York Civic Trust has been placing commemorative plaques to places and people on buildings since the late 1940s. There are now more than a hundred plaques spread around the city in bronze, wood, slate, aluminium and glass (and one in Amsterdam). The majority mark buildings or places of interest, but there are many to influential people with York connections.
We have created trails to link some of our plaques together and explore aspects of Yor’s heritage.
York’s next blue plaque? You tell us!
There are exciting proposed new blue plaques being suggested by the public all the time. You can see some of the latest suggestions here, and have your say which should be unveiled next!
Or suggest a new blue plaque yourself!
…To be considered for a blue plaque, nominations must be judged to meet most of the relevant criteria as set out below:
- The person or place had a long-standing or significant connection to York
- If a person, they had a link to a building or place that exists to this day.
- If a person, they made a major and positive contribution to their field that is widely recognised
- The person or place has the power to educate, surprise or inspire others to this day
- The person or place has no other plaque in York
- The person or place has made a major contribution to the history of York or the United Kingdom
- If a person, they have been deceased for twenty years
- AND THE BIG ONE … Why now? Is there an upcoming date (such as a commemoration or an event) that has significance with the person or place?
Map of Plaques
Here is a Google map of our plaques, with red pins marking places, and blue pins marking people. By clicking on the box in the top right (“view larger map”), a new tab will open with a list of all plaques on the left.
List of Plaques
The following plaques are to be found in the City. Where our volunteer historians have compiled information on the subject of the plaque, you can click on the name to take you to that information.
Abbey Walls Shutters, Marygate
Alcuin of York
All Saints’ North Street
All Saints’ Pavement Churchyard
Ancient Society of York Florists, Colliergate
Andrews, George Townsend
Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School Playing Fields Gates
Anglian Tower
Aske, Robert
Assembly Rooms
Association of Voluntary Guides, York Library
Auden, W H
Backhouse, James
Baines, Henry
Barry, John
Bedern Chapel
Best, Mary Ellen
Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Bootham
Butterworth, George
Carr, John
Carr, William
Charles I Coat of Arms, King’s Manor
Cholera Burial Ground
Clifton Bridge
Clitherow, Margaret
Constantine the Great
Cooke, Thomas
Corder, Stephen Pit
Coverdale, Miles
Craven, Mary Ann
Crichton, Edna Annie
Cruse, Winifred, Catherine and Mary
Cumberland House
Etty, William
Evelyn, Dr William Arthur
Exhibition Square
Fairfax House
Fawkes, Guy
Flood Heights on the Ouse
George Inn
Grinling Gibbons (carving in Fairfax House)
Goodricke, John
Herbert, Sir Thomas
Hewley, Lady Sarah
Hornpot Lane
Howerd, Frankie
Hudson, George MP
King’s Manor
Lendal Tower
Lister, Anne
Mahé, Yves
Mansion House
Micklegate House (John Carr)
Milburn, George
Milner-White, Eric
Minster Close
Minster Gates
Monastery of St Joseph
Montagu, Elizabeth
Morrell, Cuthbert
Morrell, J B
Norman House
North Eastern Railway Distant Signal
Our Lady’s Row
Pavement
Peasholme House
Petergate, via principalis
Phillips, John
Pick, Frank
Pinfold, Dringhouses
(Stephen) Pit Corder
Poole, Matthew
Praetorian Gate
Pritchett, James Pigott
Purvis, John Stanley
Quaker Burial Ground
Queen Margaret’s Arch
Queen’s Path
Railways in York
Red Tower
Richard III
Ridsdale Tate, Edwin
Rigg Monument, St Lawrence’s Churchyard
Roman Column
Roman Fortress
Roman Wall
Rowntree Family: Joseph and Benjamin Seebohm
Russell, George
Shannon, John
Shambles
Ship’s Figurehead, Stonegate
Sheldon, Oliver
Shipton Street School
Siege of York
Smith, Sydney
Snow, Dr John
Sterne, Jaques
Sterne, Laurence
Stonegate, via praetoria
Streets of York: An Introduction, including Aldwark and Coney St
St Andrew Society of York
St Anthony’s Hall
St George’s Cinema, Fairfax House
St Leonard’s Hospital
St Margaret’s School
St Martin le Grand
St Michael le Belfrey
St Sampson’s Church
St Stephen’s Orphanage
St William’s College
Suffragettes
Terry, Joseph
Terry’s Chocolate Works
Tuke, Samuel
Walmgate Bar
Ward, Ven Mary
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate
Wilkinson, Fanny Rollo
Woolman, John
Wright, Austin
Yeld, George
York College for Girls, Petergate
York County Hospital
York Observatory
York Railway Station 1977
York Railway Station 2004
York Railway Station Zero Post
Yorkshire Gentlemen’s Cricket Club, Davygate
Yorkshire Museum & Gardens
York Methodists
Emblem
The Emblem of the Civic Trust is used on the plaques, along with logos and emblems of other sponsors and funders. Our Emblem is based on the York Assay Mark of 1423 (under Henry IV). In 1541 it was described as “the pounce of the Citie called the half leopard head and half flowre de Lyce” (fleur de lys)
Some Recent Plaques
64 Walmgate to mark the Irish community who settled in York from the 1840s having escaped The Famine.
