Barley Hall

Tight. A great historical attraction. Not overwhelming or boring or run of the mill. Barley Hall is a little tricky to find but also well worth the effort. Too bad that coffee shop in Coffee Yard was closed. Several very friendly and helpful people working in Barley Hall also made our visit exceptional. I think my favorite thing was how they found Barley Hall and how they restored it.

Worth a visit to see all the heritage glory of this hall. You must watch the 8 minute video because it shows lot of the hard work the went into the reconstruction and restoration of the hall. It was built in 1360 and after reused in centuries it was used as a storage by a plumber and about to demolition when they found its history in 1980 and resorted it in its glory.

Wonderful exhibit, it was like walking through another time. Great that there were toys of yester year which you could read about and actually play. The staff where friendly, welcoming qand approachable and full of knowledge. We were not really sure what we were going to find however, we were very pleased that we did visit Barley Hall

Brilliant! They carefully reconstructed a medieval townhouse just as it used to be, and even used some of the original timber and an originally medieval hearth. The experience is very hands-on, as you're encouraged to pick up and handle items. Plenty of info cards offer insights into medieval life, but if you don't feel like reading, they're also available in audio format. Additionally, there was an interesting focus on animals in medieval life and their symbolism that I really enjoyed!

A finely restored medieval merchant's house in the centre of York. The visitor experience reminded me very much of Strangers Hall in Norwich. The kids got a lot of enjoyment out of the range of activities available on the afternoon that we went. The toilets were nice and clean and the history of how the building stood for so long was interesting. I'd recommend for a morning or afternoon visit in an itinerary.

The hall itself was clean and easy to navigate. We felt that there could be more items or descriptions in some rooms, such as the pantry and buttery. The reason for the two star review is because of the abismal treatment by the member of staff who was in charge of ticketing yesterday afternoon, a woman with red/purple eye glasses and straight dark hair. She seemed annoyed when my husband and I came in to purchase tickets and did not greet us or even speak to either of us until we asked for tickets. We were both friendly and polite upon entry and even asked how her day was going, to which we were met with silence and no response back. Once we asked for tickets she visibly sighed and seemed personally annoyed at us wanting to purchase tickets. Through the ticket purchasing process she was silent and didn’t say anything, and then sped through her spiel about the rules of Barley Hall very quickly and just handed us the tickets. My husband and I brushed it off as maybe she was just not really sociable. However, on our way out the same woman was speaking to an older couple who was purchasing tickets and was so expressive and descriptive and informative and kind. Our interaction with her was so curt and we felt she had been quite rude. The only thing we can pinpoint as to why she treated us like an inconvenience and bother and an older couple better is down to age. In the end we didn’t even bother looking at the shop on our way out as watching her interact so nicely to everyone else completely put us off. Based off the way she treated my husband and I (we are in our mid/late 20’s), I would not recommend for other young couples to interact with her. The hall itself was very nice and we HIGHLY recommend the video in the old schoolroom downstairs as it does a great job of describing the restoration and history of Barley Hall.

Visited here for a number of extras as part of the Jorvik festival and it’s a great place to do such things. I went here for leather working, nalbinding, pottery, mead tasting and the Jorvik immersive theatre which was a fabulous play with audience participation put on by 2 fabulous guys. Brilliant fun to be had all round.

A very interesting place. Highly recommend. No queues, a cosy atmosphere. I enjoyed spending time there. You may purchase tickets in advance, but also personally.