Monk Bar
Fortified fourteenth-century gatehouse with a working portcullis and a tiny Elizabethan prison cell.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Monk Bar in York climbs from the gate arch into the rooms above it, and into the Elizabethan years when they held prisoners of conscience. It follows Alice Bowman, a Catholic woman moved here in fifteen ninety-four from a grim cell on Ouse Bridge, and the accusation that followed her. Along the way you'll hear about murder holes, a portcullis that still works, and a coronation party in nineteen fifty-three. Best heard standing just outside the arch, looking up.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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