Stepping into a gallery of photos from the early 1990s might not feel a huge leap back in time for many readers - for others it is a lifetime.
But, this collection of mostly black-and-white images capture a city that, in many ways, is quite unlike the York we recognise today.
The photos from The Press archives portray an era of transformation where familiar landmarks were either rising from the ground or being reduced to rubble.
The Barbican Centre under construction in 1990 .
In 1990, the skyline was punctuated by the skeletal frame of the new York Barbican, a £15 million council gamble on the city’s cultural future.
The leisure and events complex was built on the same site as the 1980s swimming pool, adding a large auditorium, sports hall, climbing wall, cafés and bars, and it officially opened in September 1991.
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By the early 1990s it was being billed as a landmark 'dream' venue, even though it later struggled financially and closed for several years before a huge refurbishment.
Naburn Hospital was demolished in 1990.
Just a few miles away, the imposing Victorian walls of Naburn Hospital were being systematically dismantled, its closure in 1988 having sealed the fate of a site that had cared for the city’s most vulnerable for more than 80 years.
Most of the former hospital grounds were to become the York Designer Outlet Centre, which opened in 1998.
The new Tesco under construction at Askham Bar in 1990.
The same year, the concrete pillars of a new Tesco at Askham Bar were beginning to rise - a symbol of how shopping habits were changing with the lure of out-of-town retail parks boasting ample parking.
Parliament Street during its big makeover in 1991.
By 1991, the city centre itself was being re-engineered. Parliament Street, created in the 1830s as a bustling thoroughfare that linked Pavement and St Sampson’s Square and hosted the city’s main market, was having its big makeover. The result was a pedestrianised 'European-style' shopping street, its new stone and brick, and new cast‑iron street furniture and signage, a stark contrast to the cobbles of old.
York Carriageworks pictured from above in 1993.
Meanwhile, the industrial heart of the city was still beating strong. The York Carriageworks on Holgate Road, then under the ownership of Swedish–Swiss group ABB, was a hive of activity as a 'centre of excellence' for rolling stock, its workers unaware that the axe would fall just a few years later, with the site finally shutting in 1996.
Terry's pictured in 1993.
Similarly, the iconic clock tower of Terry’s purpose‑built Chocolate Works was still standing proud on Bishopthorpe Road in 1993, the year Kraft took over in a change that would eventually lead to the factory’s heartbreaking closure in 2005.
The photos also capture the quiet moments of decay. The old Forsselius garage on Blossom Street stood boarded up in August 1993, a relic of a time when inner-city garages dotted York, before being converted into a hotel.
The old Forsselius garage in Blossom Street, boarded up in August 1993.
Forsselius had started life as a car dealer and garage on Blossom Street before the First World War, moving to larger premises on the opposite side of the road around 1931 and becoming known for early petrol pumps in York.
George Hudson Street, including the boarded-up old Presto site in 1995.
By 1995, the old Presto supermarket on George Hudson Street shared a similar fate, its windows shuttered as the retail landscape shifted once again. Even Spurriergate was being reshaped, its new developments heralding the arrival of the global high-street chains.
1995's Spurriergate.
The 1990s also saw new retail developments on and around Spurriergate (along with nearby Davygate), reflecting the city’s push to modernise its shopping offer with larger chain stores and fresh frontages.
These images are more than just records of construction and demolition; they are snapshots of a city in flux, where every boarded-up window and rising crane signalled a change in the rhythm of daily life for generations of York residents.
What will our photo albums from 2026 show to future generations of Press readers? Cranes still tower over key streets, such as Piccadilly.
What key developments today will we look back on as a turning point for the city? We'd love to read your memories of lost landmarks and your views on how the city is changing today. Share your views in the comments below.