Images: plan of King’s manor (from Victoria County History) and King’s Manor hall and gallery (photo: C.A. Stanford).
Acquired: 1539
When the great Benedictine monastery of St. Mary, York, was suppressed in 1539, the King’s Council in the North took charge of the abbot’s house and hall. These were spacious and handsome structures built in the late fifteenth century and apparently needed only a little alteration to fit them for occupation by the Council, but when Henry visited in 1541 on his northern royal progress, over £400 was spent to repair and beautify the York manor in particular. The former frater was altered to serve as the king’s hall and the monastic dorter as the queen’s lodging (Colvin, 356).
Many of the buildings were partially demolished by the end of Henry’s reign, including the nearby abbey church, but the complex was restored with a new hall, kitchens, and a gallery in Elizabethan times for potential diplomatic use. Further building took place in the Jacobean era, for further use as a palace during northern visits by the Crown. After the Civil War the property was used for housing, and later a school; in the twentieth century, the structures were converted for use by the University of York. Today they house the departments of Archaeology, the Centre for Medieval Studies, and Eighteenth Century Studies.