Hello!
About Chapter House Street
With the Minster behind you, look down the cobbled Chapter House Street. This features in the 1978 film The Water Babies, loosely based on Charles Kingsley’s 1863 classic novel. A movie combining live action with animated sequences, it stars James Mason and Bernard Cribbins. Set around the 1850s, Tom is employed by Mr. Grimes, an unscrupulous chimney sweep, who steals valuables from his clients. Tom escapes into a river and discovers an animated underwater world of speaking sea-creatures.
Set in York early on, the opening scenes feature York Minster and the city’s market-place, when Tom gets chased after stealing. Next day, Mr Grimes and Tom lead a donkey down Chapter House Street, towards Ogleforth, away from the Minster.
In the original novel, Tom is described as living “in a great town in the North country”, so not specifically York, but with its cobbled streets and old buildings, York must have been the ideal place to film these sequences.
Please follow the guided route to Holy Trinity Church.
