88 Micklegate

The white stucco facade at eighty-eight Micklegate stands out against the darker brick and stone of its neighbors. This building served as the home and practice of John Goodricke in the seventeen eighties. Goodricke was deaf, and he spent his short life observing the star Algol from these upper windows. He figured out why its brightness flickered at regular intervals, a discovery that fundamentally changed how astronomers understood variable stars. He died in this house at age twenty-one, just weeks after receiving a major scientific medal.