The Gunpowder Plot: After Hours

The Bar Convent is running The Gunpowder Plot: After Hours on Tuesday 3 November, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. It's a late-night session that takes the story of Bonfire Night and puts it inside one of York's most hidden corners, and the whole thing is run in partnership with The York Dungeon.

The night starts in the convent's hidden chapel, where you gather by candlelight to meet Guy Fawkes in the final hour before his execution. From there, you follow an exhibition that retells the events surrounding 5 November 1605. The story is set against post-Reformation York and draws on rare objects, new interpretation and human storytelling to show how the plot echoed across the country, left its mark on the city and shaped the lives of the courageous women who founded the house in its wake.

There's a good bit of history to the venue itself. The Bar Convent is the UK's oldest living convent, established in secret in 1686 when Catholicism was illegal. Today it's open to everyone as a heritage house with a museum, cafe, chapel and a guest house on site, and it's a place steeped in stories of secrets, spies and survival. That fits the theme of the night pretty well, given the plot it's retelling.

Tickets are £22 per person, and that includes an alcoholic or soft drink. The session runs from 6:00pm to 9:00pm on Tuesday 3 November at The Bar Convent, 17 Blossom Street, York, YO24 1AQ.