City Walls Experience at Micklegate Bar facts for kids
Micklegate Bar, York
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| Location | Micklegate Bar, York, England |
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| Type | Local history museum |
| Owner | Jorvik Group (YAT) |
| Public transit access | York Station  0.2 miles (0.32 km) |
| Nearest car park | Nunnery Lane Car Park |
The City Walls Experience at Micklegate Bar is a cool museum in York, England. It's located inside one of the old gatehouses of the city's historic walls. This museum helps you discover the amazing story of these ancient walls. It uses maps, screens, and videos to show how the walls protected York for centuries. The Jorvik Group, which is part of the York Archaeological Trust, runs this exciting experience.
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Discovering York's Ancient Walls
The museum at Micklegate Bar has changed over the years. It always tells important stories about York's past.
From Roman Times to Royal Heads
Before 2014, the museum was called the Micklegate Bar Museum. It covered a huge part of York's history. You could learn about York from Roman times all the way to the 1900s. Some exhibits even showed replicas of heads of famous historical figures. These included Richard of York and Sir Henry Percy. Their real heads were once displayed on Micklegate Bar as a warning!
Two Kings, One City: The Henry VII Experience
In February 2014, the Jorvik Group took over the museum. They changed its name to the Henry VII Experience at Micklegate Bar. Another museum, the Richard III Experience at Monk Bar, opened at the same time. Both museums reopened in April 2014. Their slogan was "Two Kings, Two Bars, One City."
The Henry VII Experience focused on the early life of Henry VII. He was a Lancastrian prince who lived in exile. The museum also explored his time as king after the Wars of the Roses. It showed how the Tudor royal family changed the city of York.
Horrible Histories and Hidden Gems
This museum used fun ways to teach history. It had interactive exhibits and multimedia shows. You could see real items like suits of armour. It even featured "grisly facts" from Terry Deary. He is the writer of the famous Horrible Histories books!
The Henry VII Experience won awards too. In October 2014 and February 2018, Visit England called it a 'Hidden Gem'. In 2015, it was a finalist for 'Visitor Attraction of the Year'. This was part of the Visit York Tourism Awards.
A New Chapter: The City Walls Experience
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the museum to close. It stayed closed because it was hard to keep people safely apart inside.
So, the Henry VII Experience was replaced. A new museum, the City Walls Experience, opened in April 2022. This new experience focuses on the amazing story of York's city walls.
