York walks: 2004

When I originally looked for these buildings I ended up a bit lost, in the wilds of Leeman Road's industrial wastelands (see York's other railway museum), but managed to locate them a week or so later. (I wasn't wandering around Leeman Road all that time, I went home inbetween.)

I looked for them after reading an article from the local paper, about how these are old foundry buildings, part of York's industrial heritage, and how they should, if possible, be preserved. In case they're not, I took photographs of them. The article discussing them can be found on this link: www.thisisyork.co.uk – Teardrop treasures

"We have wonderful medieval and Georgian architecture here [in York], but there's also some important 19th century buildings. We don't want to erase this stuff as if it never existed. What I really want is for people not to look at York Central and assume they have got a blank site; that there's just the NRM and everything else can go. I want a proper appraisal of the site and an assessment of the significance of the buildings that are there now."
– Bill Fawcett, railway historian, quoted in the article Teardrop treasures (www.thisisyork.co.uk)

The sign on the door (above right) for "S F P Processing Engineers Ltd", suggests that these buildings have been used by other companies since the foundry days. Elsewhere in this yard, a sign on the wall (right) says "York Postal Transport Workshop", which is I guess what the site is used for now. Originally the buildings in this area were home to the Albion Foundry, part of the York Railway Plant Co, which moved here from Aldwark around 1872. The image on the far right is a detail from one of the foundry buildings.

For more photographs from the areas of York's industrial and railway history, see also: York's other railway museum and the Former York Carriageworks site. For photographs showing the more well-known railways and railway buildings still in use (eg York railway station), see Railway city.