Phhotographs by the author. Scans and material from Thomas Cooper's book, by Jacqueline Banerjee You may use the photographs and scans without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer or the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
Coloured lithograph: 'Bird's-Eye View of the City of York', 1858 by John Storey, after Nathaniel Whittock (YORAG: R1946). Credit: York Museums Trust (York Art Gallery).
The County Gaol, erected 1826-35 by the architectural partnership of Robinson & Andrews (Pevsner and Neave 191), but demolished in 1934, is shown in the 'Bird's-Eye View' of 1858. The prison is seen just behind and to the right of the motte.
In the early eighteenth century, the castle on its motte was an ornamental feature in the garden of a house which lay to the north-west. In 1825 the house and its grounds were purchased as the site for a new prison. When P. F. Robinson's design was commissioned, he remained at his office in Brook Street, London, and sent Andrews to York to supervise the project, making him a partner. Then aged just twenty one, Andrews remained there on behalf of "Robinson & Andrews," and erected 31 Castlegate as their York office. Bill Fawcett explains that although the overall concept was Robinson's, Andrews would have had to supervise contractors on-site, and make the large-scale working drawings (14). No doubt he also resolved any problems with the design as it originally stood. Extending York Castle to accommodate a large County Gaol was a major undertaking.
Nothing can be seen of the nineteenth-century prison now. However, Whittock’s panorama, above, gives a general view of what Andrews built (see the ground-plan on the right below, for more detail). In the centre is the thirteenth-century limestone castle on the eleventh-century Norman motte. The governor’s house, which was the hub of the nineteenth-century prison, is to its right (hiding the four radiating wings of the prison proper); the mock-medieval outer wall, with an entrance resembling that at Skipton Castle, can be clearly seen. It was about 35 feet high and in gritstone which pollution blackened over time. All this was finished by 1835. The tiny, single-storey no. 31 Castlegate, used as the architects’ offices, can be seen close to the massive wall which was only taken down in 1935 (Murray 1988, 26).
Helpful "before and after" plans are among the illustrations in Thomas Cooper's history of York:
Two plans drawn by Edmund Cooper, at a time when the prison buildings still stood. Left: Plan of castle and adjoining lands in 1823. Source: Cooper 234. Right: Plan of the Castle of York, 1910. Source: Cooper 247.
As well as showing the radiating wings of the prison, Cooper provides the rationale for such a plan: "The new gaol forms the semi-diameter of a circle and was contrived with great ingenuity to prevent the escape of prisoners, which was a frequent occurrence in earlier days. The governor's house, though now adapted for other purposes, is circular in shape, and so constructed that the whole prison could be inspected from it" (247).
View of the motte from the side of 31 Castlegate.
Cooper points out that: "To provide ground space for the prison and other erections the talus of the mound, upon which stands the time-honoured keep, was unfortunately cut away" (240). The former profile of the motte was later reinstated; the area formerly occupied by the prison is now a car park. Ironically, perhaps, while the nineteenth=century work has gone, three of the earlier, eighteenth-century prison buildings, survive. These are (clockwise from north) the old Debtors’ Prison, the Female Prison (now the entrance to Castle Museum) and the Assize Courts (still functioning as courts). One length of the medieval castle wall also remains and is again of limestone; it can be seen from the road between Tower Street and Castle Mills Bridge, behind the Castle Museum. The castle itself, that is, Clifford’s Tower, has lately been restored by English Heritage, with improved access within the tower.
Links to related material
- Prisons in Victorian England
- Two Views of York Castle
- "On Joining the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)" (discusses the castle)
Bibliography
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 5, Central. HMSO, London, 1981.
Cooper, Thomas Parsons. The History of the Castle of York, from its foundation to the present day, with an account of the building of Clifford's Tower. London: Elliot Stock, 1911. Internet Archive. Contributed by Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 29 September 2022.
Fawcett, Bill. George Townsend Andrews of York: "The Railway Architect." York: YAYAS and North Eastern Railway Association, 2011, 14-22.
Murray, Hugh. Nathaniel Whittock’s Birds Eye View of the City of York in the 1850s. York: Friends of City Art Gallery, 1988.
Pevsner, Nikolaus, and David Neave. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
Created 28 September 2022
Last modified 4 November 2022