Hungate in the 16th - 18th centuries

Maps help us chart the development of Hungate from the late 16th century onwards. John Speed's map of c.1610 shows the street Hungate running down to a River Foss that is rather wider than it is today. Reclamation of land from the King's Pool continued through the 17th –18th centuries and well-preserved archaeological deposits of the period have been located during early investigations.

Detail of John Speed's 1610 map of York

The Carmelite Friary was dissolved in 1538 and maps show the site as largely open ground, while the area around St John's medieval church (disused in 1519 and sold in 1550 ) is referred to as St John's Green. Other streets, possible forerunners of 19th century streets, are shown together with occasional buildings and flanked by open ground, small enclosures and orchards. A late 17th century map shows the Hall of the Cordwainers, a guild which had medieval origins.

At this time Hungate included the 'residences of considerable and opulent merchants', although there were 'very few superior houses'. In the late 18th century the area was progressively built up, but small enclosures - again possibly fields or orchards - continue to be shown on maps.

The River Foss was described in the late 18th century as '…a sluggish, winding river with a poor head of water so that even when canalised it frequently lacks sufficient water in a dry season to convey craft further than Foss Islands'. Rubbish dumping might have continued as there is a reference to a Hungate midden in 1754.

In 1793 an Act of Parliament was passed for the improvement of the Foss and by 1794 work had proceeded on canalizing the river from the Ouse confluence as far as Monk Bridge.

How much survives of this period and what light archaeology can cast on the changing land-use and people of the area remains to be uncovered.