Walmgate Bar, Gatehouse Coffee

… showing the rather cramped counter area. Follow Walmgate Bar and Gatehouse Coffee to see where it is. 

Walmgate Bar, Gatehouse Coffee

Walmgate Bar viewed from within the walls, showing the later extension. This must be the site of the quaintest café in York, Gatehouse Coffee. Run by Calvary Baptist Chapel, it is open to all and serves high quality coffee and snacks at very reasonable prices.

St Nicholas Fields

St Nicholas Fields nature reserve, just a few minutes' walk from Walmgate Bar, is now a maturing open space, rescued in the late 1980s from an earlier life as a council tip. In its time it has seen a 12th century hospital and church, Civil War fighting and a 19th century brickworks. The latter operated until the 1950s, providing bricks for the construction of Tang Hall estate. Twenty species of butterfly have been recorded here and the reserve also attracts nesting birds, including kingfisher and siskin.  

Parallel worlds

This is an ancient and modern shot looking south towards Walmgate Bar, a good stop for drinks and nibbles, as there is a cool two-storey café in the tower, efficiently run by Calvary Chapel. The coffee is good and the prices very reasonable. During our first visit this weekend a couple of guys were having a Spanish conversation lesson, another small group were discussing the question of forgiveness, others were apparently writing essays.

Walmgate Bar daffs, York

Every embankment is covered in them. Below is the Hotel de Ville of Compiègne, France, 50 miles north of Paris, where we spent last week visiting friends. This is the town where Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians and handed over to the English.

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Return of the Vikings?

A relatively new Scandinavian-influenced build on Walmgate, though I could be wrong about the inspiration.  I like the blue against the brickwork, the boarding and the relief provided by the hanging bays and recessed upper levels.   Can't see a gate? See the earlier post, Where bars are gates and gates are streets.

Where streets are gates and gates are bars

This is Walmgate Bar (12th -14th century) leading out onto the Hull Road. It is the only bar with its barbican, or fortified outer gateway, still standing.  The words gate and bar have retained their Norse meanings, as indicated in the title. If you really can't wait to see the other fortified entrances to the city, go here. There has been a lot more snow since this picture was taken a couple of days ago.