Address: 3 Intake Avenue, Clifton, York, YO30 6HB
Description
A wooden sign painted in bright white reads “Burton Pharmacy. Dispensing Chemists” in bold black lettering, hanging from a building in Clifton.
The original sign has since been replaced by a newer one, but it still advertises a pharmacy at the same location.
History
Burton Stone Lane
Burton Stone Lane in York is named after the infamous Burton Stone, a medieval plague stone now enclosed behind iron railings at the corner of Burton Stone Lane and Clifton Road.
Historically, this stone may have been the base for three crosses near the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene.
Over time, the stone’s basin-like hollows, likely originally intended for crosses, were possibly used as receptacles for vinegar during plague times.
The crosses’ fate is unknown, but they were likely linked to the chapel.
The eponymous Burton Stone
Pharmacy
The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, established in 1841, saw its role evolve significantly with the introduction of the Pharmacy Act of 1868, which restricted the sale of dangerous drugs to qualified individuals.
With the launch of the NHS, the pharmaceutical landscape transformed, though proposals in 1960 to provide free drugs to private patients were not adopted.
The interior of a 20th century pharmacy
By 1965, drug supplies through retail pharmacies accounted for about ten times the volume of those in hospitals.
A decline in pharmacies occurred in the 1960s and 70s, with over 4,000 pharmacies dispensing fewer than 24,000 prescriptions annually, leading to financial losses on NHS services – likely contributing to the closure of Burton Pharmacy.
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