So the old faded peeling lettering has gone from Harvey Scruton’s old premises on Barker Lane. Instead it advertises the business of the new owners, and includes a web address. Nicely done.

A message on Twitter asked if I’d seen ‘that Nurse Harvey’s gripe water has been painted over.’ This seems to have been a popular and well known product. As far as I know they never advertised it on this wall, which only included the company name. But I’m imagining an ad for them, in the style of the famous Bile Beans sign. Right across the wall at the end of the building they occupied for so many decades: ‘MAKERS OF NURSE HARVEY’S GRIPE MIXTURE’. Perhaps with a slogan underneath: ‘Makes your baby burp’, or ‘Bring up those burps!’

It would have nicely complemented the Bile Beans ad on the other side of town, particularly as both were designed to bring relief to digestive system problems, though from opposite ends.

Maybe a reader with graphic design skills could create a digital version of that ‘Gripe Mixture wall’ we never had, in belated recognition of the fact that Nurse Harvey’s Gripe Mixture was a proper local product.

Historical and background notes

I’ve just spent some time reading about gripe water, and discovered that in the past some popular gripe waters contained alcohol, and that made them popular with some mothers too. And that there was in recent years a problem with supply, all rather mysterious, reported in the Daily Mail.

More pertinent to our particular Harvey’s gripe mixture, and working at Harvey Scruton, the information in comments under this photo on flickr.com. And a photo of another of their products, Nurse Harvey’s ‘fairy fine’ baby powder.

Googling also lead me to a man called Arthur Oglesby, and more information on the business in decades past: ‘Arthur Victor Oglesby was born on December 23 1923 in Scarborough, where his father ran the family pharmaceutical company, producers of Nurse Harvey’s Gripe Water. In 1928 they moved to York, where the boy enjoyed a “semi-Victorian” upbringing, learning to coarse fish on the Ouse and Derwent …’
(Arthur Oglesby – obituary, in the Telegraph)

Arthur Oglesby took over the firm in 1955, after his father’s death. There’s more information about him in this extract on Google books.

The documents relating to the planning application to redevelop the site include historical information on the building: a 1922 directory is the first to mention Oscar Scruton & Co (manufacturing chemists) on Barker Lane, and the name Harvey is added to Scruton’s in the 1957 listing.

Perhaps others know more. If you have further information, please add a comment, or email.

Elsewhere on this site

Changes on Barker Lane: Harvey Scruton buildings (2013)
Harvey Scruton building (2012, and 2004)

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The transformation of the ‘Harvey-Scruton’ buildings is complete. These buildings were not listed, but they’ve been preserved anyway, which is very pleasing. That handsome doorway is still there, with better paintwork.

This lane and these buildings were included on an early page, back in 2004, and looked the same for many years, until recently.

I hope it doesn’t sound daft to say that I had a strong feeling of ‘connection’ to this place. Yes, it does look daft. But, anyway.

I’ve no idea why. Maybe one of my York ancestors lived along here at one time. Who knows.

Maybe it ’speaks’ to a lot of people, not just me. It’s special, is Barker Lane. That, of course, is because it’s an ancient lane. And all our ancient lanes have special qualities a thoroughfare like Parliament Street doesn’t have. More on that another time perhaps.

The Micklegate end of it looks much the same, and the Harvey Scruton buildings are preserved, but this narrow ancient lane has been changed at its Tanner Row/Toft Green end by the enormous grey bulk of a new hotel built next to the transformed West Offices. It seems to loom over Barker Lane, light-blocking.

These photos were taken in the evening, when the light was low anyway. I’ll try to revisit and get photos when the sun is higher in the sky, but for now these will have to do, as this page is long overdue.

The changes here seem to encapsulate the wider changes in this city, the cultural shifts, changes of emphasis. At the junction where Barker Lane meets Tanner Row and Toft Green, the old red brick walls overshadowed by the large hotel with its brand displayed in red plastic lettering, the new kid on the block. In the background, the 19th century railway station/railway offices (West Offices) sensitively restored as the council headquarters for the 21st century. Behind me, where a small local business once manufactured pharmaceutical products, a change of use. To ‘residential’, kind of, in a short-term way.

It’s very classy. I’m no expert, but now I’ve read many of the planning application documents and admired the handsome Barker Lane frontage it looks like this was an imaginative and thoughtful redevelopment, respecting that ‘sense of place’ I keep trying to record on these pages.

And no, of course I haven’t forgotten the most remembered/important part of this lane. That too has changed:

… and deserves a page of its own.

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I’ve long admired this handsome door, and the narrow lane it’s on. It was included in a ‘York Walk’ of 2004, when this site was young and my camera’s memory card was small, and all my photos were only 640 by 480 pixels – they look tiny now, and somewhat inadequate – and many of them were hopelessly wonky. Thankfully this door remained untouched, weathering nicely, until relatively recently, so I was able to go back again and get a slightly larger photo or two.

In 2004, I was charmed by this lane off Micklegate, and the remnants of the ‘Harvey-Scruton’ building.

When I passed this way more recently, it was clear that the expected redevelopment had begun, and that it no longer had that ‘1950s’ feel.

The reason this building catches the eye is of course because of its faded but still very prominent lettering, on the otherwise dull gable end, stating that it was once the premises of HARVEY-SCRUTON LTD.

Spot the difference … ?

In July 2004 (above left) that parking area was open and ungated. Parking spaces are very valuable in this city, so it’s not surprising that by March 2011 (right) the space had been gated.

Lovely Barker Lane is pictured about a year ago, in March 2011, before redevelopment work began, looking from the Micklegate end towards Toft Green. It had a rather dreamy quietness to it, I thought.

The photos above are from last summer, when demolition work appeared to have started at the back of the site. I do hope they’re keeping the frontage and that impressive doorway.

Despite stagnation and inaction elsewhere in York on some of the larger sites, the Toft Green/Tanner Row/Barker Lane area is now (spring 2012) like one big building site, all noisy, with vans parked everywhere and men in hard hats.

At the end of this lane is the West Offices site, with a massive (and I mean massive) hotel building reaching to the sky alongside. The narrow Barker Lane, overshadowed by the huge hotel, was full of parked construction vehicles when I visited in late February 2012. Atmospheric photos are more difficult in these circumstances, so I only have this rather gloomy and unexciting one.

This is how I described this lane in 2004:

And not long afterwards had an email from someone who had worked at Harvey-Scruton:

See also, an update: Changes on Barker Lane: Harvey Scruton buildings and Harvey’s Gripe Mixture: an imagined ghost sign (May 2013)

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