A cracked screen!

Now just what are you looking at? A shut down retail outlet for mobile ‘phone repairs. Here today, gone tomorrow! But, it’s more than that because the pillar on the left hand side of the frame is an architectural remnant of some significance. You are now in Coney Street in the city of York. The pillar is the right hand support of an archway that leads to the rear of the existing buildings. The left hand pillar is long gone. You may ask how the arch is supported. Go back to the Eighteenth Century and this arch was instrumental in allowing the coach and horses from London to enter the yard of the then Winn's George Hotel which stood on this site. It was subsequently demolished apart from the pillar that you now see. Why they removed the left hand pillar but left the right I do not know, because I am no engineer. However, the  remaining pillar suggests an age of elegance, the age of the enlightenment and a social infrastructure that has now completely disappeared. Stand here for a moment and consider some of the guests of the George Hotel. Anne and Charlotte Bronte stayed here on the evening of 24th May 1849.
The George appears in the extra photograph taken in 1867 featuring a splendid Jacobean façade.Notice the figure standing by the very column I have photographed. This splendid building was erased to make way for ‘Leak and Thorp’s’ department store. This in turn burned down in 1933 (although rebuilt the following year) What you will find in Coney street now is Next, a far cry from the grandeur of a past age.
Note that the derelict 'phone shop promised Express service Qulity Assured
Extra photograph courtesy of York City archive and libraries