York Guides

Walmgate Bar is the entrance to the city from Hull. It retains its barbican, portcullis, and its inner oak gates including the wicket. Henry V with Queen Katherine passed through this Bar on their way to visit the shrine of St. John of Beverley, and in honour of the event the arms of the King are emblazoned on the Bar. Later, when Edward IV had been temporarily deposed in favour of Henry VI, he, after a sojourn on the Continent, returned to England and landed at Ravenspurn, a site now sub­merged, and, gathering a force around him, marched to York, only to find the gates of Walmgate Bar closed against him.

"What then remains, we being thus arrived
  From Ravenspurn haven before the gates of York
  But that we enter, as into our dukedom."

He demanded to be admitted as Duke of York, and on acknowledging Henry of Lancaster as king, he and his followers were permitted to enter. This scene is described in the play of Henry VI, Part III, Act IV, Scene VII. Henry VIII with Queen Cathe­rine Howard on their visit to York entered the city by this Bar. 

The city front is in striking contrast to the ex­terior elevation and consists of a timber and plaster dwelling built in front of the Bar on columns, and apparently erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The Bar suffered severely during the siege of York, owing to its proximity to Garrow Hill, which was secured by the Parliamentarians during the great Civil War for their batteries, which kept up a de­structive fire on the Bar. The barbican was repaired four years after the surrender of the city, for over the arch is a shield with the city arms and the date 1648.