The history of York's Duncombe Place

The aim was to provide a grand view of the Minster as you approached. Other important European cathedrals, such as Notre Dame, Milan, and Koln, showed off their West Fronts. So why not York?

The plan, which involved clearing a terrace of houses to widen the road, was controversial at the time. But Dean Duncombe won the day.

The new street, which was named Duncombe Place in his honour, was built between 1859 and 1864. And the view of the Minster that resulted was one which had the wow factor, says Sir Ron Cooke, the former vice chancellor of York University who has researched the history of the street. "It was shock and awe."

Gradually, however, over the century and a half since, that grand view of the cathedral's West Front has been diminished.

In 1902, Deangate was built. It linked up with Duncombe Place, and meant that for the first time there was a main road running past the Minster. Deangate and Duncombe Place naturally became a busy through route - changing the nature of the street.

The Memorial Gardens, where in 1905 a memorial to York's Boer War dead was put up, remained one of the largest public spaces in the city, however - and was often used, in association with the open space in front of the Minster, as a major ceremonial area.

Several of the photographs on these pages today - some provided by reader Bryan Thornton - show military or other parades in Duncombe Place.

By the end of the 1920s, when a mystery tourist came to York and was photographed standing in front of several major York landmarks, there was still a clear view of the Minster from Museum Street, let alone Duncombe Place.

The mystery woman can be seen standing in Museum Street with the Minster rising majestic in the background, in an extraordinary photograph supplied by the late Hugh Murray.

By the 1950s, however, trees planted in the Memorial Gardens were already beginning to obscure the view of the Minster. In that decade, a low wall was also put in to separate the Memorial Gardens from Duncombe Place, making the road seem narrower.

Today, many people mistakenly think the gardens are private, so they are seldom used, says Sir Ron.

A photograph from 1977 shows that by then Duncombe Place was used as a car park: and today there is still a taxi rank there.

The trees in Memorial Gardens and the one planted directly in front of the West Front itself, meanwhile, make it mean very difficult today to get a clear, uninterrupted view - or a photograph - of this face of the Minster at all, says Sir Ron.

The minster as seen from Duncombe Place is still stunning - anyone who was there when the Tour de France cyclists swept past earlier this year will be able to attest to that. But it could be much better, Sir Ron argues.

"A good question to ask is how does our West Front view compare with the Minster's European counterparts?" he asks. "Or, how far is Dean Duncombe's vision lost, and is it recoverable?" Questions to ponder.

Spectators watch the arrival of the wagon carrying players of the pageant play Abraham and Isacc in Duncombe Place during the York Cycle of Mystery Plays in June 1963