Bootham Bar stands on the site of one of the four gateways into the Roman legionary fortress. There has been a gateway on this site for the last 1900 years.

Bootham Bar contains some of the earliest medieval stonework on the walls. The earliest parts of the present gatehouse date from the eleventh century.

However most of the building that you can see today dates from the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. It consists of a passageway with arches at each end of a rectangular gatehouse with two storeys above.