York walks: 2004

Just off the street called Clifton, on St Olave's Road, is this large detached house, pictured before it was covered in scaffolding. Now being turned into (yet more) luxury apartments, it was formerly a nursing home for the elderly. Not too far away, on Burton Stone Lane, is Burton Croft, which was also for many years a nursing home for the elderly, and is also now closed. There seem to be a lot of these establishments closing, and one does begin to wonder where the elderly people who used to live in them have gone. I find evidence that we provide water for dogs and horses, but we seem less proficient in providing care and decent housing for vulnerable people.

On the corner of Burton Stone Lane and Grosvenor Road this new housing development stands on the site of the old Lumley Barracks. Just next to these new houses is Bootham Crescent – York City Football Club's ground. At one stage it appeared that the new housing would progress right up the street, and that Bootham Crescent would be bulldozed. Thankfully the football ground has now been saved for the foreseeable future.

Opposite the development above is this building in progress, which appears to be a house that is being built in a very small space. All over Clifton people seem to be selling off bits of land and cramming in little houses.

There are new buildings popping up all over York, and particularly, it seems, in Clifton. One of the housebuilders has rented a shop near Clifton Green to advertise its local developments, as there are so many. The images above show just a small selection from Clifton's building boom, which has seen houses appearing suddenly everywhere, as if they've fallen out of the sky.

Related pages:

The more well-established Clifton landmarks are featured in Bits of Clifton. There's also Clifton wall art – part 2, and images of Clifton in the autumn – York Walks /4: More bits of Clifton.

Just around the corner from the building above is the soon-to-be-demolished Burton Croft.

Just up the road is the protected-for-now Bootham Crescent football ground.

A small corner of Clifton that is probably safe from being bulldozed and built on is Homestead Park. Get there soon as it's bound to fill up with frantic stressed-out local people desperate to find an open space.