The Eye of York: How to combine active uses, trees and planting?

The design proposals for the Eye of York – the space between the Female Prison, the Debtors Prison (York Castle Museum) and the Court – have brought into focus a choice about the space and its specific character within the reshaped Castle Gateway. The current grass roundabout known as the Eye of York facilitates traffic … Read more

Theatre/Music/Dance: Refining the draft Open Brief

There is a huge interest in seeing the new public spaces in Castle Gateway as hosting theatre, music, outdoor cinema, dance and every other art form imaginable. On reflection, we’ve been a bit concerned that this aspect of the draft Open Brief is currently less well developed than it could be. To fix this, we’ve … Read more

Music in the open air

There’s something special about outdoor music performances. Whatever your taste – Womad, Glastonbury, Carolina Country Music or Jazz New Orleans, there’s something for everyone. Some people though, like their music on a much more intimate, less ear drum bursting level and are not looking for big names or mind altering substances. Some of my best … Read more

Red Tower: Testing the draft Open Brief

3rd and 10th February 2020 We returned to Red Tower to share the draft Open Brief for the new public spaces in the Castle Gateway area. This followed sessions in summer to generate ideas for the new public spaces. Every Monday the Red Tower hosts a Pay-as-you-feel lunch, you can pick up a bag of … Read more

Alternative Visions – the Castle Mills Plaza by Chris Donegani

Chris Donegani lives on Piccadilly and was a regular participant in the workshops we ran to look at the reshaping of public realm along Piccadilly earlier this year. Having been part of the various conversations and given a lot of consideration to the various issues involved, Chris has some concerns over the submitted proposal for … Read more

The Best Bus Stop in York – notes from our event

What would the best bus stop in York be like? Drop-In / workshop 26th Feb 2019 Piccadilly serves many functions – even in its current state – and one of these if for the passage of buses and boarding them. Proposals as they stand include one bus stop on the section of Piccadilly south of … Read more

York Castle Museum Briefing Notes: Navigating layers of history

The York Castle Museum Briefing Notes are drawn from the existing My Castle Gateway open brief for the whole Castle Gateway area along with input drawing on four workshops held in collaboration with York Museums Trust in October 2018. Each workshop was focused on the intersection between movement and meaning, and three of the workshops … Read more

York Castle Museum Briefing Notes Introduction: Movement and Meaning

As part of the wider Castle Gateway project York Castle Museum is also embarking on a major development which aims to interpret the histories of the site, enhance the existing buildings, offer porosity and visual and physical links between the river, the museum and the wider castle site, display better the museum’s collections and reach … Read more

Public Spaces that work for Young People: ‘finding somewhere you can stay without having to pay’

On 27th October, the My Castle Gateway team took a walk with six members of York’s Youth Council to explore how young people use the city’s public space. How do young people use the public spaces York already has? And what new possibilities might the Castle Gateway area offer? Museum Gardens We started in Museum … Read more