All Saints Pavement, York

All Saints Pavement is a Grade I parish church on Pavement in the centre of York, in the Diocese of York. Its octagonal lantern tower is a city landmark.

Overview

Historic England describes a parish church with fourteenth-century arcades and south wall (refaced in the nineteenth century), a tower of about 1400 whose lantern was rebuilt in 1837, a mid-fifteenth-century clerestory, an east end rebuilt about 1780 by William Bellwood and remodelled in 1887 by Fisher and Hepper, a north wall and west end of 1834, and a vestry of 1850–55 enlarged in 1912. The fabric is magnesian limestone ashlar on a chamfered rubble plinth, with asphalt and lead roofs. The plan is a truncated cruciform, with a three-bay aisled nave and clerestory, south vestry and embraced west tower.

A twelfth-century closing ring on the north door takes the form of a dragon swallowing a human figure. Fittings transferred from St Crux (demolished 1887–88) and St Saviour include a pulpit sounding-board dated 1634 and mayoral boards. Glass includes fourteenth-century work from St Saviour in the west window and nineteenth-century glass by Kempe. A tenth-century Saxon grave marker in the north aisle points to a pre-Conquest church on or near the site; a church here is recorded in Domesday Book. The lantern once carried a light as a beacon for travellers in the Forest of Galtres.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1256921
• Wikipedia: All Saints' Church, Pavement, York