Founded by the Romans in AD 71 and later shaped by the Vikings and Normans, York’s cobbled streets, medieval architecture, brilliant museums, and ruined remains offer a unique glimpse into England’s past.
1. York City Walls
Walls have defended York since Roman times, and there are over 2.75 miles of surviving masonry.
This scheduled ancient monument encircles the historic City of York and takes around 2 hours to walk. The wall is almost square-shaped around the city, and each side contains a grand medieval fortified gateway called a ‘bar’.
Earth ramparts were added to the city’s Roman walls in the 9th and 11th centuries, but the walls you see today were mainly built of magnesian limestone in the 13th century.
2. Multangular Tower
The Multangular Tower is the most substantial standing example of York’s Roman buildings and defences.
The Romans chose the spot where the River Foss meets the River Ouse for a Yorkshire base. This strategic location allowed people, goods and supplies to be transported from the North Sea via the River Ouse.
This fortress was originally made of timber but was later rebuilt with stone walls. The Multangular Tower stood at the west corner of the legionary fortress, now York Museum Gardens. The original Roman stones are still visible at the bottom of the tower.
The tower gets its name from its 10-sided shape. These corner and interval towers were a Roman military innovation, allowing soldiers to fire along the walls at invaders trying to climb up. In reality, the Romans likely never expected an attack on Eboracum (the Roman name for York). The fortress served mainly as a base to control the surrounding region.
The tower’s upper half was rebuilt during medieval times. York’s fortifications played a role in the English Civil War, with cannonball damage visible north of the tower.
3. St Mary’s Abbey
In 1086, Count Alan Rufus granted St Olave’s Church to Benedictine monks. In 1088, King William II expanded the grant and laid the foundation stone for a new abbey church in York in 1089.
St Mary’s Abbey thrived and expanded through the 12th century, establishing dependent cells (living quarters) across Cumbria, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire.
After a fire in 1137, St Mary’s grew and rebuilt, including constructing a new abbey church between 1271 and 1294. By the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, St Mary’s was the wealthiest abbey in the north of England with an income over £2,000, and it was one of the last to be dissolved.
Following this, St Mary’s Abbey became King’s Manor, the headquarters for the Council of the North, governing northern England. Henry VIII stayed in the converted buildings during his visit to York in 1541. In the late 16th century, much of the abbey church was demolished.
In 1827, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society purchased the abbey ruins, conducted excavations, and opened The Yorkshire Museum in 1830. It was one of the first purpose-built museums in the country.
It houses incredible artefacts from the abbey, including the St Mary’s Figure of Christ, possibly hidden during the Dissolution.
4. York Minster
York Minster (also known as the Cathedral Church of St Peter) was founded in AD 625 on the site of the Roman fortress. This wooden church was the setting for King Edwin’s baptism in AD 627.
The present Minster began to take shape around 1080, following the devastation of its predecessor during the Harrying of the North (a series of devastating military campaigns and pillaging by William the Conqueror between 1069 and 1070 to gain control of northern areas of England).
The foundations laid during this time form the footprint of the cathedral as we know it.
Construction of the Gothic Minster commenced between 1225 and 1255, with the vision of creating the largest cathedral in England. Over the next 250 years, the Minster became a masterpiece of medieval architecture.
Among its many treasures, the Great East Window stands out as England’s largest expanse of medieval stained glass. But it is not alone in its magnificence.
The Rose Window, created in 1515, may have been designed to bolster the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty during Henry VIII’s reign. Its outer panels feature alternating Lancastrian red roses and the combined red and white roses of the House of Tudor.
Today, York Minster remains a vital centre of worship.
5. Shambles
Shambles is one of York’s most iconic landmarks and one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval shopping streets.
Originally lined with butchers’ shops and houses, each had a slaughterhouse at the rear. The name ‘Shambles’ likely derives from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘fleshammel’, referring to wooden shelves that display meat.
Most of its timber-framed buildings are medieval, with several storeys of projecting jetties providing accommodation over the shops. The street was intentionally designed to be narrow, helping to keep meat out of direct sunlight. Although the original medieval shopfronts haven’t survived, some buildings still have external wooden shelves, a nod to when meat was sold from open windows.
One of Shambles’ most notable historical figures was Margaret Clitherow, who lived on the street and was later canonised as a Catholic saint. She was tortured and executed in 1586 for harbouring a Catholic priest following the enforcement of The Jesuits Act of 1584 during Elizabeth I’s reign.
6. Clifford’s Tower and York Castle
William the Conqueror built 2 motte-and-bailey castles in York between 1068 and 1069, one on either side of the River Ouse. The abandoned motte on the south-western side of the river is now known as Baile Hill, while the northern one became the centre of government for the north of England.
William I’s timber tower on the hill was burned down in 1190 when York’s Jewish community of around 150 people was besieged there by a mob, and the majority took their own lives rather than fall into the hands of their persecutors. The castle was swiftly rebuilt.
Henry III built the present 13th-century stone tower. Despite the city’s importance, its castle was not generally used as a royal residence. Instead, it was used for administrative purposes. Clifford’s Tower and its motte are the principal survivors of York’s castle today.
Since the 18th century, the castle’s bailey has been used as a prison and a court. The court still operates from here and the prisons form the York Castle Museum. You can still visit some of the original cells in the museum, which held famous prisoners such as notorious highwayman Dick Turpin.
7. The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall
Considered one of the finest of its kind worldwide, the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall on Fossgate was built between 1357 and 1368. It originally served as a meeting hall, chapel, and hospital for the Guild of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, a religious and charitable group.
By 1430, the mercers (a textile trading group) dominated what became known as the Guild of Merchant Adventurers. They used the hall for business, social gatherings, charitable work, and worship.
A Merchant Adventurer was someone who risked their own money in overseas trade to bring back goods and wealth to York.
8. Fairfax House
Fairfax House on Castlegate, considered England’s finest Georgian townhouse, was built in the mid-18th century and remodelled as a dowry for Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Charles Gregory Fairfax, 9th Viscount of Emley (1700 to 1772).
Renowned architect John Carr designed its interior, including the impressive staircase with a Venetian window, the Siena marble library fireplace, and the dining room’s ornate stucco ceiling. The plasterwork was by the celebrated stuccoist Giuseppe Cortese.
After serving as a private residence until 1865, it became a gentlemen’s club and later, in the early 20th century, converted into a cinema and dance hall called St George’s Hall.
York Civic Trust and the architect Francis Johnson restored the house between 1982 and 1984, returning it to its original splendour. It is now owned by the York Conservation Trust and open to the public.
9. Coppergate
A vast amount of evidence of York’s Viking history was unearthed between 1976 and 1981 when archaeologists excavated an area off Coppergate for a new shopping centre.
After the end of Roman rule in England, the Angles settled the city after AD 400, but by the 9th century, it was home to Viking settlers.
The extraordinary archaeological finds in the damp earth off Coppergate included the remains of timber buildings, pottery, textiles, leather, seeds and plants, which show how the inhabitants of Eoforwic or Jorvik (present-day York, according to the Angles and the Vikings, respectively) would have lived and worked.
The Coppergate excavation gathered information about the area’s entire history, but it was particularly revealing about the 9th to 11th centuries.
Today, Coppergate is home to the Jorvik Viking Centre, where archaeological finds and reconstructions celebrate this part of the city’s history.
10. Rowntree Park
Like Terry’s, Rowntree’s were renowned York chocolate and confectionery manufacturers. One strand of the Rowntree story traces back to 1725 when Mary Tuke set up a grocery and chocolate business on Walmgate. She was a Quaker, a religious group favouring the cocoa industry as an alternative to alcohol.
Despite resistance from the Merchant Adventurers’ Company, which denied her a trading license, Mary persisted. In 1862, another Quaker, Henry Isaac Rowntree, bought the Tuke cocoa business at the back of Castlegate and Rowntree’s was born.
Rowntree’s chocolate factory was among the largest in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. At its height, over 14,000 people worked in York’s chocolate industry. Though the industry has declined, KitKat is still made in York.
The Rowntree family was known for philanthropy. Rowntree Park opened on 16 July 1921 as a gift to the city of York in memory of Cocoa Works staff who suffered in the First World War. It was intended for rest and recuperation and contains a war memorial dovecote.
The Terry Avenue gates of about 1715, possibly made by ironworker Jean Tijou, were bought for the park by the family and installed in 1955 to commemorate those who died in the Second World War.
The park remains a much-loved amenity for the city.
Discover your historic local heritage
Hidden local histories are all around us. Find out more about York on the Local Heritage Hub.
Further reading
- Watch: The Smallest Pub in York
- Watch: Memories of Bootham Crescent, the home of York City Football Club
- 10 Lesser Known Places Linked to King Henry VIII
- English High Street Architecture Through the Ages
- Halifax Stars: The Boxing Clubs of West Yorkshire
You might just have mentioned the National Railway Museum….
Your notes on “2. Multangular Tower” are rather muddled and confusing.
“…the spot where the River Foss meets the River Ouse…” is the site of the medieval Clifford’s Tower and whatever the Romans might have built there is now buried under the impressive earthwork.
The Multangular Tower stands just over 0.5 miles northwest of Clifford’s Tower and its Roman stonework is around 900 years older. It formed the western corner of the Roman fortification and is now included within the Museum Gardens.
Thanks for your comment! Apologies that this wasn’t clear. We’ve now updated the text.