York walks: 2004

In a city such as York, where you're surrounded by ancient buildings, it's easy to miss the more recent ones of the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet some of these buildings represent – in their very bricks – the beliefs, hard work and aspirations of our more recent ancestors. I've passed this building many times, and always admired it, but have only found out about its history while putting this page together. It's been the Elim Church for many years, but originally, as its front proclaims boldly, it was the York Central Mission Hall.

"400 bricks were bought and people paid 7s to lay a brick in the wall facing Little Swinegate" – from Imagine York – the library service's online collection of old photographs of York. The site includes an excellent photo of the bricklaying ceremony here, in 1910, when the bricks were laid: Photo of the Central Mission bricklaying ceremony, from the Imagine York collection – © City of York Council.

These stones are all along the wall of the building. On some, the carving is still distinct, while others show signs of the wear and tear of the years. To me they are just as beautiful, in their own way, as anything on the exterior of the Minster.

Personally I'm an agnostic, but I can still recognise the significance of places of worship. I love that massive carved stone above the door, proclaiming this building as the YORK CENTRAL MISSION HALL.

The York Central Mission was started as an independent non-sectarian mission by two members of the Centenary Methodist Chapel.

Images of the building. The photo below left, of the main entrance, can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

It seemed important to take photos of this building now, because it's got one of these:

The highly fashionable planning notice. It seems that every street should have one, or several, on display. The sign in the window states that the application seeks consent for:
"Change of use from non-consecrated place of worship to use classes A1 (retail), A2 (offices) and/or A3 (food and drink)."

I wonder what the people who laid those bricks would think.

'To the tourist, York appears to be an unchanging city, living off the glories of its past, but the reality is much different. The pace of change, never absent at any stage in its history, accelerates.'
– Hugh Murray, 1990

Related pages:

Many former "nonconformist" chapels remain in York, converted for other purposes. See York Walks /2: Converted chapels and York Walks /3: Former chapels