History of York

Many of the most noticeable physical changes to York over the second half of the 20th century were driven by the shopping boom.

New retail developments were completed on the corner of Spurriergate and on Davygate.  Stonebow House, built in the Sixties, had retail units on the ground floor.

The Coppergate Centre was built over the site of the Viking dig, opening in the 1980s.  Plans to extend the centre onto the Castle car park were later rejected by a planning inspector as unsuitable for such an historic site.

Meanwhile, out-of-town shopping bloomed around York’s outer ring road in the 1990s.  New retail parks at Clifton Moor and Monks Cross, complete with free parking, offered major competition to city centre stores.  Some famous names moved out, including Stubbs the hardware store on Fossgate.