform, 17 May 2016

Work at the Foss barrier, temporary platform under construction, 17 May 2016

More information

The Environment Agency is holding a public exhibition this week, at Hotel 53, Piccadilly, York on Friday 20 May (12pm – 7pm) and Saturday 21 May (10am – 5pm).

There will be an opportunity for residents and businesses to comment on flood defence proposals, and Environment Agency and City of York Council staff will be on hand to discuss the proposals and give advice.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to see copies of the recently published Foss Barrier Investigation report.

The post Foss barrier: temporary platform under construction appeared first on York Stories.

Foss barrier, summer 2007

Poor old Foss barrier. We loved it once. Well, many people admired it. It even won awards:

The design of the barrier and adjacent flood walls replicate the architecture of the city’s famous buildings and walls. The scheme has received several awards by organisations including the Institute of Civil Engineers and the Brick Development Association.

– Environment Agency (PDF on this link)

Or, as my Pevsner guide puts it:

(See also ‘Further information’, at the end of this piece, for notes on the date of construction.)

Just after Christmas, when the barrier failed, I went Googling for more info. If you Google ‘Foss barrier’ now you’ll get thousands of articles about its recent failure. So you might never find the interesting ‘historical’ documents I found, from the 1990s.

Via those documents we can go back a bit, to recent history, to the days when the defences were new and exciting things. 

Compiled around 1991 (published in 1993) when the Foss Barrier was very new, other now familiar defences were quite new, and the North St/Wellington Row walls and gates had yet to be constructed:  Public perception of rivers and flood defence (345/2/T) : flooding and flood defences in York by S M Tapsell, S M Tunstall and M Fordham.

Researchers from Middlesex University studied perceptions of the York flood defences, working with the National Rivers Authority (since subsumed into the Environment Agency).

The available PDF appears to be a photocopy and isn’t clear or enlargeable, so I thought I’d include a few sections here.

I was at school and university when most of this flood-defence construction was going on, and I don’t remember it at all. But from this study — ‘the first attempt at a post project appraisal on the public perception of four of the York schemes’ — I learned that the proposals to construct the barrier met with opposition from some local residents, and that its original location and design was modified in response. Campaigners objected to the effect it would have on the immediate environment around it, and particularly that it would involve the felling of trees in New Walk.

Over 200 people turned up at a public meeting on 22 March 1985 and gave the ‘thumbs down’ to the siting of the barrier near to Blue Bridge. According to the study, the council of the time wasn’t keen either, and didn’t want to contribute financially.

The plans progressed:

… At the feasibility stage the pumping station was planned to be underground and people were told that this would be the case. However, as the plans were revised a control room was added and much of the building was built above ground (although the pumps are mostly underground). This raised other objections as the building would be an ‘eyesore’ and would block some of the view for local people.

— (Source)

Jumping forward to today, a piece in the Press today clarifies some of the reasons for the failure of the barrier, including the fact that ‘floodwater was actually seeping into the building that housed the electrics for the Foss barrier pumps.’

I’m just wondering if that’s something that might have been avoided if this now leaky part of the structure had been built higher up, and if it was the protests of the 1980s about blocked views etc that meant it wasn’t? I’m not going to seek out documents in the archives to find out, as I’ve got far too many other things to do (including an overdue visit to Layerthorpe) but I thought I’d just leave that thought there, if anyone would like to ponder upon it further.

Let’s return to the old days of the 1980s, as reported in the study.

The scheme was redesigned in response to protests, and the barrier moved 50-60 metres upstream:

This caused some accusations to be directed at Yorkshire Water Authority as they had initially said that the Blue Bridge site was the only place where the barrier could be built. They were therefore accused of lying when the new site was proposed.

— (Source)

A common thread between then and now — suspicions about various authorities lying to the public.

The study refers to a campaign group of the time: the Huntington Road Flood Action Committee. I don’t suppose this is still going, but in light of recent events it could be something that residents of that area might want to resurrect.

We may return to this interesting report, but for now I’d just like to remain with the Foss barrier and mention another document from the old days when it was all shiny and new.

The publication date of this one isn’t clear (‘before 1996′ is the date given in this information) but it appears to date from soon after the Foss flood alleviation scheme was completed and the barrier was operational. It’s worth a look if you’re interested in the workings of the barrier, or if a hydrograph of the 1982 flood is something you could draw useful information from. (I’m afraid I couldn’t.)

The brochure has diagrams and detailed operational stuff I don’t understand at all, and I have no idea what’s been updated since in the workings of the Foss barrier and its associated structures. (I think the computer equipment pictured will have been replaced since.)

River Foss flood alleviation scheme (intro page, summary, with link to PDF)

Here’s part of it:

Diagram from River Foss flood alleviation scheme

It includes the following information on the Tang Hall and Osbaldwick Becks:

These were originally tributary to the River Foss but in the late 18th Century were culverted to the River Ouse. River Ouse levels are therefore reflected directly back up the culvert into the Becks.

Which I thought was interesting, following on from my recent investigations into one of the watercourses on the other side of town.

The Tang Hall culvert was then altered:

In order to prevent direct reflection of River Ouse water levels up the culvert, a 1.35m diameter diversion has been built which relocates the outfall in the River Foss upstream of the barrier, as indicated on Fig. 4. A branch off this diversion forms a bypass of the gate which can be used to equalise levels on either side of the gate prior to opening.

So much going on with our rivers and watercourses and their defences, in recent years and before that.

Perhaps one day, if we keep trying, we might get through a major flood without hundreds of homes and businesses having to send vast skipfuls of ruined goods and furniture to Harewood Whin — or wherever we send it to once Harewood Whin is full.

Further information

Anyone researching online for the basic fact of when the Foss barrier was built might have noticed, as I did, a range of dates — between 1986 to 1989. This bothered me as I do try to present reliable facts. The variation seems to be explained by this paragraph in an article in the Yorkshire Post:

Construction work on the Foss Barrier started in October 1986 and it was completed in November 1988. The agency took it over in February 1989 and it first operated a month later on March 24.

The article: Flood barrier to be checked on-line dates from a full ten years ago (as that hyphen maybe indicates — in more recent years ‘online’ without the hyphen is more usual). Again, it’s worth a read, for facts and figures and general information about Foss barrier happenings in the years most of us were barely giving it a thought, before its failure made us all think about it and its mysterious workings.

The post Our new defence: the Foss barrier, back then appeared first on York Stories.

The Foss Barrier in summer 2007

I think we all know what this is. It’s the Foss barrier. Pictured here in 2007, when it was quietly doing its job whenever it was needed, before it became famous/notorious for its failure, at the end of December 2015.

I suspect that most of us took it for granted. I did.

I managed to take a photo, seven years ago, when down this way taking lots of other photos of things that at the time seemed more photogenic/interesting/important.

But in recent days it has become painfully obvious just how crucial it is, this structure near the confluence of the Ouse and the Foss. Its failure meant the flooding of so many homes and businesses, in a city where traditionally (in recent decades anyway) attention seemed to focus on the Ouse, the city’s main river.

The photos of the floods in recent days were shocking, but reminiscent of images in a gallery of photos on the local Press website, taken during the floods of 1982, before the barrier was erected. I’ve borrowed a few as it doesn’t seem possible to link to them individually, and I wanted to highlight certain streets, which have flooded this year again. The full gallery (and larger versions of these) can be viewed on the Press website.

Flooded Foss Bank, 1982 (Photo: York Press)

In 1982, and presumably in all the other major floods before that, Foss-side streets like Walmgate, Fishergate, Foss Bank and Foss Islands flooded.

Flooded Walmgate, 1982 (Photo: York Press)

Flooded Fishergate, 1982 (Photo: York Press)

Flooded Foss Islands Road, 1982 (Photo: York Press)

As did Marygate, North Street, Tanner’s Moat up to Rougier Street – though these streets, alongside the Ouse, are now protected by flood defences in the form of walls with gates, closed during floods.

Could the same be done on the Foss? Walls with floodgates? I’m thinking that the answer is probably no. It’s a slower, more meandering kind of thing, the Foss. Usually so small and slow that it’s forgotten about. Tourism organisations seem to forget about it entirely, and focus on the Ouse, ‘the city’s river’. The Foss has always been off the radar, rural-looking into industrial. In living memory it weaved its way into town through the gasworks on either side of its banks, past industrial buildings on Foss Islands and in the Hungate area, towards its confluence with the Ouse. Now it passes its way through more residential properties, many built in the last decade, off Huntington Road and in the Hungate area.

Looking at aerial photos of the floods in the city end of Huntington Road the most striking thing was the number of cars parked near the new residential developments recently constructed in the bend of the Foss where ten years ago I remember taking photos of rather nondescript light industrial units. The people who live here now, in the homes built on this bend in the Foss, did they know what might happen? Were their new homes built with flood protection measures in mind? Some of the blocks have garages at ground level, some don’t. I can also see from the recent aerial views of the floods that a lot of cars parked outside the flats have been half submerged by the floods, as if the residents were taken completely by surprise.

The Victorian terraced houses near them, also on the Foss side of Huntington Road, will have survived many floods. I remember visiting one in the mid-90s, and the owner talking about the flooding of his garden in the past. Gardens can cope with flood events. The cars parked by the modern flats nearby, and the contents of the houses in the area, clearly that’s a different thing.

And all that was dependent on the Foss barrier?

The Foss used to flood all the time, just as the Ouse did, but we’ve built a lot of new residential property right next to it, and this continues, in the Hungate area. As if it’s all safe now. Presumably all these buildings have been designed to cope with flood water in the lower parts, without that leaving an expensive trail of useless damaged valuable things behind? Or is it all based on trusting the Foss barrier?

Looks that way. Maybe time for a rethink then. It was state of the art at the time it was built, I guess, but it seems ludicrous how much trust we’ve put in that one structure to save all the homes and businesses round the Foss, as its failure sent the areas around it back to the 80s, or to even earlier, medieval times, as the old river found its level like the interventions never happened. A ‘strong brown god’, just like the Ouse.

Ouse waters just below a hand-carved marker apparently indicating the 1982 flood level, by Lendal Bridge

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget.

— T S Eliot

The post On the Foss barrier, failure, and floods appeared first on York Stories.

This is something I’ve not seen before — though that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen before. It was probably a familiar sight every now and then before the Foss barrier was erected in the late 1980s. Flood water on Stonebow and in the Hungate area, on the afternoon of 27 December 2015.

Following on from the earlier walk by the Ouse and through the city centre, we’re now near the Foss, York’s second river. The failure of the Foss barrier is the main story in this particular flood of late December 2015, as it has caused the Foss to flood in a way it hasn’t done for a long time.

There’s also been flooding in the nearby Walmgate/Fossgate area, all very unexpected and sudden. There are many photos available online. I don’t have any, but thoughts are with the people of that area and others who have suffered in these floods and who will have the filthy mess to clear up from their houses and businesses when the water recedes.

Turning back away from town, along Peasholme Green. Where, again, the road was flooded near the Foss, on the approach to Layerthorpe Bridge.

To get out of the city on foot we had to backtrack up Aldwark onto Goodramgate, and leave through Monk Bar. Monkgate and St Maurice’s Road weren’t flooded, and neither was the Sainsbury’s store and its higher level car park. The flooding hasn’t submerged the entire city, though some media reports may have given that impression.

As in many other places in the city, I was one of many people standing taking photographs at the edges of the flooded areas. From this vantage point the picture became clearer on the extent of the flooding from the Foss in the Layerthorpe and Foss Islands area.

The Foss is normally in a narrow channel in the middle of this view below, looking across to the flooded car showroom on Layerthorpe (where the John Bull pub used to be).

The name ‘Foss Islands’ should give us a clue that this part of town has always been rather watery. Once the ‘King’s Fish-Pond’ or ‘King’s Fish Pool’. Its water has been controlled and channeled in recent centuries, but now spills out, reclaiming the space it once knew, creeping over the tarmac of the roads.

As depicted in this tweet from Chris Sharp on Twitter:

Map of Medieval #York alongside todays #flood map. pic.twitter.com/Bd84F3v0Js

— Chris Sharp (@sharpsharp) December 27, 2015

Anyone walking on the walls and ending up at Layerthorpe Postern would have had to turn round and go back the same way, by the looks of things.

The lane at the back of the Sainsbury’s store takes us to Foss Bank. Here part of the road is also flooded, alongside the Foss. The river is normally to the left of those railings, and well below them, so you have to look over to see it. A different picture on Sunday 27 December. Though not unknown — it looked similar in the floods of 1982 (with a gasometer in the background, back then).

Turning back, heading home, there were crowds gathered on Monk Bridge, over the Foss at the end of Heworth Green, looking up Huntington Road where some of the worst local flooding had occurred in houses backing on to the Foss. The photo below shows the floodwater at the roundabout at the junctions of Monkgate, Huntington Road, Heworth Green and Foss Bank. We’re looking from Monkgate towards Huntington Road, with the roundabout on the right.

I’m assembling this page the day after these photos were taken. Early this morning we heard from the authorities that the river levels had stabilised.

The floodwaters will recede and the media — and we floodwatchers and amateur photographers — will disperse with them, leaving behind us, as always, many people having to clean up the mess the rivers left behind.

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