The Shambles, York

York Minster, England
York Minster, York

We spent a weekend in York last July (a great time to go!), during which time we enjoyed adventuring around the Harry-Potter inspired streets otherwise known as “The Shambles”. What an iconic place to visit!

About The Shambles

  1. The Shambles’ is sometimes used as a general term for the maze of twisting, narrow lanes which make York so charming.  At its heart is the lane actually called The Shambles, arguably the best preserved medieval street in the world.
  2. It was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086.
  3. Many of the buildings on the street today date back to the late fourteenth and fifteenth century (around 1350-1475).
  4. The Shambles was a street of butchers’ shops and houses, many complete with a slaughterhouse at the back of the premises, ensuring a ready supply of fresh meat.
  5. The meat was hung up outside the shops and laid out for sale on what are now the shop window-bottoms.  It is still possible to see some of the original butcher’s meat-hooks attached to the shop fronts.
  6. Lacking modern-day sanitation facilities, there was a constant problem of how to dispose of the waste produced by the slaughter of animals in the city.
  7. The pavements are raised either side of the cobbled street to form a channel where the butchers would wash away their offal and blood twice a week.
  8. In some sections of the Shambles it is possible to touch both sides of the street with your arms outstretched.
  9. York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England.
  10. The original walls were built around 71 AD, when the Romans erected a fort (castra) occupying about 50 acres or 21.5 hectares near the banks of the River Ouse.
  11. The name is thought to derive from ‘Shammel’, an anglo-saxon word for the shelves which were a prominent feature of the open shop-fronts.

Things To Do In York

  1. Clifford’s Tower
  2. York Castle Museum
  3. The York Dungeon
  4. Guy Fawkes Inn – where the famous conspirator Guy Fawkes was born
  5. Ghost Tour
The Shambles
Typical building in The Shambles
The Shambles
An old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century.
Tami Scripps Travel Blog
I enjoyed exploring the cobblestone streets! Many of the current buildings are from circa 1350-1475
York Minster
One of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe, York Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the third-highest office of the Church of England (after the monarch as Supreme Governor and the Archbishop of Canterbury)
The Shambles
Although much of Bootham Bar was built in the 14th and 19th centuries, it also has some of the oldest surviving stonework, dating to the 11th century. It was named in the 12th century as barram de Bootham, meaning bar at the booths, after the nearby market booths. It was the last of the bars to lose its barbican, which was removed in 1835.
The Shambles, York
An eerie scene painted at dusk down an iconic street, part of The Shambles in old York

 

The Ivy York "Bloom!" Flower Show
Outside “The Ivy” in The Shambles during the city’s annual “Bloom!” Flower Festival (5-8 July)… The Ancient Society of York Florists’ Annual Summer Flower Show
Guy Fawkes historical figures
York is where Guy Fawkes was born in York in 1570
Guy Fawkes home in York
Original home of Guy Fawkes…now a pub in York

 

 

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