York walks: 2004

I've got no idea what this building is, whether it's still in use, but I went along Peasholme Green specifically to photograph it, after noticing it recently.

There are very few buildings like this around now in York. I love it because it's got that kind of faded elegance that many buildings of its type take on. It's slightly shabby and decrepit and its paint is fading and peeling, but it's got a pleasing facade that beats anything the developers are throwing up. For a good example of a comparatively soulless building you just have to go a little way along this street to a ridiculous thing with a clock on it, near the bridge. I think it's called Sentinel House, but I don't believe it deserves a name.

There are always buildings that don't really fit in – either in a page on this site, or in the street they're found on. From the bar walls near Fishergate Postern there's a fine view of this fabulous frontage I've always admired, which declares proudly "Oxtoby & Son – Painters – Paperhangers – Decorators". It appears to have been repainted since I was last up this way, in an interesting brown and cream colour scheme.

The Phoenix, near Fishergate Bar. I noticed only when I got back home and loaded the photos onto the computer, that it has a sign on the road in front of it saying "Consumption of Alcohol in the Area is Restricted by Order". I'm imagining lots of people in there sitting around tables looking glum with one half of bitter to last them all night, and a government health minister frowning at them forbiddingly.

Seriously though, a visitor has alerted me to the fact that The Phoenix is an agreeable pub, which as well as having a traditional and unspoilt interior, also serves cheap handpulled John Smiths in the afternoons (Mon-Wed).

Related pages:

See also: York Walks /3: Watch this space.