Aerial photographs of York in the 1920s

At first glance, many don’t look much different from aerial photographs taken today. But then you start to notice the details.

Take our first photograph which shows Clifford's Tower and the River Ouse. The first thing you can’t help noticing are the old prison walls running along Tower Street. These enclosed the prison compound around the castle although members of the public were allowed within the outer walls in order to be able to get to the law courts, says York local historian Hugh Murray.

The walls you can see in this photograph were built in 1825, and then pulled down in the early 1930s. “A lot of the stone was used to reline gardens in Stockton Lane,” Mr Murray says.

Perhaps most interesting of all in this photograph, however, is the odd shape sitting in the corner of Tower Gardens. It looks a bit like a parallelogram: and it is, in fact, a First World War tank which, for 20 years or so, stood in the gardens as a monument to the Great War. It was melted down at the start of the Second World War for metal.

This aerial photograph and all the others here have been provided courtesy of the Evelyn Collection held by the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society.

Dr William Evelyn was the local GP (he was a partner in a practice in Museum Street) who, in the early part of the 20th century, became one of the leading lights of the movement to preserve York's historic buildings.

He also built up a priceless collection of original drawings, sketches and maps of old York which on his death was bought by the city art gallery, as well as 3,000 photographs, which were passed to the society. These images come from that photographic collection.

Mr Murray, who has written a book about the doctor titled Doctor Evelyn’s York, believes they were copied from postcards showing aerial views of York which were produced by a company named Aerofilms Ltd. The company took aerial shots of York twice in the 1920s, in 1921 and 1926. Mr Murray said: “I think Dr Evelyn has bought the postcards.”

Whatever their origin, they give a fascinating glimpse of a York that is intriguingly different from the city we know today.

AN aerial photo, above, of the Ouse and its bridges, with Clifford’s Tower. You can clearly see the prison governor’s house (just to the right of the castle). In the foreground, to the right of the river, is St George’s Field with the old heated swimming baths that were closed in the 1970s. The tall chimney is part of the heating system.

There were two swimming baths, Mr Murray says, one for men and boys and one for women and girls, as well as a separate bath where people who did not have a bath in their own home could come to wash.

The baths were opened in 1879 and closed in 1972. Mr Murray learned to swim there; and remembers them being closed. “The city engineer just came in one lunchtime, blew his whistle, and said, 'Everybody out!'”

To the left of the river, also in the foreground, you can make out the old slipway where boats were brought for repair. The Slip Inn in Clementhorpe is named after it to this day. Built in 1836 by the Ouse Navigation Trustees, the slipway was equipped with powerful winches and chains, and could accommodate a ship up to 215 feet long. It closed in the 1930s, but in this photograph you can see boats moored at the end waiting to be serviced.

IN this picture, above, Walmgate Bar and the city walls are unmistakeable. The odd patterns that run along in front of the walls are the pens for the old cattle market in Paragon Street, which was demolished in the 1970s. The pens ran all the way along Foss Islands Road, Mr Murray says, though the day this photograph was taken clearly was not market day. Dr Evelyn was no lover of the market or the pens. “He believed they were tampering with the historic defences.”

You can also see, in this photograph, the tracks of the tram lines which ran along Lawrence Street and through the arch next to the Bar. And inside the walls, you can see the old Walmgate slums that were cleared in the 1930s.