Nearest Online Tour Guide page: Goodramgate

Monk Bar is York’s most eastern gate and is the tallest and most elaborate of the four main entrances to the city.

The medieval Monk Bar was built in the 13th century on the foundations of part of York’s Roman wall, although the Roman gateway to the city was probably some 100 metres up the city wall to the north-west.

Monk Bar, the tallest of York's medieval gateways

Monk Bar was enlarged in the 15th century, when it would have had a barbican (see our page on Walmgate Bar for an idea of what this would have looked like). The doorways from the main gatehouse to the barbican can still be seen above and to the left and right of the main gateway. The barbican was removed in 1825.

The arms of England and France are quartered in the shield that can be seen on the outside of the bar – an unusual decoration given that the two nations were at war for most of the middle ages. The main gatehouse would have been used as a prison at this time so it is possible that it housed French prisoners of war.

Monk Bar now houses York’s Richard III museum, accessed by climbing the steps up to the City Wall.

Why is it called Monk Bar?
A sign on the outside of Monk Bar announces that it was named after some monks who lived nearby rather than “as erroneously supposed after General Monck, 1660”. However, as the name of the street outside the walls, Munecagata – now Monkgate – was in use at the time of the Norman Conquest (according to the academic British History Online website), it’s more likely that the name comes from this Scandinavian (ie, Viking or Old Norse) street name.