21st October 2026
Our new book about Blossom Street
At last it’s publication date for our latest book. Over the last year our team of researchers have been working hard on Blossom Street: the Royal entrance to York, investigating each building on one of York’s most historic streets.
Our focus has been on who lived and traded there from early times to the modern day, and the book is packed full of facts, stories and photos. Local people have contributed many memories of shopping and life around the street for the book.
While only 300 yards long, Blossom Street is where our monarchs have traditionally entered the city, greeted at the Bar by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriff’s Army.
You might think of Blossom Street as a busy route, full of traffic heading in towards Micklegate Bar and York Station, but it is one of York’s most significant streets, with much of interest. Sadly it was the setting for the movement of thousands of wounded and dying soldiers during tragic military events.
For many local people it also evokes countless memories of well-known shops and traders, with names such as Shearsmith and Forsselius. Local pubs were well-visited as part of the Micklegate Run, such as the Lion and Lamb. (Photo courtesy of Duncan Greaves)
The Bar Convent has a long and significant history, the oldest living convent in the UK and one of the oldest schools for girls in the country. It’s the home of a religious order founded in 1609 by Mary Ward, a Yorkshire woman from a devout Catholic family. They were the only religious order to establish a permanent base on English soil after the Reformation and, until the 1790s, this was the only Catholic building in the country.
Blossom Street has a couple of Art Deco buildings. One is locally known as the Forsselius building, as it used to hold the premises of the Forsselius garage from the 1930s. It’s now one of two Premier Inn hotels.
The other is very distinctive, built as the Odeon Cinema in 1937, and considered a classic and distinctive example of Odeon Art Deco design. It was designed by architect Robert Bullivant, working for Harry Weedon’s architectural practice based in Birmingham. It has been the Everyman Cinema since 2017, and it’s where we launched our book. (Photo courtesy of Weedon Architects)
