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About Silver Street
By the 1830s, after reorganisation of local government, towns and cities across the country were required to set-up their own police forces.
York’s first police station was opened in Silver Street around 1841 and had five cells for prisoners, located mainly on the building’s first floor.
The station was heavily criticised by the prison inspector soon after opening for the lack of toilet facilities and not having adequate ventilation or apparatus for warming in cells.
Hardly anything had changed when he visited again two years later, commenting on the cells’ poor conditions and an unwholesome odour infiltrating the entire building.
Closed by the end of the 20th century, the premises were converted into shops in 1896, with part of the building becoming the first ladies’ public lavatory in York.
Please follow the guided route to All Saints Church.
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