Saturday, September 24, 2016

In Shambles on Britain's Most Picturesque Street



You can't tell from the photo above, but in the middle of the day, this cobblestone street is packed. Throngs of tourists peer into store windows and pop into shops to buy picture postcards, jewelry or slabs of fudge. Walking tours wind through the crowds valiantly attempting to keep their group somewhat together.

What is this place and what's the big draw? It's the Shambles, a narrow street in York, England. This street is so old that it's mentioned in William the Conqueror's eleventh century Doomsday Book and is considered to be one of the best preserved medieval streets in Europe. In more recent memory, the Google Street Team named it the Most Picturesque Street in Britain, and it was part of the Olympic torch relay route in 2012.





Buildings dating back to the 1400s line the street and are sometimes so close that a particularly tall person like my hubby could stretch out his arms and touch both sides. A few of the timber framed, wattle and daub structures have overhangs that get wider and wider with each story so that only a few feet separate them at the top from the building across the lane. No need for binoculars to spy on the neighbors!




The longer version of the street's name is "The Great Flesh Shambles." Nice! Between that moniker and the Doomsday book mention, you might mistake it for the setting of a horror movie. (Quick history lesson: The Doomsday book is an invaluable historical document considered the final word of the ownership and value of all the lands in England at the time of the survey. It's not some hit list for Dr. Doom.) "Shambles" comes from the medieval Anglo-Saxon word "shamels" which means "shelves." Flesh shelves? These buildings used to house butcher shops where livestock was slaughtered in the back, and the butchered meats were displayed on shelves and hooks along the street.

I suppose that long before it was a tourist hot spot, it must have still been crowded with all the townspeople doing their shopping for the day's meal. A record from 1872 shows that 25 butcher shops were located along the Shambles. So instead of the smell of fresh fudge wafting out of shop doors, people would have smelled blood and guts. I bet it was an offal smell. (See what I did there?)




What I originally thought was a narrow street lined by sidewalks is actually an extra wide gutter. A few days each week, butchers would fling buckets of water across the ground in front of their stores to wash away the blood and offal into the giant gutter where it would flow away and be someone else's problem.

As I said, it's quite the tourist place-to-be during the day. Come by in the evening when the shops are closed and only a few cafes are open, and the people are scarce. It almost felt like a movie set. If I had to pick what fictional setting it may have inspired, I would say it is Harry Potter's Diagon Alley come to life.









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22 comments:

  1. Great photos and perspective. It's hard to imagine how things were when butchers ruled the day on this street.

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  2. Michele, I love this. I think it's amazing you were able to shoot around all the people. You got some great shots!

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  3. I was there many years ago - and my husband had the best fish n chips of his life there (and served in the classic newspaper cone) That was well before Harry Potter but I definitely see it as Diagon Alley!

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  4. I am DYING to see this adorable little town! It's definitely at the top of the list for the net time we are in England. Love the Bellatrix Lestrange poster in the window! #TheWeeklyPostcard #wkendtravelinspiration

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  5. I was thinking Diagon Alley as I was reading this, and then you likened it to it. How amazing. On to my list.

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  6. Ok, I have to say this is a cool, narrow street. And, I love the name! It sounds like something fictional, straight out of a book. I do not want to imagine how it gets during the day. I think the photo makes it look wider than it is (since you mentioned in some spots your husband can touch both sides by extending his arms).

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  7. I love this post Michele - great photos and a super tale you told us (I've always wondered about the Doomsday book).

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  8. That's so cool to learn that it is the most picturesque street named by google! I would so love to photograph it because I'd have to say google is right, just by your pictures! And I'd have to agree about the Harry Potter inspiration, I'd say that definitely is!

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  9. What a great story and spot! I still think it sounds like a horror movie setting, but maybe that's part of the cool factor. Or maybe that's why there are no people after hours? Bwahahaha! Seriously, it's great that the throngs of visitors haven't tarnished the glow - it's great to see the history and charm preserved! #TheWeeklyPostcard

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  10. The Shambles is part of the evening Ghost Tour in York. I wish we had been there after dark. It would have been a great atmosphere.

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  11. I'm sure I must have learned about the Doomsday book when I was in school, but I forgot about it (like much of the other info I learned).

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  12. You can take a virtual stroll down The Shambles via Google Street View, too.

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  13. You're right. That angle does make it look wider than it is. The second photo shows one of the narrower sections.

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  14. The funny thing is that we visited the Diagon Alley set at the Harry Potter Studio Tour a few days later, and the movie version is about twice as wide.

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  15. York is a fantastic town. There's so much to see there.

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  16. I like that your fish'n'chips came in a newspaper cone -- just as I imagine it.

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  17. I was very glad that we returned in the early evening so I could enjoy it without the crowds.

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  18. You know I've been in England most of my life now Michele and it was only last year that I finally made it up to York and despite the crowds, I loved this little street!! We only had a few hours to explore York en route back to London but made it into one of those fudge shops to see how it is made (and to buy a few slabs ourselves, I never stood a chance at resisting!) Lovely post :)

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  19. What a different atmosphere now compared to the fresh meat market atmosphere years ago. i have never actually seen 'shelf houses' myself yet. They certainly intrigue me. Lovely post. Annette

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  20. I totally thought of Diagon Alley when I saw your first photo. It looks so charming yet so eerie too without the crowds. I would love to visit York the next time we're in England. We never venture out of London unless it's an escorted tour. My husband is paranoid about driving on the "wrong side". Thanks for all that great history lesson.

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  21. Very charming looking street. There must have been a pretty bad smell here when this was a meat market. I would love to photograph this street at night.

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