A few weeks ago, I made a day trip to a York and was blown away by this beautiful, historic city. With its rich cultural heritage and being one of the few cities in Europe with relatively intact city walls, York is a poignant reminder of medieval England. One of it’s more unique attributes is it’s maze of often narrow, cobblestoned streets dating back to the 14th century, dotted with traditional tea houses, hand made fudge shops and artisan produce. In fact, so distinctive are these streets that it was coined the term ‘Snickelways of York’ by local Mark W Jones, now part of the local lexicon.
Just recently, one of these Snickelways, The Shambles, was also named number 1 in the list of ‘Britain’s prettiest streets’ in a survey conducted by National Express. And whilst it’s non-symmetrical windows and uneven buildings might not fit most people’s definition of ‘pretty streets’, I found that these little imperfections just made it even more charming.
Check out a couple of highlights from my visit below:
The Shambles
Getting there
York can be explored on foot in a day. Many of the streets in the city are pedestrian-only, so travellers won’t need a car. By train, York is a 30 minute trip from Leeds and just over 2 hours from London.