Tang Hall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tang Hall is an inner-city district of the city of York in the United Kingdom. It lies in the east of the city and is approximately bordered by Heworth to the north, Hull Road to the south, Melrosegate to the west and Osbaldwick to the east. The area consists mostly of houses dating from the 1930s, most of which are council houses or ex-council houses, built after a slum clearance. Tang Hall is supplied by the usual types of shops, such as a local convenience store, various takeaways, a bakers, a pharmacy and a Post Office. Tang Hall Community Centre, Tang Hall Surgery, Tang Hall Library and Tang Hall Primary School also serve the local community.

The area also has three churches: St Hilda's Church, St George's Methodist Church and St. Aelred's Roman Catholic Church. The current St Hilda's Church was built recently as a replacement for the older, larger St Hilda's Church on the same site, which whilst it stood for many years remained unfinished until its demolition. St Aelred's Roman Catholic Church has a number of statues by Prof Julius Maugsch, a Hungarian sculptor from Budapest who settled in Burnholme after leaving Hungary in the 1960s. St Aelreds school, a Roman Catholic Primary school, occupied the site next to the church but is now demolished, as with St Margaret Clitherow secondary modern school for girls at the junction of Penyghent Avenue and Fifth Avenue, now also demolished. A new St Aelreds school was built on the site of St Margeret Clitherow's in the 19XXs and still stands today, attaining good league table scores every year.

Several of the streets in Tang Hall are named in the same style found in the United States. They are named from First Avenue to Ninth Avenue, although no 'grid' layout is evident. (It is often claimed that "the avenues", certainly First and Second Avenue which are directly behind Heworth Church and arguably the others are in fact in Heworth village; "Tang Hall" is not seen as a prestigious address in York as the area was perceived as having a high crime rate. Heworth, Osbaldwick and Burnholme are all seen as more desirable addresses).

Other streets are named after Archbishops of York. "Constantine Avenue" and "Burlington Avenue" are nicknamed "Conno" and "Burlo" respectively. These two long had the reputation as the most troubled roads in the whole city with several derelict properties and social problems. However, most of the derelicts have now been renovated and the area has improved, although it is still hard to walk in this area without being confronted by people of little to no intellegence armed with rocks and a distrust of people who aren't them.

On York City Council, Tang Hall is mostly covered by the Hull Road and Heworth wards. The current councillors are Paul Blanchard (Labour Party), Viv Kind (Labour) and Ruth Potter (Labour) for Heworth Ward and Derek Smallwood (Labour) and David Wilde(Labour) for Hull Road Ward.

The area is popular for student housing from the nearby University of York.