Exhibition square/St. Leonards Place/ Bootham

Exhibition square/St. Leonards Place/ Bootham

Bootham bar is a popular gateway to the minster from Gillygate and also from Bootham. However, there is more pedestrian traffic going down St. Leonard’s place towards the city centre. Bootham bar leads into High Petergate and is a lovely little street. It’s like a little introduction into York and helps really emphasises the size of the Minster. After emerging from this tight street, it opens up into Minster plaza; a really lovely, open space to enjoy the architecture. Duncombe Place connects to the plaza from the right. Straight ahead leads to Low Petergate and branches out into the busier areas of York.

Bootham bar is a rather unwelcoming place. It is usually quite dark, and a common place for some homeless people. Next to it, are some public toilets, and beside this are steps to get onto the City walls. It’s an alright place really, just not really a point of interest. Which leads me to think; should this be a point of interest? There is an Art gallery opposite, and a lovely row of buildings where the York council offices used to be, called the De Grey Rooms. There are a lot of visitors that exit the City walls here and I feel this place is very under appreciated. It feels like the Art gallery should be a great place to relax and rest. The De Grey Rooms are beside the Royal Theatre and often rented out for use as rehearsal space. But at the moment, it’s more like a way point to get from A to B. I think Exhibition square should really be a place where people can sit down and enjoy a cup of tea and socialise with locals as well as visitors. It's a place where arts are appreciated and loved. It reminds me of outdoor cafes and the days of creative minds in the streets of Paris. It may be a very romantic view, but I believe is very fitting outside a gallery as well as being a four minute walk to the Minster. At the moment, with the Art gallery under-going refurbishment and vehicles dominating the space. There is not a lot going on for visitors to enjoy.

Homeless residing under Bootham Bar.  Leaves and fag ends litter the streets

Bootham’s Bottleneck

I think the issue is the very tight bottlenecking at the top of St Leonard’s Place. Crossing Gillygate to get to St Leonard’s is a bottleneck and the pavements are only the width of two people. This road is a major junction to get in and around York by car and there's also a large flow of people. There are many people trying to get into the city from this direction. This results in large crowds of people building around here from people trying to get into the city centre in a small space.

On Bootham, there are two boarding schools, St. Peters and Bootham school. They house a large portion of their students on this street and many like to commute into York through this junction. Gillygate car park is large, and also accommodates coaches. So it’s not a surprise to see large groups of tourists being lead down this way. Having a large flow of car and pedestrian traffic really makes this spot uncomfortable for both parties. Something needs to be done.

Junction - heavy use of  traffic lights, and cramped paths.

The closure of Lendal bridge has helped to reduce traffic down Bootham, but it has diverted a lot of traffic round Leeman road and also Lord Mayor’s Walk. Pedestrian traffic is more comfortable walking around this area due to less car traffic, but even so, I do not think people would use the space differently. At the moment, Exhibition square is almost void of activity because of the refurbishment of the Art Gallery, but also because there are no shops, no interests and no activity. Mostly, people are trying to get into town via this street and then onto Blake St. There a line of bus stops, Royal Theatre, De Grey Rooms and the York Art Gallery to be of interest in this street. There are no places to rest here and no shops to discover. Also, the busy traffic queuing at the traffic lights is dominating very unappealing. Visitors do not feel comfortable in this space; otherwise they would spend more time here.