There’s one rule you should always follow when dining out in York, and it’s this: look up.
My home city is head-scratchingly complicated. Thinking of opening a restaurant within the walls of York? Welcome to a heritage minefield, where you can’t unlatch a window without applying for planning permission first. Everything around you is deeply and highly old, and old to the left and old to the right. You’re stood on the icing of a fabulously stratified cake of Olde Ingredienffe – Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Medieval, Pre-Industrial, Post-Industrial, ’70s Concrete Abomination, you.
Except it’s never quite that simple.
The fascinating/frustrating thing is that these layers are swiss-cheesed around you on all sides. You’re not on the archaeology, you’re in it – entrenched in the past.
(Mind how you go. History is both holy and holey).
Much of the town planning paperwork revolves around listed buildings – our structural protection system defined with delightfully British imprecision. In layman’s terms, then:
- Grade I listed buildings are those of exceptional interest (archaeological, historical or cultural).
- Grade II* buildings aren’t exceptional, although they are of more than special interest.
- And the Grade II building, the runt of the litter, is merely of special interest.
And if you’re wondering, the Grade III was abolished in 1970. Presumably to make things less vague.
On Wednesday, I had the good fortune to end up in La Piazza, a superb Italian restaurant down one of the most historified streets of York. It’s sunken into the depths of a Grade II, made of absurdly sturdy-looking timber beams and ceilings that are either too high or too low. Needless to say, the overall effect is gorgeous. Even though York is filled with so many similarly lovely buildings that it’s easy to suffer from eye-indigestion…at a certain point during the meal, when conversations had reached natural lulls, everyone started to look around and pupils dilated wildly. And these were archaeologists – they’re used to such sights.
There are around 2,000 listed buildings in York (here’s a list of the most famous Grade I tourist-traps)…and I know precious few of them.
Yes, I know – there’s a challenge to set myself.
Image: M. Sowden 2006
You make it sound tempting, Mike.
It can be, Judith.
As much as I want to be off on my travels (even now, after returning from Orkney where I was rained out of my tent at 6am), I’m still not done with York yet.
I grew up in a grade II manor house. One of the joys (ha!) of living in such a dwelling is that the planners can tell you to change things – but won’t give a penny to help you do so. Also, one of the ridiculous things about listing is that any old Joe can suggest a house for listing – and when it’s listed it’s listed in its current state. This has led, in my parents’ village, to completely random houses being listed with old walls and modern plastic windows. When people then try to change the plastic windows back to something more authentic, they have to jump through endless hoops to do so, because the house has been listed with them intact.
Ah, the Englishmen and their castles.
[...] England Mike Sowden presents York – Foundations posted at Fevered Mutterings, saying, “There’s one rule you should always follow when [...]
It’s been a long time since I visited York, maybe I should rectify that! And I’ve heard nightmare stories about planning permission and listed buildings in my area, so I dread to think what it’s like in a city with such a range of history…