St William's College

A distant shot of this attractive building which features here, here and here on this blog. 

Pretty corner …

with one of the  Minster School houses in red, and St William's College in black and white. The Minster itself is only a few paces to the left. Strollers going in this direction are greeted round the corner by a selection of enticing boutiques, cafés and the National Trust  shop (here and here). Once again, this is snow from a year ago. 

I wouldn't start from here …

The title refers to the man apparently giving directions and to the old joke, "If I wanted to go to Leeds …" This College Street café changed hands recently and is just along from the Minster and St William's, looking towards Goodramgate. The blossom is hiding the timbered upstairs of the National Trust shop. 

St William's College courtyard

A few paces through a vaulted archway bring you into the rectangular courtyard of St Williams's College with its stone and brick ground floor supporting the timber frame of the first. It's like this all the way round the courtyard; this shot takes in a little under half of the pleasant open space. 

Another souvenir of our recent trip to Picardy, France is below. Fans of the television series Merlin will recognise the castle: it is Viollet le Duc's restoration of the château de Pierrefonds. Pierrefonds is a charming little town on the edge of the Forest of Compiègne.

St William's College detail

Detail of St Williams College, (1461) College Street, just behind York Minster. A very nice venue for weddings and conferences.

Waiting for Godot?

I did think of going to York's other river, the Foss, but could not resist these snow people seen yesterday outside St William's College.  Go here to see how close this is to the Minster, and to view the courtyard. It is a popular, romantic wedding reception venue; perhaps one these guys has just popped the question.  For more on romance in York, see this.

I had to roll in the snow for this back of the head shot and managed to resist the temptation to reposition the facial features. What if the artists had been watching from a nearby window!