York Historic Environment Record

An archaeological evaluation was carried out by On-Site Archaeology at the former Electric Cinema at 19-22 Fossgate, York. This comprised the hand excavation of two trenches. The first on the raised platform in the alleyway between nos. 18 and 20 Fossgate revealed medieval deposits at a depth of 0.95 metre below the surface of the platform. This level was slightly higher than the level of the alleyway itself. A second trench to the rear of the property revealed only post medieval and early modern deposits relating to short lived structures. A total of four boreholes were struck on site, one to the rear by Straker’s Passage within Trench 2 and three in the alleyway adjacent to 20-22 Fossgate. These revealed a more detailed view of preservation on site as well as an intriguing glimpse into the buried medieval topography. This seemed to drop very sharply from the Fossgate street frontage where medieval deposits were seen at a depth of only 0.45 metre (directly under the modern surface construction). To the rear of site at a depth of six metres the borehole was still recovering flood deposits. It is possible that material there was excavated, from the vicinity of the Carmelite Friary wall, and then tipped nearer the Fossgate frontage to create a platform. This would have served to protect structures along the street from periodic flooding of the River Foss. At the same time, to the rear, flood water would have collected in the excavated area leading to the formation there of silty alluvial soils. Later the platform seems to have been partially reduced by slicing off later medieval and post-medieval deposits leaving earlier medieval material in-situ very close to the modern ground surface. These deposits included preserved stakes and evidence of wattle walls or fences along with organic material. Preliminary discussions have been held with City of York Council Archaeologist with regards to the need for further archaeological investigations. These discussions have concluded that archaeological mitigation will be required, and that this can be secured through condition(s) attached to the grant of planning permission.