The principal schools are St Peter's cathedral grammar-school (originally endowed in 1557), Archbishop Holgate's grammar-school, the York and diocesan grammar-school, and the bluecoat school for boys (founded in 5705), with the associated greycoat school for girls.
The chief buildings are the Carmelite Priory (ruins dating perhaps from the 13th century); a Bluecoat school (1514); a free grammar school (1527); an orphan girl school (funds left by Thomas Howel to the Drapers' Co., in Henry VII.'s reign); the town hall (built in 1572 by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, enlarged and restored in 1780); an unfinished church (begun by Leicester); a market hall (with arcades or "rows," such as those of Chester or Yarmouth); and the old parish church of St Marcella.
The Chilcott Free School was established in 1611, and the Bluecoat Charity School, dating from 1714, was reorganized in 1876 to give secondary education to boys and girls.
There is an endowed grammar school founded by Edward VI., and a bluecoat or hospital school.
Opposite the Bluecoat formerly stood a Bridewell or House of Correction where " petty crimes " were punished by confinement and hard labor.