I often walk through Miller’s Yard, Gillygate, taking a short cut from that street into Bootham Row car park and then to Sainsbury’s on Bootham. I rarely go the other way, and when I do I’m usually in a hurry. Wandering through there recently, when I wasn’t in such a hurry, I stopped to read the posters in a window and then noticed Tom Mason’s bench.

And then remembered sitting here with my sister, decades back, sitting at tables outside — wooden benches like the type in pub beer gardens, as in the Exhibition pub, just across the yard — having lunch, and drinking tea. And sparrows, I remember sparrows on the ground around the tables, looking for crumbs. Funny the details you remember.

Further thought reminded me that this would have been when Gillygate Wholefood Bakery occupied this corner of Miller’s Yard, and that it would have been the late 1980s into the mid 1990s. (I know that the Gillygate Wholefood Bakery was here until the mid 1990s because it used to sell Subtext magazine in 1995-6.)

When did it close? I can’t remember. But when I went back to take the photos for this page I discovered that the year of its opening is there, carved in stone. I don’t recall noticing this before either. Proudly proclaiming the establishment of this Workers’ Co-operative, in 1982.

Nicely carved lettering. I wonder who did it. Once you start looking properly there are so many questions.

I took one photo of Miller’s Yard one bright morning in 2004 when on my first ‘York Walks’ for this website:

But since then I’ve been dashing through it with no thoughts surfacing.

Until the plaque on the bench made me stop awhile, pause, pay attention.

Somewhere in my vast piles of York-related papers and cuttings I’ve got an old article about the Gillygate Wholefood Bakery, dating from the late 1980s, I must try to find it.

Meanwhile, do other readers remember it? I’m also wondering if someone can clarify whether the wholefood bakery and cafe occupied two of these units together, here in the corner? I remember it that way, but may be wrong. So many years ago …

I Googled for more information, but didn’t find much. This Workers’ Co-operative may have a stone in place in Miller’s Yard but doesn’t seem to have much of a record here in the online world, so please add a comment if you have further information, thoughts, or memories.

. . . . .

Update (27 Dec 2018): the original Gillygate Wholefood Bakery

Since this page was originally published on 27 May 2015 many interesting comments have been added (see below). Thanks to everyone who has contributed their memories and thoughts on a place I couldn’t find much information on back then.

Earlier this year I was sent a couple of photos of the original Gillygate Wholefood Bakery, and the people who worked there, before it moved to Miller’s Yard (see above). I’ve been meaning to get around to adding them for some time, and the most recent comment below, from Sarah Jo, has prompted me to get around to doing that. Apologies that I didn’t do so sooner. The photos are from the late 1970s. See below for more info.

The original premises on Gillygate, 1977/78

The original premises on Gillygate, 1977/78

I’m not sure who took the photos, but many thanks to the person who sent them to me, and also added the following information:

“The Bakery started across the road from Miller’s Yard (before it existed), at no 12 Gillyate I think … started by the man with the white cap and glasses, Mike Sheppard; who came from Botton Village Camphill, in Danby Dale, Yorks, in order to set up a working/living city centre environment. So began the bakery.
The photos from date from 1977 or ’78.
Man in sleeveless jumper is Andrew. Man in white overalls and blue shirt is Mike (Brid) Jackson (a baker). Man in blue checked shirt is ‘Toosh’ (master baker). Man in overalls and green top is Barry (miller). Man in overalls and white shirt is Geordie Dave. Woman in blue jeans is Alex. Woman kneeling is Val (Toosh’s wife). Other woman with glasses may be Marian?
A key missing person is Anne (Maggie) Sikking … who was a major working partner with Mike Sheppard and Toosh in running the bakery. She later wrote about help with founding other cooperative businesses, and is now a writer in York and has a restaurant, El Piano.”

. . . . .

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On the previous page I left us by the toilets at Bootham Bar, and promised something more uplifting. That same walk, a few minutes earlier, I’d noticed this bench, and have since been back to take a photo of it on a brighter day, wanting to do justice to its lovely inspiring inscription. It’s a memorial plaque to Tom Mason (1953-2006), in Miller’s Yard, off Gillygate, and it reads:

“I have taught myself to take note of and pleasure in those works with which the creator has crowded and adorned the paths I daily walk and cycle”

I think I try to do the same, and I know many readers of these pages will also appreciate these words.

I wondered whether this might be a quote. As so often, Google produced an immediate answer, and as so often, I ended up reading several interesting things and found myself some distance from where I started.

These words are taken from the introduction to a book by the naturalist George Johnston (1797–1855). They’ve been slightly altered in punctuation and capitalisation and have a small addition to the original text:

“… I have taught myself to take note of, and pleasure in, those works with which the Creator has crowded and adorned the paths I daily walk; and sure I am that now I can see and appreciate a beauty and excellence, where, otherwise, they would not have impressed me …”
(The Botany of the Eastern Borders, archive.org)

The plaque has ‘and cycle’ added to Johnston’s ‘daily walk’. Nice, isn’t it.

Taking notice of this bench also drew me into taking more notice of Miller’s Yard in general, and so we’re staying here for the next page. Have a seat on this sunny bench.

More information

The same words (without the addition) are inscribed in a place with a strong connection to George Johnston:

Inscription on the Hume Castle indicator, and another view of the same

More information on George Johnston, from the DNB

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One place I’ve been meaning to mention is this pub on Gillygate, now Monroes, formerly (as pictured) the Pink Pony, formerly … loads of other names (see below).

Towards the end of last year permission was given for conversion to a hostel with a bar and restaurant below. There’s a follow-up application in currently for a new door to the front of the building.

Planning documents aren’t usually an amusing read, particularly if they’re about something as dull as a new door, but this objection comment from the Guildhall Planning Panel made me laugh out loud:

The building has clearly been floundering as a pub over the last few years, apparently unsure what to do with itself. Personally I have quite a fondness for the place, as it’s the first pub I remember frequenting regularly, back in 1984. Yes, thirty years ago. For a few months in 1984 I was in there most nights, meeting friends. Then shortly after that it changed its name and look and became ‘Gillys’, all trendy, with chrome bits, as I recall.

In the intervening twenty years or so I stopped paying attention and so there’s a gap in my knowledge of it which perhaps someone else can fill via the comments below. Then, for some years, more recently, it was a music venue. I remember seeing a few bands there. It changed its name many times in the last decade. It was Cert 18 in 2004, as this photo I took in August that year reminds me.

Then I think called Stereo. Then the Pink Pony, more recently Monroes. Perhaps other names too. Speakeasy, apparently?

As a music venue it seemed very popular and busy. Since then, when I’ve passed in the evening and had a look in, it’s seemed really quiet, and is often apparently closed. It’s had one of those ‘Would you like to run this pub?’ banners on the front of it recently, which isn’t a good sign.

It’s a large building, with two floors above. What was all that space used for? Was it more of a hotel, when built? I never gave the space above the pub a thought.

The earlier application for conversion, ref  14/01817/FUL is worth a look (on this link), particularly the report dated 1 Oct 2014, under the Documents tab. The objections to the plans are summarised, and the last point should be noted, as it’s clearly an important part of this pub’s recent history:

‘Who the accommodation would be aimed at’, the now infamous stag and hen parties, according to many of those who objected or left comments on the Press story about the plans. (Though a document from the owners Punch Taverns, available online (see PDF, below) suggests intended customers are the ‘youth, student and backpacking community’.) If stag and hen parties use it, I guess it could be said that a steady stream of people going to and from the hostel, here for the weekend with plenty of disposable income to spend, might be welcomed by the shops in the street?

Just along from it the Gillygate has recently undergone a major makeover. The poor old Bay Horse/Cert18/Stereo/Speakeasy/Pink Pony/Monroes apparently couldn’t continue as a pub however many makeovers it had, hence its new future as budget accommodation.

Or, perhaps, Las Vegas in Gillygate.

More information

The application details are: 15/00029/FUL | Replacement shopfront including erection of secondary door to front and full height window and replacement entrance door | Monroes 54 Gillygate York YO31 7EQ. 
This is the link, or if that doesn’t work you can search on this link using the reference number or address.

I’ve also found some information (PDF)  from Punch Taverns on the plans for the building, though not sure how up to date this document is.

An earlier page on York Stories includes a photo of the earlier building on this site, taken from a window across the street, circa 1930.

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The future of Groves Chapel is still a subject of much debate, as it has emerged that there were other offers to buy the building. (See my comment/update for more.) Seems a good time to highlight the fact that Groves Chapel isn’t the only former place of worship needing a new owner. This one is also for sale: the Salvation Army citadel on Gillygate. Pictured here on a bright sunny morning in August 2004.

I heard earlier this year that it was to be sold, but it’s only recently that I’ve noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign on its impressive frontage. I don’t have a photo of that but I do have a few more taken ten years ago, when I paid proper attention to its various details and to the fact that it is a very striking building.

It’s hard to imagine how it could be reused. It’s so very Salvation Army, with the crest and that bold and confident ‘BLOOD AND FIRE’ above the entrance. Couldn’t really be turned into a bar, could it, as other former places of worship have been.

Seems the Salvationists have already had a fairly pragmatic approach to the building as the interior images available via the estate agent’s website show the galleried interior clearly modernised, modern seating in particular. I don’t know what it was like inside when built in the late 19th century so I’m not sure how much has been taken out, but it’s clearly been kept up to date and adapted to serve the many functions needed.

I think we’re all aware of the work of the Salvation Army, but it’s worth searching online for information on its history.

In relatively recent times I’m sure I remember the Salvation Army band coming through the Groves area playing hymns at Christmas, late 1980s. Maybe someone else can confirm. Meanwhile here’s a photo of the band of 1931 outside the Gillygate citadel. My grandfather was a Salvationist, though I didn’t discover this until quite recently, and I think he’s one of the men on this photo.

Someone who has very clear memories of the citadel and the Salvation Army in York added a comment to the Press website earlier this year:

As someone born into and brought up in York Salvation Army I am guttted that they have decided to sell the Citadel…I worshipped at that church for 23 of my 49 years….my wedding was the last in the original building before the alterations were completed in the early 1990’s…..
The band no longer marches the streets for two reasons – dwindling numbers in the band and increase in age, also more restrictions are placed by the police/council on marches/processions in the city. The decrease in members is also the reason why the bank no longer plays at Tesco over Christmas…I have fond memories of going round the local estates playing carols and marching from the Citadel to the Mansion House every Christmas Eve…
Times change and unfortunately God is not a priority to most people in this day and age as He is to me…hence the hall having to be sold and a smaller and more practical premise being found or built…
The important thing is that The Salvation Army in York is NOT closing but being sensible and moving to an area where they can reach more people and make more of a difference and impact on the local community…

—Yorkielass65, comment on Press website

Clearly this building is too big and expensive for them to maintain, in the 21st century. It was built in 1882, and cost £3,265. In 2014, it’s for sale by ‘informal tender’.

Groves Chapel seems to be the focus of much concern. I wonder if there will be the same level of interest in what happens to this building.

It appears well fitted-out and could clearly be adapted to a range of community/educational purposes. Let’s hope that in the future it serves the community still in practical ways, as the ‘Sally Army’ always did.

the property is a Grade II Listed Building. It has been used as a place of worship continuously since 1882 and this is therefore an established use.

– from the property details, via Barry Crux & Co

The foundation stones remain, at the front of the building. Reminding us, even if we don’t believe that faith can move mountains, that it can — or could — build big bold and confident places of worship.

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This is the last photo I have from Kathleen Peirson’s album. I’m including it partly because I’d like to be able to identify the location, though I’m not too hopeful we can. Also because it made me think about old photographs in general and the way we learn to look at them.

Clearly, it’s mainly a nice old photo of a young woman holding a black cat. Like the other photos it dates from about 1930. It’s Florence Peirson, Kathleen’s sister.

Ian, who sent me the photos, asked if I thought it was at or near 63 Gillygate, on the corner of Portland Street, where the family lived for a while. My immediate reaction was that it couldn’t be, that it looked more like a rural location. They’re humble dwellings in the background, with pantiles, not slate, on the roofs. I looked at the satellite view on Google maps to confirm what I suspected, that only the older buildings on Gillygate have roofs like that. And not many are that small.

What it did remind me of was the back of the pub almost opposite, known as the Bay Horse for many decades (now the Pink Pony) and specifically, the beer garden area behind it, at the bottom of the slope to the city walls. I remember sitting there many summer evenings in the mid 1980s.

I can’t quite make it fit, but then the pub building seems to have been remodelled/rebuilt since 1930.

Old street directories, plans and maps, and my brief look at the council minutes available in the library all suggest that there were small cottages in a court or yard behind the pub (as there were behind other buildings on this side of the street). The 1913 directory suggests ‘Wakefield’s Court’ was behind the Bay Horse. The buildings in the background could be those, since demolished. If they were demolished as ‘unsanitary’ as so many buildings were in the 1930s, then the city archives might have photos. They seem to have photos of other clearance areas in the city.

The building to the right looks modern, something built not long before 1930.

A couple of other things noticed — that the window behind Florence looks like a ‘Yorkshire sash’, where the sashes slide horizontally rather than vertically. (The pane on the right looks to be recessed compared to the one on the left.) I’ve seen these in rural locations in Yorkshire but never noticed any in York itself.

The piece of wood slanting across the photo may be a clothes prop for a washing line. I can’t imagine what else it would be, in fact. This may suggest that Florence is standing on a grassed/garden area. Possibly supporting my ‘beer garden behind the pub’ theory.

So, are we on Gillygate, or somewhere else entirely? I did have a wander into the beer garden the other week, when passing, and stood about for a while scrutinising the backs of the buildings visible from there, but realised I looked a bit odd and possibly suspicious, so didn’t stay long. Maybe if anyone reading this is visiting the pub and sitting in the beer garden they could have a better look.

Perhaps we’ll never be able to pinpoint the location. Though putting things online makes it more likely. I’ve just received photos clarifying the location of a photo posted last year I wasn’t sure about. More on that soon …

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1930, give or take a year. 63 Gillygate, on the corner of Portland Street, pictured from Portland Street. The sign says ‘Children’s Outfitters’. It’s now Crew men’s hairdressing.

The image — a then and now comparison — can be enlarged.

The building has lost its handsome 19th century window with coloured glass surround, and its ground floor windows on this side are no longer used as shop windows. On the corner, grey metal posts for traffic signs replace the postbox.

The trade directories reveal that this shop sold clothing for many years. Fancy clothing even. In the 1920s the proprietors were the Boultons, ‘fancy drapers and blouse specialists’. Then, in 1930, G Peirson, also a draper.

The photos, from an old family album, were sent to me by Ian, a grandson of the Peirsons. He thought they hadn’t been here in York for long, before moving to Leeds. The trade directories suggest that G Peirson was the owner for just that one year. The 1931 directory lists the proprietor as Charles Dixon.

Not only did the Peirsons capture a view of the side windows of their shop during their time in York, but their family album also records the view as it was then from their window, across Gillygate, towards the bar walls and the Minster. Presumably taken from the top floor of the building.

Obviously they wanted to record the image of the Minster and the walls, but of more interest is the foreground, Gillygate, as it’s changed a bit since this photo was taken. This photo too can be enlarged.

The building on the left of the photo is still on Gillygate, as is the much smaller one next to it. The small building adjoining that was removed at some point since, and is now an opening to the pub car park.

The pub, on the right, looks very different now. It was the Bay Horse. More recently the Pink Pony, and inbetween times Cert 18, Stereo (and in the 80s briefly called Gilly’s, if I remember correctly). The present pub looks like it was built in the 1930s, and it presumably replaced the building pictured in the 1930 photo.

Thanks to Kev for this photo from the building showing Gillygate as it is now in 2013:

If you want to have a virtual wander around this area: Google Street View, Portland St/Gillygate corner.

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