Walmgate: plague, pestilence and the Press
If Micklegate is the royal’s entrance to York, Walmgate is the vagabond’s. Once part of Viking Jorvik, it became a place of poverty and destitution: after the 1631 plague there were three times as many people in receipt of poor relief here than in other wards. Fast forward to the late 19th century, and things weren’t much better. One in three Walmgate children died before their third birthday. Once Walmgate boasted 26 pubs, now it has but two, The Five Lions – and The Spread Eagle which might have been renamed the Hack’s Hole so often were staff from the fine building above found within its dark walls. Pint of Landlord for the tired and emotional scribe, if you’d be so kind…