Why would you wait

Barker Tower pictured by William Pumphrey (note the typo) dated 1852 (image from yorkpress.co.uk)

But what really makes the picture special is the man in the top hat sat patiently beside the tower. As an aside, I am always amused by Victorians in photos looking like parodies of themselves. Nursemaids pushing oversized prams, children in sailors outfits and gentlemen in top hats. They are all found in Victorian photographs, all looking like stereotypical cartoon ghosts. 

But this gentleman is sat patiently in his top hat. Presumably he is waiting for the Lendal Ferry that shuttled back and forth taking pedestrians across the river before the bridge was built. I even like to imagine that in those days of long exposure times, there are actually several other people there waiting for the ferry, it's just that in their fidgeting and hurrying they haven't been picked up by the camera. Of course this is all highly speculative but it amuses me none the less. 

I love the photo and regularly show it off to other residents and visitors to York. And then someone asked a question that stumped me. 

Why? 

That is to say, why wait patiently, quietly, as still as a statue for a ferry that you will have to pay to use when Ouse Bridge is just a short walk downriver. 

Clearly it was possible to walk from Barker Tower to Ouse Bridge. North Street had been around for several centuries by this point (for proof check out the fine 14th Century windows in All Saints Church on North Street) and a prominent online mapping service suggests that it only takes three minutes to walk down from his location to Ouse Bridge. Having said that, if the gentleman was heading to Museum Gardens or even The Minster, three minutes down and three minutes back up to where he started from might be discouragement enough to not make the walk. 

One major 19th Century development in this part of York was the railway station that was built in Toft Green in 1841, and it was the volume of foot passengers shuffling from the station to the ferry at Lendal that persuaded the city to build a bridge there. However, it was clear that the expectation was that at least some of the people from the station would use Ouse Bridge, as evidenced by the building of George Hudson Street linking the two. 

Down at the other end of the city, there was also a well used ferry down at Skeldergate that wasn't replaced by a bridge until the 1890s.

So maybe the issue was that it cost to use the bridge as well as to use the ferry. The current version of Ouse Bridge was opened in 1821 and it is well recorded that a toll was initially in operation to cross this bridge, as had been the case on the old bridge at the same location. However, when that toll was lifted is not as clear. Some sources suggest that the toll was lifted in 1829 but other sources state that 1829 was the year that some vehicles delivering material for the repair work at The Minster following a major fire were given special dispensation for free access across the bridge. This then implies that the toll for most people was well and truly in place. So in 1852 there might have been a toll to get over Ouse Bridge, there might not have been.

Maybe it wasn't easy for pedestrians to get across Ouse Bridge at the time. As the only bridge across the river in the city it would have been chockablock with every single horse, cart, carriage and cab that wanted to get from one side to the other. Perhaps there simply wasn't enough space for pedestrians to use the bridge as well. Certainly if I was in charge of planning at the time I would have made sure to discourage foot traffic from using the bridge. 

Whatever the reason why people in their thousands chose to wait and pay for a ferry. It is difficult for us to quite appreciate just how important those bridges and ferries were. Nowadays I wouldn't think twice going back and forth over the river maybe several times over the course of a day but if every crossing would cost me time and money then maybe I wouldn't be so blase about it.