St. Lawrence Parish Church

St Lawrence Parish Church is an active Church of England parish church on Lawrence Street in York, just outside Walmgate Bar — and, after York Minster, the second-largest religious building in the city. Standing in the Anglo-Catholic tradition and known for its use of the Book of Common Prayer (the church identifies itself as "Prayer Book Catholic"), it pairs a vast Victorian building of the 1880s with the surviving medieval tower of its predecessor, and its dedication to St Lawrence may be a deliberate echo of the Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome — both churches standing just beyond their city's gates.

The medieval church's story is written in its churchyard. The tower of the old building still stands there, its doorway and lower half dating to the twelfth century, now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and designated Grade I, part of a scheduled monument that includes the buried remains of the medieval church and most of its burial ground. The oldest gravestones lie on the footprint of the demolished nave and chancel, including tombs of the Heskeths and Yarburghs of Heslington Hall. The parish was united with that of St Nicholas after that church was destroyed in the Siege of York during the Civil War; St Lawrence itself was severely damaged in the siege but rebuilt at the Restoration, and silver and furniture of about 1669 survive. The church's most romantic moment came on a snowy day in 1719, when the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh — creator of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard — married Henrietta Maria Yarburgh here. The churchyard's Grade I listed monuments include the Rigg Memorial of 1830, built by public subscription for six children who died in a boating accident, with an epitaph by the poet James Montgomery — restored by York Civic Trust in 2016 and rededicated by the Archbishop of York on 11 March 2017 — and the 1820 "medicine pot" memorial to Dr Oswald Allen, who ran the York Dispensary charity, and his wife.

The old church was demolished in 1881–83 to make way for a far larger building, the leading work of J. B. Hall of Canterbury, with the spire added in 1891–93 along with an illuminated clock given by Alderman Robert Fawcett in memory of his parents. The first incumbent, Robert Crosthwaite, later became the inaugural Bishop of Beverley, and his memorial plaque hangs in the sanctuary. From the old church came the elaborate font of about 1400, and the stained glass is largely the work of the Knowles family of Stonegate, including the recently restored east window — severely damaged by high winds in early 2014 and since repaired. The church's most remarkable window is the large and very unusual Art Deco First World War memorial of 1929 by Joan Fulleylove, depicting the Somme battlefield, the city of York, and a knight with a grail cup; the chancel was remodelled as a Second World War memorial by Robert "Mousey" Thompson of Kilburn, whose carved mice presumably hide among the woodwork. Otherwise the church has been little altered, and the 19th-century building is listed Grade II.

The tower carries a story of its own: in 1999 the bellringers of York gave the church a ring of eight bells for change ringing to mark the millennium, all cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough (in 1947, 1988 and 1999) and hung together — four of them formerly hanging in Charrington's Brewery in London. They were "christened" on Easter Day 1999 after the historic dedications of religious houses within the modern parish: St Helen, St Edward the Confessor, St Andrew, All Hallows, St Catherine, St Michael, St Nicholas and St Laurence, and they are rung by the St Lawrence Society of Change Ringers. The organ history is similarly peripatetic: a one-manual Postill from the medieval church served until 1907, then a two-manual Connacher from St Olave's, York, until 2009 (since restored at Lastingham), and in 2020 the church received its present instrument — a fully mechanical, highly decorative three-manual organ built by Denman and Co. in 1885 for St Michael-le-Belfrey beside the Minster, a powerful instrument at last matched to a church of St Lawrence's size.

Recent years have brought rejuvenation. A major building project in 2016–17 installed a new heating system, rewiring and lighting at a cost exceeding £200,000; the 1935 community hall — built on the former site of cottages belonging to the Vicars Choral of York Minster — has been fully refurbished; and the vicar and churchwardens are working with York Civic Trust on an extensive churchyard improvement project addressing parking, lighting, the footprint of the medieval church and the boundary walls. The improved building and its excellent acoustics have made it an increasingly popular concert venue — with one viral moment in 2014, when a University of York Brass Band Society performance of the "Trololo" song in the church circulated widely online — and since 2023 the York branch of CAMRA has held its annual York Beer Festival in the church each September, the beer blessed by a local priest before each festival begins; 2024 marked the festival's fiftieth year. The church maintains strong links with the York Normandy Veterans' group, installing a memorial window by Helen Whittaker of Barley Studios on the tower in 2021, and in 2025 marked the eightieth anniversary of VE Day with a commemorative evensong officiated by the Right Reverend Paul Ferguson, attended by the civic party, the veterans' association and Ken Cooke, York's last surviving D-Day veteran.

Worship remains the heart of it all. St Lawrence's keeps a robed choir, altar servers and traditional ritual with incense and vestments, and — during the present interregnum following the retirement of Fr Adam Romanis — holds three Sunday services, predominantly from the Book of Common Prayer: Mattins, a sung Mass, and Evensong, choral in term time; it is one of only two York parish churches still to sing Evensong every Sunday, and the Ebor Singers' Choral Evensongs of January 2025 and 2026 were broadcast on BBC Radio 3. A member of The Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda, the church receives episcopal and sacramental oversight from the Bishop of Beverley, Stephen Race — fittingly, the successor in title to its own first vicar.