The Open Brief for the 1190 memorial space in the Castle & Eye of York was refined in the early months of 2026, leading to agreed amendments and updates to the New Public Spaces Open Brief and revised spatial principles for the 1190 memorial.
This process also raised specific questions concerning the connections between the 1190 memorial space and concepts such as ‘peace garden’, interfaith collaboration and how the space – and wider area – might relate to York’s status as a City of Sanctuary and Human Rights City.
On 30th April 2026, a group – composed of those of different faiths who are part of York Interfaith Group (including representatives of York’s Muslim, Hindu, Catholic and Church of England communities) York Liberal Jewish Community, Movement for Progressive Judaism, York Jewish Walking Tours, York Civic Trust, Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, University of York and York City of Sanctuary – convened to explore these connections in more depth and to determine which were appropriate for the 1190 memorial space and which could be better accommodated by other spaces within the Castle & Eye of York or other spaces across the city centre. We also conducted separate conversations with those who were invited but could not attend the workshop including Historic England, English Heritage and York Museums Trust.
As we opened the workshop we wanted to collectively acknowledge the horrific antisemitic attack in Golders Green that had happen the previous evening. Josh Gaventa from the Movement for Progressive Judaism shared his thoughts and welcomed this meeting – with its focus on collaboration – as a cause for hope.
Using a circle facilitation technique where everyone spoke for up to 3mins, we began by identifying why the 1190 memorial space was important to everyone there. We also
identified activities that could happen in the 1190 memorial space and activities that were important to different people’s work or faith but could more appropriately happen elsewhere.
Out of this process we were able to draw out understandings where there was a broad consensus. Other issues were surfaced which we needed to push and test within the workshop to ensure we came to a clear position. Out of the workshop a number of other requirements that groups and faiths have were also identified.
What does the 1190 memorial space need to do?
Reflecting the revised Open Brief the workshop determined that the 1190 space needs to:
- Tell the specific story of what happened in 1190 – why did it happen here?
- Acknowledge the resonances of the story (violence, hatred of people who are different) and its global significance.
- Enable Jewish mourning practices – saying Mourner’s Kaddish and laying stones
- Accommodate groups visiting the area for reasons connected either to education or remembrance.
- Act as a venue for Holocaust Memorial Day and its specific commemoration of 1190 in March each year.
- Offer a space for Chanukah candle lighting (amulti-use plinth to lay stones/ candles or for teachers to use).
- Be a Jewish space but open to all for the purposes of understanding, remembrance and reflection.
Listening to the conversation, it became clear that while the land is owned by the Council, in a deeper sense it is owned by the significance of 1190 as an event. It is the event and its resonances that needed to determine what should happen there.
The 1190 memorial space should be named as a place for reflection (rather than named as a place for prayer)
It is clear that the 1190 memorial space needs to be a space where the Mourner’s Kaddish can be said. In this specific sense the 1190 memorial is a place for prayer.
With this established we then needed to explore whether the 1190 space should be named as a place for prayer in a more general inter-faith sense.
It became clear through conversation that it would not be appropriate to say that the 1190 space was a space for prayer for all faiths. This is because prayer in some faiths require facilities that will not be available in the 1190 memorial space. For example, Muslim prayer would be better served by a room and privacy.
For this reason, we settled on the idea that the 1190 space should be framed as a space for reflection rather than named as a ‘prayer garden’.
The 1190 space should be understood as memorial space (rather than as a peace garden)
We explored whether or not it was appropriate to say that the 1190 memorial space was a ‘peace garden’. We did this by exploring what types of activities related to peace would be appropriate there.
Through discussion it was identified that ‘peace’ is not an apolitical concept. A consensus emerged that the 1190 memorial space would not be an appropriate space for, to give one example, vigils for peace related to contemporary global conflicts.
This clarified the positive vision for the 1190 memorial space to be focused on remembering 1190 and for reflection.
At the workshop it was felt that vigils and protests related to contemporary conflicts could better happen in other spaces in the city that are already often used for this, such as St Helen’s Square.
While there is a history in the area of protests related to peace – not least the 2003 York Against the War protest – it was noted that the Hostile Vehicle Mitigation restrictions might make protests outside of the city centre difficult in future in any case.
It was clear that we needed to consider further – perhaps learning from approaches developed in London and Manchester – how the city might manage both peaceful protest and prevent antisemitic activity, such as routing protests and vigils away from the 1190 memorial.
In a conversation that happened separately to the main workshop, the point was made that the 1190 memorial space cannot design out conflict and that we need to be prepared to develop approaches that can mediate and navigate conflict where it is within legal boundaries and to deal proactively with antisemitic activity which is damaging or violent.
The 1190 memorial space is a space that can be used for open faith events
We discussed if other faith events could happen there, alongside events such as Chanukah candle lighting. It was felt faith events could happen there if the intention was for them to be open events, where attendance is not confined to those of a specific faith but open to the public as part of celebrating the diversity of faiths and people in our city.
Other issues
It was noted that a number of faiths do not have places to worship or to pray in city centre. There is no Hindu Temple. There is no synagogue, although there is a hope to build on the site of Jewbury cemetery. While York does have a mosque, there is nowhere for Muslims to pray in the city centre.
Next steps
Alongside this focused work on 1190 the Council, working closely with York Civic Trust, have been working on an interpretation approach for the whole of the site. In June/July we will be running public walks that will share the approach for the 1190 memorial space embedded within the wider histories of the Castle & Eye of York.
This workshop was funded by Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute and supported by City of York Council as part of the My Castle Gateway process.