Hotels in York with last minute and late room discounts
York Guide and Virtual Tour of the City.
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Click here to view our latest locations throughout the City of York
More Tours :York Racecourse, York Minster, Fulford Golf Club, The Oaks Golf Club
York City FC , Richard III Museum , Yorkshire Farming Museum, The York Dungeon, Yorkshire Air Museum
National Railway Museum - York

Top 20 Hotels in York:
Novotel York Centre
Ramada Encore York
Elmbank Hotel and Lodge
Holmwood House Hotel
Park Inn York
Royal York Hotel and Events Centre
The Queens Hotel
Heworth Court
Bowen Guest House
The Mount Royale Hotel
Hotel 53 York City Centre
Gregorys Guest House
Carlton House
Gateway To York Hotel
Lady Anne Middletons Hotel
Parsonage County House Hotel
Parsonage Country House Hotel
Blossoms York
SAXON HOUSE HOTEL
Blue Bridge Hotel
Beckett Guesthouse
Ramada Fairfield Manor
The Churchill Hotel
Park View Guest House
The Black Swan Hotel
Minster Hotel
Newington Hotel
Marmadukes Hotel
Heworth Guest House
KILIMA HOTEL
The Durham Ox
St Denys Hotel
Crown Hotel
Best Western York Pavilion
Holgate Hill Hotel
Aldwark Manor - A QHotel
THE GRANGE HOTEL
Worsley Arms Hotel
St George's
The Cottage
Hotel du Vin and Bistro
Burn Hall Classic Hotel
Best Western Monkbar Hotel
Airden House
Knavesmire Manor Hotel
MORE HOTELS IN YORK ->

Welcome to VR York - your tour of the historic Yorkshire City of York.

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The concept is simple - just click on a location on one of our maps to choose a view and start your tour of the City of York.

Visiting York? Choose a Hotel, Apartment or B&B from our MAP OF HOTELS IN YORK WITH LAST MINUTE AND LATE ROOM DISCOUNTS.

York Directory and York Guide - York England

Hundreds of locations are featured within the VR York website - York Racecourse, York Minster, Fulford Golf Club York, The Oaks Golf Club
York City , Richard III Museum York , Yorkshire Farming Museum, The York Dungeon, Yorkshire Air Museum

York is the traditional county town of Yorkshire, to which it lends its name.

York is renowned for its history, which is preserved in its architecture. Every year, thousands of tourists flock to see the surviving mediaeval buildings, interspersed with Roman and Viking remains.

The city is prone to severe flooding from the River Ouse, and has an extensive (but not always effective) network of flood defences. These include walls along the Ouse and a barrier across the Foss (see River Foss). Much land within the city has always been too flood-prone for development. Partly as a result of this, there is an unusual amount of green space. The ings are flood meadows along the River Ouse, while the strays are scattered around the city in marshy, low-lying places; another such area is the Knavesmire.

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Click here to view our latest locations throughout the City of York

The city has one of the country's leading universities (the University of York) — ranking second in the 2001 Daily Telegraph university league table — a higher education college (York St John College) and a branch of the College of Law. The City's football team (York City) was relegated from the Football League to the Nationwide Conference at the end of the 2003/4 season. York also has a rugby league side, York City Knights. The York area is served by a local newspaper, the Yorkshire Evening Press.

York is also noted for its wealth of pubs. The York area is said to contain one pub for every day of the year, although this is a little exaggerated. It is said, with perhaps a touch of poetic licence, that there is no point within the city walls where one can stand and not be able to see at least one pub and at least one church.

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The City of York, North Yorkshire, England
The City of York - image of the day

Take a look INSIDE York Minster
Take a trip around the York City Walls
Take a tour along the River Ouse

York is the traditional county town of Yorkshire, to which it lends its name. However, it did not form part of any of the three ridings of Yorkshire. The modern City of York, created on April 1, 1996, is a unitary authority and an administrative county in its own right. As well as York itself, it includes a number of neighbouring parishes which formerly belonged to the surrounding districts of Harrogate, Ryedale and Selby. It borders on North Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.


The city will be 2,000 years old in 2071, and has a rich Roman and Viking history. The historical aspects of York attract a great deal of tourism. York is also known for its chocolate factories, and is home to the University of York.

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Looking for another York website? check out our 'Guide to York websites'

York is renowned for its history, which is preserved in its architecture. The city was founded in AD 71, and for much of the intervening period has been the main city in the North of England. Every year, thousands of tourists flock to see the surviving mediaeval buildings, interspersed with Roman and Viking remains. The City Council has 27 Conservation Areas, 2,084 Listed buildings and 20 Scheduled Ancient Monuments in its care.
For the Romans, York ("Eboracum") was a major military base; Emperor Septimius Severus died there in AD 211, and Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine I, died there in 306. In York, Constantine's troops proclaimed him emperor (note that the only other city in which an emperor has been proclaimed is Rome itself). Substantial Roman remains were discovered under the Minster and a re-erected Roman column now stands on Deangate.

There are also the remains of a Roman bath, but a temple and the site of the Roman bridge over the River Ouse have also been excavated lately. Outside the city walls are the remains of substantial Roman cemeteries. A large number of Roman finds are now housed in the Yorkshire Museum.
Paulinus of York brought Christianity to the region in the early 7th century with the conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria and the first Minster is believed to have been built in 627, although the location of the early Minster is a matter of dispute. York became a centre of learning, its most famous scholar being Alcuin.

A "great Viking army" captured York in AD 866, and in 876 the Vikings settled permanently in parts of the Yorkshire countryside. Viking kings ruled this area, known to historians as "The Viking Kingdom of Jorvik", for almost a century.

In 954 the last Viking king, Eric Bloodaxe, was expelled and his kingdom was incorporated in the newly consolidated Anglo-Saxon state. Another renowned scholar of this era was Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York.Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, York was substantially damaged by the punitive Harrying of the North (1069) launched by William the Conqueror in response to regional revolt. Two castles were erected in the city on either side of the River Ouse. In time York became an important urban centre as the administrative centre of the county of Yorkshire, as the seat of an archbishop, and at times in the later 13th and 14th century as an alternative seat of royal government. It was an important trading centre. Several religious houses were founded following the Conquest, including St Mary's Abbey and Holy Trinity Priory. The city as a possession of the crown also came to house a substantial Jewish community under the protection of the sheriff.

On March 16, 1190 a mob of townsfolk forced the Jews in York to flee into the wooden castle, which was under the control of the sheriff. The castle was set on fire and the Jews were massacred. It is likely that various local magnates who were indebted to the Jews helped instigate this massacre or, at least, did nothing to prevent it. Commemoration of the York massacre passed into the Jewish liturgy and until 1990 orthodox Judaism forbade Jews from living within the city.

York prospered during much of the later mediaeval era and this is reflected in the built environment. York Minster is the largest mediaeval cathedral in England and one of the largest gothic churches in Europe. The mediaeval city walls, with their entrance gates, known as bars, encompassed virtually the entire city and survive to this day. The later years of the 14th and the earlier years of the 15th centuries were characterised by particular prosperity. It is in this period that the regular cycle of religious pageants (or plays) associated with the Corpus Christi cycle and performed by the various craft guilds grew up. Among the more important personages associated with this period was Nicholas Blackburn senior, Lord Mayor in 1412 and a leading merchant. He is depicted in glass in the (now) east window of All Saints' Church in North Street. The period from the later 15th century seems to have witnessed economic contraction and a dwindling in York's regional importance. The construction of the city's new guildhall around the middle of the century can be seen as an attempt to project civic confidence in the face growing uncertainty.

Dating from the later mediaeval era, and now a popular tourist attraction, is the Shambles, an old street with overhanging timber-built shops, now occupied by souvenir shops as opposed to the original butchers. York is also home to numerous Ghost Walks and also a favourite venue for hen parties. As well a tourist destination, modern York is a centre of communications, education and manufacturing. It is a major railway junction, situated on the East Coast, Cross Country and Transpennine mainlines.

York is also a major venue for horse racing at York Racecourse in the Knavesmire area.

Two large factories make chocolate, (Nestlé Rowntree and Terry's), while another refines sugar. York is the home of KitKat, Smarties, the Chocolate Orange and the eponymous Yorkie bar. However, in April 2004, Terry's announced their intention to close their York-based operations.

This city was originally named by the Celts as Eborakon, which means "place of yew trees". The Yew was Efrawg in Brythonic, Efrog in Welsh, Eabhrac in Irish Gaelic, Iorc in Scottish Gaelic. As York was a town in Roman times, its Celtic name is recorded in Roman sources, as Eboracum and Eburacum, with the ending Latinized.

The Vikings took over the area later and changed the name again, to Jórvík, meaning "Horse Bay" (the same as a place in modern Bohuslän in Sweden). York is on a navigable river and so was used as a port; the Vikings often gave ports names ending in vík, as ports are often in bays and inlets.

After the Norman Conquest, the name later changed to "York". York has a long association with the Religious Society of Friends. The York-born Quaker chocolate entrepreneurs and social reformers Joseph Rowntree and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree left an indelible mark on the city, through both their business interests and their philanthropy. They built the village of New Earswick to provide quality affordable housing for their employees. They also founded two Quaker schools, and contributed in large part to the building of York Public Library and the creation of Rowntree Park. The four Rowntree trusts, funded from the Rowntree legacies, are based in York.
The Retreat is a large Quaker mental hospital in the Walmgate area of the city. It was founded in 1796 by William Tuke; over the next century his son Henry Tuke, grandson Samuel Tuke and great-grandson Daniel Hack Tuke also devoted themselves to mental health reform, continuing to reform The Retreat and publishing a number of works on the subject. Another notable York Quaker was the sculptor Austin Wright.

The 'street by street' Virtual tour of the City of York, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Includes virtual tours, interactive maps, visits to retail shops, museums, parks and much more.
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