15 York Hotels, One of Them a House Since 1091

The railway company’s 1906 headquarters with its boardroom and vaults, a house the hotel dates to 1091 behind the Minster, the lodging of the assize judges from 1806 to 1976, and England’s oldest living convent with a guesthouse.

York’s hotels were a railway headquarters, a treasurer’s house, a judges’ lodging and a convent before they were hotels. This list has The Grand in the North Eastern Railway’s 1906 offices, Grays Court, which dates its house to 1091 and calls it the oldest continuously occupied in the country, The Judge’s Lodging, where the assize judges stayed for 170 years, and the Bar Convent, founded in 1686 and still home to its community.

The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Where a hotel’s own site could be confirmed, its name links there; the rest are listed without one.

Railway age landmarks by the station

The Grand, York · Station / Lendal

The Grand was built in 1906 as the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company, on Station Rise beside the city walls. It opened as a hotel in 2010 after a conversion of the Edwardian offices, first as the Cedar Court Grand and now The Grand. The hotel describes itself as York’s only five-star hotel, with the railway company’s old boardroom and basement safe vaults still in use.

The Milner York · Station / Lendal

The Milner opened in 1878 as the Royal Station Hotel, built by the North Eastern Railway beside its new station to William Peachey’s design. It traded as The Royal York and then The Principal York before its 2024 rename to The Milner York, after William Milner, the station foreman killed in the April 1942 air raid on York station. It is Grade II listed, with gardens that run along the city walls between the hotel and Lendal Bridge.

Malmaison York · Station / Rougier Street

The Malmaison opened in 2021 inside Yorkshire House, the former Aviva office block on Rougier Street. The rooftop Sora sky bar looks across the city to the Minster from one of the tallest buildings inside the walls.

Under the Minster and along the walls

Grays Court · Minster / Chapter House Street

Grays Court dates its house to 1091, built for the first Norman Treasurer of York Minster, and calls it the oldest continuously occupied house in the country. It is named for the Gray family of lawyers who held it from 1788, and stands behind the Treasurer’s House with its garden running up to the city walls. The Jacobean Long Gallery is where, by the hotel’s account, James I was received in 1617.

The Judge’s Lodging · Lendal / Minster

The Judge’s Lodging was built around 1711 on Lendal as the townhouse of the physician Dr Clifton Wintringham, and is Grade I listed. From 1806 until 1976 it lodged the judges sitting at the York Assizes, which gave it its name. The Lancashire brewer Thwaites took it over in 2016 and runs it as a pub-hotel with a cellar bar.

The Dean Court · Minster / Duncombe Place

The Dean Court was built in the mid-nineteenth century to house clergy of York Minster, directly facing the Minster’s west front across Duncombe Place. It ran for years as the Dean Court Hotel under the Best Western Premier Collection before The Inn Collection Group bought it and relaunched it as a pub with rooms. Ghost-hunting operators sell overnight vigils in the building.

Guy Fawkes Inn · Minster / High Petergate

The Guy Fawkes Inn stands on High Petergate opposite St Michael le Belfrey, where Guy Fawkes was baptised on 16 April 1570. The inn says Fawkes was born in the cottage at the back of its courtyard. It runs as a pub with rooms, lit by candles and gas lamps downstairs.

The Fat Badger York · Minster / Bootham Bar

The Fat Badger is an eighteenth-century Grade II listed inn at 2 to 4 High Petergate, built hard against Bootham Bar and the city walls. It traded for decades as the Lamb & Lion Inn before its renaming as The Fat Badger York.

Golden Fleece · Pavement / Shambles

The Golden Fleece is a coaching inn on Pavement first recorded in 1503, Grade II listed, at the end of the Shambles. It calls itself York’s most haunted pub, with a roster of named ghosts, and lets a handful of guest rooms above the bar.

Convent, almshouses and a Bootham mansion

The Bar Convent · Micklegate Bar / Blossom Street

The Bar Convent was founded in 1686 by Frances Bedingfield and is still home to a religious community, which makes it England’s oldest living convent. Its 1769 chapel hides its dome beneath a pitched roof and has a priest hole, built when Catholic worship was still illegal. The Georgian building beside Micklegate Bar runs a guesthouse, a café and a heritage exhibition.

Middletons · Skeldergate / Ouse riverside

Middletons spreads across a cluster of listed buildings on Skeldergate that includes Lady Anne Middleton’s Hospital, almshouses founded in 1659. The hotel counts the Georgian Cromwell House and the former Terry’s Cottages among its buildings. It sits inside the walls on the Ouse by Skeldergate Bridge, and reopened after a full makeover in 2023, by its own account.

The Churchill Hotel · Bootham

The Churchill is a Grade II listed Georgian mansion at 65 Bootham, standing in its own grounds on the road out from Bootham Bar. The hotel presents the house as an early nineteenth-century private residence later turned to hotel use.

Out along The Mount to the Middlethorpe parkland

Hotel du Vin York · The Mount

The Hotel du Vin occupies a Grade II listed early nineteenth-century building at 89 The Mount, the Georgian approach road to Micklegate Bar. The hotel says the house once served as an orphanage. It runs the chain’s bistro and wine cellar format with a courtyard behind the house.

Elmbank York, Tapestry Collection by Hilton · The Mount

Elmbank is a Victorian house on The Mount remodelled from 1898 for the flour miller Sidney Leetham, with interiors by the Glasgow designer George Walton. Walton’s Art Nouveau rooms survive, and the house is Grade II listed for them. Cairn Group relaunched it under Hilton’s collection of independent hotels, the brand’s first in York.

Middlethorpe Hall & Spa · Bishopthorpe Road / Middlethorpe (outside walls)

Middlethorpe Hall was built in 1699 for Thomas Barlow, a Sheffield master cutler, and was home to the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in 1713 and 1714. Historic House Hotels restored it from 1980 and gave it to the National Trust in 2008 with its sister houses. It stands in twenty acres of gardens and parkland beside York Racecourse, with the spa in the old stables.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.

What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a railway-age landmark, a house under the Minster or against the walls with a documented past, a convent or almshouse turned hotel, or a Georgian house on The Mount with a name attached. Comfort alone did not qualify.

Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.

Should I stay inside the walls or out on The Mount?
Inside the walls puts you within ten minutes’ walk of the Minster, the Shambles and the station, on streets that are busy until late. The Mount is a quieter Georgian road five minutes outside Micklegate Bar, and Middlethorpe is a taxi ride out by the racecourse.

Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from York run to the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and Whitby, to Castle Howard, or to Harrogate and Knaresborough. The hotels by the station sit closest to the trains and the coach pickups.