Pikeing Well

Pikeing Well is a wellhead building located on New Walk in York, constructed in 1752 by John Carr, who reused some earlier stonework. The structure is made of squared limestone blocks with some re-used sandstone pilaster bases and features an asphalt roof. It has a rectangular plan with battered side walls and a semicircular projection at the rear.

The exterior of the west wall, which faces the river, includes an archway with a semicircular head, worn voussoirs, and an impost band, now fitted with 20th-century iron gates. The parapet is adorned with saddlebacked coping stones and three re-used moulded pilaster bases, the central one topped with a broken 12th-century capital used as a finial.

Inside, the well features a stone vaulted barrel roof and a semicircular niche in the rear wall. Historically, New Walk was established as a fashionable promenade between 1730 and 1739, and the wellhead was commissioned by the City Corporation to serve as an interesting feature. There is a legend that stone from the chancel of All Saints Church was reused in the well, but this is not true, as the chancel was not demolished until 1782. Part of the fee paid to Carr for the well was kept by the City Corporation as payment for his Freedom of the City.