The Wall of Pots
Over a thousand ceramics on a 17-metre wall in the Centre of Ceramic Art, the single best sight in the building.
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A seventeen-metre wall stacked with more than a thousand pots, from Roman pottery to pieces made almost yesterday: that, rather than any painting, is what you will remember of York Art Gallery. Upstairs sits the Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA), home to the largest collection of British studio pottery in the country, and it is displayed with enough theatre to turn what sounds like a dry subject into something children stop in front of. The building dates from 1879, an Italianate frontage on Exhibition Square facing Bootham Bar, one of the medieval gateways in the city walls. It reopened in 2015 after a redevelopment costing around GBP 8 million that added roughly 60 per cent more display space. The ground floor runs from the 14th century to the present: Italian Old Masters, L.S. Lowry's 1952 painting of Clifford's Tower, commissioned by the gallery itself, and a large holding of the York-born William Etty, whose fame rests on the nude figure, which families may want to know before walking into that particular room. Be honest about the scale. This is an hour, ninety minutes at most, not a day, and it is not worth rearranging a trip for unless you enjoy art or York's habitual rain has arrived. One ticket covers every temporary exhibition, and those change every few months and are often the strongest thing in the building. Entry is by 30-minute timed slot booked online; once in, you may stay until closing. It opens Wednesday to Sunday only and shuts on Monday and Tuesday, which catches many visitors out. Getting there is easy: a 15-20 minute walk from the railway station, or five minutes from the Marygate car park. The building is fully accessible to wheelchair users, pushchairs are welcome, there are lockers for small bags and a modest cafe. The rear garden opens straight into the Museum Gardens and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, so leave that way rather than through the front door.
Over a thousand ceramics on a 17-metre wall in the Centre of Ceramic Art, the single best sight in the building.
L.S. Lowry's 1952 painting of Clifford's Tower, commissioned by the gallery for GBP 50 and one of its most important modern works.
The back garden leads into the free Museum Gardens and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, which round off the visit.
Exhibition Square, opposite Bootham Bar, York YO1 7EW
Yorkshire MuseumThe largest hoard of Iron Age metalwork ever found in Britain, more than eight h2 minutes walk4.4
York Museum GardensA vast roofless wall with empty Gothic windows framing the sky stands in ten acr3 minutes walk4.6
York MinsterThe Great East Window alone is roughly the size of a tennis court: more than thr4 minutes walk4.8
Barley HallFor most of the twentieth century nobody paid this house any attention. Its four4 minutes walk4.5
Treasurer's HouseIn 1953 an eighteen-year-old apprentice plumber working in this cellar heard a t5 minutes walk4.5Not if your time is short; the walls, the alleys, the Museum Gardens and the Minster from outside are free and more memorable. It earns its price for anyone who likes art or ceramics, or on a wet afternoon when you need an hour under a roof near the centre.
Yes, for an hour: the Wall of Pots holds their attention, the building is wheelchair-accessible, pushchairs are allowed and under-5s go free. Skip the Etty room if nude paintings are a concern for your family.