13-05-2025
On this day in 2015: artists' garden underway behind York Art Gallery
On this day in 2015, the York Press reported that a previously hidden corner of York city centre was being opened to the public for the first time in 100 years.
Work had begun on creating an artists' garden and edible wood behind York Art Gallery, linking to the Museum Gardens, Marygate, and Exhibition Square.
York Museums Trust said the two-acre site was last used by the public when much of it was the Great Hall, a huge exhibition space attached to the gallery when it was built in 1879.
The hall closed in 1909 after it was deemed unsafe and was then destroyed in a German bombing raid in 1942.
The garden was set to open to the public on Yorkshire Day, August 1, 2015.
Alison Pringle, gardens manager for York Museums Trust, said at the time: "This site is truly a hidden corner of York's city centre which we can't wait to reveal to the public.
"It was first enclosed by the monks of St Mary's Abbey in 1266, and for the majority of the 700 years that followed it has been off-limits and hidden behind the high abbey walls.
"For a long time it was orchards and pasture owned by the abbey, so, in a way, the creation of an edible wood will hark back to the area's past, while the new artists' garden will give the city a versatile space for a wide range of arts events."
The design work was by landscape architects Erika Diaz Peterson and JCLA, while contractor Simpson was said to have begun work on the garden site.
