The Shambles
The Shambles York YO1 7LZ
Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1085, the Shambles is York’s oldest street – and things don’t look like they’ve changed much, with sloping cobbles and timbered medieval houses pitched forward at alarming angles, so close they almost touch. The street was originally the butcher’s quarter (the original meaning of the word "shambles"), and you can still see a few butchers’ hooks on some of the houses, but today it’s the preserve of quaint sweetshops, bookshops and restaurants – no surprise that it’s York’s most touristed part of the city.