By Kingfisher Visitor Guides
York has been a trading town since the Romans founded the city, instantly boosting local sandal and toga industries. Today it is one of the best shopping cities in the country, boasting designer names and independent boutiques in equal measure.
Shambles
Medieval shopping street Shambles’ chocolate box charm led to it being named Most Picturesque Street in the first Google Street View Awards. This narrow, cobbled thoroughfare gets its name from the “shammels”, benches used by the butchers who used to frequent the street.
The Shambles is one of the most individual shopping streets you’ll come across in the UK
Today there is still one butcher – The York Sausage Shop – along with several other independent food and drink shops. It is a great place to pick up gifts too, with glassware and jewellery on sale. Great indie businesses include stationer Paperesque and Little Shambles Jewellers.
Harry Potter
If you’re a Harry Potter fan, Shambles is your dream street. It hosts no fewer than three shops devoted to the boy wizard. The best of these is the original, The Shop That Must Not Be Named, opened by a local Potter fan in 2017. Even though it has since doubled in size, you may still have to queue to get in at peak times.
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- Pick up some Harry Potter-themed trinkets and gifts on the Shambles
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- Each York Ghost is hand-made and sold in The York Ghost Merchants
Two other magical shops you mustn’t miss are The Potions Cauldron, where you can buy bottles of Unicorn Essence and Tears Of A Wizard, before visiting its secret room. And The York Ghost Merchants sells – well, York ghosts – from a beautifully-recreated Georgian shop interior. Each hand-decorated ghost is a unique souvenir from this most haunted of cities.
And it will always snow on Shambles at Christmas. A crowdfunding campaign saw traders invest in snow machines which add extra festive magic to late-night shopping.
If you’re a Harry Potter fan, Shambles is your dream street. It hosts no fewer than three shops devoted to the boy wizard
The High Street
Coney Street has been the hub of the York shopping experience since Viking times. Today you’ll find the likes of Boots, WHSmith, Waterstones, Paperchase and toy retailer The Entertainer here.
Coney Street seamlessly becomes Spurriergate at its southern end. This is home to Stormfront, official retailer of all things Apple, and a modern building housing Zara, H&M and Utopia. Around the corner in High Ousegate are more big names, including Lakeland and Urban Outfitters.
