The Shambles, York

Interesting facts

In 2010 it was voted Britain's most picturesque street in the Google Street View Awards, chosen from a shortlist of 51 historic streets.

Before butchers gave it its name, the street was recorded as Haymongergate by 1240 and as Nedlergate in 1394, after other trades practised there.

The Domesday Book does not name the street itself, but records two butchers' stalls near the church of St Crux owned by the Count of Mortain.

The everyday sense of 'shambles' as chaos and mess grew out of the word's older meanings of a meat market and a slaughterhouse.

The backs of the shops once served as slaughterhouses; most of these rear buildings were swept away during the 1950s rebuilding.

The same 1950s works demolished a whole side street, Little Shambles, judged beyond repair, opening the space now occupied by Shambles Market.

Margaret Clitherow, the Pearl of York, was crushed to death on Good Friday 1586 under a door loaded with seven or eight hundredweight of stones.

Her shrine stands at number 35, where her husband kept his butcher's shop, but because the street was renumbered in the 18th century their house probably stood opposite.

Numbers 31 to 33 on the west side were built as a single terrace in about 1436, among the oldest datable houses in the street.

Why it is worth it

The Shambles is the street people picture when they imagine medieval England. Crooked timber-framed houses lean towards each other across a narrow lane in the centre of York, their jettied upper storeys jutting out so far that in places you can almost touch both sides at once. Most of the buildings date from roughly 1350 to 1475, and almost all are listed. The effect is of a street that has sagged gently for six centuries rather than been preserved behind glass.

It was a butchers' street for most of its history, and its shape follows the trade. The name comes from the Old English word for a bench or stall, the shelves on which meat was laid out for sale; the medieval street was known as the Great Flesh Shambles. A lane of this name is recorded as early as the Domesday Book of 1086. The overhanging houses kept the sun off the meat, and the slight slope helped wash the waste away down the gutters. As late as 1885 there were thirty-one butchers here. None remain, but look closely at the shopfronts and you will still find the wide sills and the iron hooks on which carcasses once hung.

Behind the picturesque front there is a more sombre story. A shrine on the street honours Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a Shambles butcher, who sheltered Catholic priests in her house and was put to death for it in 1586; she was canonised in 1970, and her home is thought to have stood at number 10, a few doors from the shrine. The street was heavily restored in the 1950s, and some historians feel that work removed too much original fabric. Today it is lined with small shops, several of them themed on wizardry since 2017, riding the persistent claim that the lane inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books, a claim J. K. Rowling has denied, saying she never visited. Come early in the morning, before the crowds, when the lane is quiet and the gables frame a thin strip of sky.

Getting there

The Shambles is in the centre of York, inside the medieval city walls. The nearest airport is Leeds Bradford (LBA), about 40 km to the south-west. The old centre is compact and best explored on foot.

From the encyclopaedia

The Shambles is a historic street in York, England, featuring preserved medieval buildings, some dating to the 14th century. Running between Newgate in the north and Pavement in the south, the street is narrow, with many timber-framed buildings with jettied floors which overhang the street by several feet. It was once known as the "Great Flesh Shambles", a name reflecting its historical use as a butchers' street. The word shambles derives from Old English sċeamol, referring to vendors' or butchers' stalls. In 1885, thirty-one butchers' shops were located along the street, but none remain today.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Shambles, York

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia