York historian Francis Drake suggested in his Eboracum (1736) that the first part of the name referred to a resting-place (or "lair") used by deer on the edge of the Forest of Galtres.

The King's Pool became an integral part of the city's defences during the Middle Ages – this explains the absence of defensive wall in the area today – and was well known for its abundance of fish.

There was a medieval church (St. Mary's, Layerthorpe), which was built about fifty yards from the bridge in the fourteenth century or earlier.

The Branch Line had been opened in 1880 to serve the cattle-market at Walmgate Bar and to provide facilities for freight traffic, including deliveries of coal and, later, sand for bottle-making, on the eastern side of the city.

On Foss Islands Road, just south of Layerthorpe Bridge, York Corporation built a power station and refuse destructor in the 1890s, again with sidings off the Branch Line.

The Branch Line's sidings and the Corporation's premises have been replaced by a variety of industrial and retail units (and increasingly, residential).