Church of All Saints’, North Street

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 08/11/2025 - 23:00

The Church of All Saints’ on York’s North Street is a hidden gem. Full of historical features and possessing good quality, authentic medieval glass, this is one of those churches which I wish I had called at sooner. Its current usage would not have been out of place before the time of Reformation, and a collection of statues clutter it up, including a Mary that looks like Coronation Street’s Bet Lynch but with a longer dress.

The chancel is rather odd. This is the section at the far end whereat the ‘altar’ is located, but it appears to have been extended with wooden screens in order to make it larger, which is fitting, perhaps, with its ritualistic, altar-wise worship. Chancels usually have a sense of distinction and separation, a kind of holy of holies. Nicholas Orme in his excellent book Going to Church in Medieval England details some of the conflicts caused by clergy keeping people out of the chancel, or jealousies inspired when certain persons, usually gentry, were allowed to worship from within them rather than from without. All Saints’ chancel, however, has the sense of ‘jutting out’ into the nave, allowing worshippers to surround it on three sides. Whether this happened in practice rather than in my imagination, I cannot say.

I do not really approve of chancels, or rood screens, or priestly status, but this Anglo-Catholic building, ironically, shows its more acceptable face. Here, the highlight of worship is performed amidst the people, just as Christ is among His people, even today, by His Spirit. The veil is rent, the middle wall broken, the flaming sword sheaved; the Lord dwells among His people, while one day they shall dwell before His very throne.