YORK has many beautiful buildings - but also some ugly ones.
Stonebow House - the brutalist office block built in 1964 - was widely regarded as the city's most unsightly building.
However, before the 1960s, one other building had the dubious honour of holding that title - Botterill's Horse Depository in Tanner's Moat.
Reader John Shaw posted in our Press nostalgia group Why We Love York - Memories some facts about the building - which partially remains to this day (you can still see two of its exotic Moor-esque arches next to The Maltings pub).
John said the building was originally "Walker’s horse and carriage repository, opened 1884, designed by Walter G Penty. A horse and carriage ‘car park’; horses could be exercised in the paddock outside the walls (now Memorial Gardens). In the Second World War, it was an emergency mobile medical centre, staffed by Dr RA Dench. Before Stonebow House was built in 1965, this was regularly labelled as ‘the ugliest building in York’."
Mr Shaw also shared an article about the repository which stated that when it opened it was "one of the most commodious horse and carriage repositories in the North of England".
It was created for Thomas Walker, a well-known city auctioneer, and built in a Moorish style - plainly not to everyone's liking given its later reputation as an eyesore.
It was designed to accommodate up to 80 horses at one time, on the ground floor.
The first floor was reserved for carriages and a spectator's gallery.
The carriages were raised to the vehicle department via a hoist.
Before moving to this purpose-built site, Mr Walker had rented the Museum Stables.
The article suggests the move was necessary because trading in horses was booming, recording that some 1,000 horses passed through Mr Walker's hands in the previous year. It was a golden era for this form of transport - of course, the coming of the car would change everything.
The repository was also a place where people could stable their horses, or indeed pick one up - and a carriage - while visiting York.
The horses also transported goods from the station to different parts of the city.
The site later became known as Botterill's horse and carriage repository which was demolished in 1962.
There are two further images of the horse depository: artist Frank Watkins created engraved images of outside and inside the building; you can see them online here: https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Frank-Watkins/277021/Walker's-Horse-Repository,-York.html
Share your memories
If you love delving into York's past and seeing photos and reading stories from yesteryear then make sure you check The Press every day for its regular nostalgia stories. And don't miss our eight-page nostalgia supplement every Wednesday in the paper.
We also have more than 8,000 members in our online nostalgia group on Facebook, Why We Love York - Memories. It is free to join and you will find us at www.facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia/.
It would be great to see your old photos of York - and they don't have to be from centuries ago. We all love seeing old photos from our recent past, and some of our more popular stories with readers date from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
If you have a nostalgia story for us, please email maxine.gordon@thepress.co.uk.
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