Grays Court York
Historic House and Tea Room
York is a fascinating destination either for a city break or a base for exploring the county. The city is vibrant day and night and offers something for everyone. York’s elegant Rail Station is 15 minutes walk away from Grays Court and car parking 5 minutes.
The house is only a few minutes walk from the bustling centre but sits in a cloistered backwater with its own unique history:
York Minster (St. Peter’s) had its own walled boundary. This city within a City was known as the ‘Liberty of St. Peter’. Surrounded by 12’ high walls, entrance was via four guarded gates, inside of which lay a grassed and cobbled precinct.
The Liberty contained the Archbishop’s Palace, the Dean’s House, the Treasurer’s House (Grays Court) and other houses for the Canons and the Precentor, who together made up ‘The Chapter’.
All that remains of the Archbishop’s Palace is the chapel, dating back to around 1230, and this is now the Minster Library, home to the Cathedral archives.
This city within a city had its own laws, and so it needed its own court, prison and even its own gallows for executions. Peter Prison, York Minster’s jail and gallows, stood outside the West Front, and was used until 1837. York Minster still has its own police force, one of only two Cathedrals in the world to do so. The other is St Peter’s in Rome (The Swiss Guard).
Beyond the modern ‘Liberty’ lie areas like the Swinegate Quarter, home to numerous shops, galleries and trendy bars and restaurants. Swinegate is close to Stonegate and also to Grape Lane, which is one of the oldest streets in the city but has completely recovered from its unsavoury medieval reputation when it was home to York’s Ladies of the Night and known as Grope Lane. At the other end of The Shambles, guess the story of Whipmawhopmagate!
