Mystery! History! An embezzling priest!
The Purple Door’s got it all…
This beautiful house was built in 1876, placing it firmly in the Victorian era.
125 Clifton is one of four terraced houses, known as “Clifton Terrace” in historical records. They were commissioned by a parish priest based at St Luke’s over the road, who is suspected to have embezzled funds from the church to pay for his project!
Clifton itself is a small section of a very old street, even by York standards. Just a few metres north, it becomes Shipton Road; as you head into town, the name changes to Bootham, and leads directly to Bootham Bar, one of only four gates, or bars, through York’s famous city walls. Two millennia ago, this was the primary route north out of the city then known as Eboracum, the capital of Roman Britain.
Over the decades, the property has been used as a hotel, a boarding house, turned into flats, and then back into a house again. When I moved in, it had been a family home for several years.
Happily, despite its many incarnations, 125 Clifton has retained many of its original period features, including ceiling roses, cornicing, sash windows, lovely deep stairs, a sinuous banister, secret servant passageway, and wonderful doors and frames; not to mention the high ceilings and bay windows so typical of the era. This is a classic example of a British Victorian townhouse, located on an ancient thoroughfare. If you want to stay in a little slice of history, you’ll find it here!
A Londoner up north.
My name is Robyn, and I’ll be your host in York.
Originally from London, I’m a theatre studies graduate with seven years of film industry graft under my belt. In the summer of 2015, my then-partner and I threw in the towel on our (comparatively) conventional jobs, packed our rucksacks, and headed for Latimer Road tube station. Thus began an eight-month journey, mostly by land, which involved a ferry from Vladivostok, ancient rock carvings in the Gobi Desert, superheroes in Jakarta, a Bulgarian ghost town, empty 20-lane highways in Burma, and an awful lot of trains. You can read my (unfinished) blog here…
Whilst travelling, we decided that we didn’t want to return to London and settle back into our previous routine. So instead, having realised one dream, we decided to follow another. We relocated to the pocket-sized city of York and started a new life as hosts instead of guests!
I had always wanted to run a guesthouse, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a go. Although no longer with my partner, I’d fallen in love with York, and that’s why I’m still here! I’m an experienced traveller with 50+ countries notched up so far, and I’ve stayed in more hotels, hostels, guesthouses, spare rooms, yurts, treehouses, caravans and boats than any one human being should. As a traveller myself, I know what guests need to feel at home. I look forward to ensuring that you are equally as happy in my adopted city as I am!