No.10 North? History shows York has been at the centre of power

Tower House, Fishergate (former headquarters of Northern Command). Photo by Iona Miles

York's history as a northern centre of power is a long one, argues DUNCAN MARKS

THE Prime Minister’s new "No.10 North" in Manchester has been hailed as a bold attempt to loosen London's centuries-old grip on political power.

Yet history suggests it is less revolutionary than it first appears.

The notion of a permanent political centre is surprisingly modern. Before Whitehall, power was mobile.

Kings travelled with their courts, officials and treasuries. Wherever the monarch was became the centre of government.

Seen through that lens, York repeatedly found itself at the heart of government, even briefly at the centre of an empire stretching across three continents.

The most extraordinary example came under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. In AD 208 he arrived in York (then Eboracum) to campaign against the tribes of modern Scotland. For almost three years the emperor governed the Roman Empire from York issuing decrees and directing military operations until his death there in AD 211.

For a brief but remarkable period, one of history's greatest empires was effectively governed from Yorkshire.

There is an important caveat. Pride in placing plucky Eboracum at the centre of the Roman world should be tempered by the brutality of Severus's campaigns. Ancient accounts describe widespread devastation, while some modern historians have argued that his attempt to subdue the Caledonian tribes amounted to what we would today call ethnic cleansing.

York's moment as an imperial capital was therefore inseparable from one of Rome's most violent military expeditions.

Nor did York's importance disappear with the Romans.

Tower House, Fishergate, c.1900. From the collection of Prof. Gavin H. Thomas

As Stephanie Brown recently argued in The Conversation, medieval York often functioned as a northern capital in all but name, particularly when English kings were engaged in campaigns against Scotland. Royal government, military administration and diplomacy regularly shifted northwards, reflecting York's strategic importance rather than any constitutional designation as a second capital.

William the Conqueror quickly recognised York's importance after 1066. Although London remained his principal seat, York became the key to securing his newly conquered northern kingdom. Two castles were constructed in rapid succession: one on the site later occupied by Clifford's Tower and another on Baile Hill.

Resistance proved fierce. Repeated rebellions culminated in William's infamous ‘Harrying of the North’ during 1069-70, a campaign that devastated much of northern England. York became more than a military outpost. It was the principal base from which Norman authority was imposed across the north.

The Tudor period again reinforced York's political significance. Following the Dissolution of St Mary's Abbey in 1539, Henry VIII established the Council of the North at King's Manor. It administered justice, enforced royal policy and maintained order in a region still viewed with suspicion of lingering Catholic loyalties after the Protestant Reformation.

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For just over a century, King's Manor functioned as the administrative headquarters of northern England.

The Civil War brought England closest to a genuine northern capital. In 1642 Charles I established his court in York while Parliament controlled London. From the city he gathered one of the largest armies ever assembled in England on nearby Heworth Moor before beginning the campaign that would become the Civil War. His ambition was effectively to govern from York. However, the city's exposed position close to Parliamentarian-held Hull and the loss of key northern support forced Charles to abandon the idea, establishing his wartime capital at Oxford instead.

Boundary Stone outside Tower House, Fishergate (former headquarters of Northern Command)

Even in modern times York retained its strategic role. Between 1878 and 1972 the city housed the headquarters of Northern Command at Tower House in Fishergate.

During the Second World War it directed the defence of the east coast from the Wash to the Scottish border and trained the Home Guard.

Generations of York people simply knew Tower House as "The War Office". Boundary stones embedded within Tower House and at the Churchill Hotel on Bootham, which served as Northern Command offices during the Second World War, still quietly mark these former military sites.

Ecclesiastically, York occupies a unique position. The Archbishop of York remains second only to Canterbury in the Church of England, while York remains one of only two English cities whose civic head bears the title Lord Mayor by ancient right.

None of this suggests that York was ever formally England's second capital. But it does remind us that political power has rarely been as geographically fixed as we imagine.

Andy Burnham's "No.10 North" may feel novel, politically, but the idea of a northern centre of power has deep historical roots.

Duncan Marks is the planning and heritage manager at York Civic Trust