Let the byre beware

The window-dressing in the centre of York is often eye-catching. This is Stonegate, between the Minster and St Helen's Square.

Red clock 2

Same time, same place (Blake Street) as this picture, but now looking away from St Helen's Square. It's not a particularly noteworthy view, but I wonder why the window was bricked up and what the ironwork was used for. 

Windows in England were taxed from 1696 to 1851, which accounts for a lot of older properties having them filled in; perhaps that was the case here, as there is another blocked window just to the right of the photograph. It was in effect an easily administered tax on wealth in the years before the introduction of income tax.