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York lies at the centre of one of the most important food producing regions in the country. For centuries its markets and shops have provided the world with a window on Yorkshire food production.
This is an opportunity to experience some of this history, so if you are looking to buy food in York, to eat out or explore the tradition of food in the city, then read on.
Trail 1. Bootham Bar to Newgate Market
Trail 2. Newgate Market to the Castle Museum
Trail 3. Newgate Market to York Brewery
There are three short trails that all either start or finish at York’s Newgate market. The food history materials have been prepared in conjunction with the JORVIK Centre. Members of the local Slow Food movement have recommended food retailers: the recommendations are marked in the text.
Proceed into the city, on the left is La Bottega Della Langhe and on the right is the award winning Café Concerto. Also note one of York Brewery’s pubs “the Three Legged Mare”.
At the end of the street you will be in front of York Minster. During the day you should be able to walk to the left around the back of the Minster. On exiting the garden, follow signs for the Treasurer’s House. An eccentric Victorian, Frank Green, who donated it to the National Trust, remodelled this largely 17th century house. In the House’s tea-room the National Trust receives excellent reviews for creating a range of contemporary and traditional dishes from regional produce. (Table service is provided, and access to the Tea Room is free.) The House is open from April to October daily, except Friday.
On leaving the Treasurer’s House, continue to walk around the Minster to College Street. Continue on the paved street, and you will notice on your left, the atmospheric café - bistro of St William’s Restaurant and then meet Goodramgate by the National Trust shop.
Goodramgate contains a wide range of contemporary restaurants, as well as food and drink retailers. Turn left and proceed to Monk Bar at the end of the street. Walk through the arch and in a few yards turn right into the pub yard. Through their yard and up the steps is an 18th Century Icehouse. Alternatively, this can be viewed from the city walls. The bee-hived shape of the brick-built Icehouse is dug into the bank of the city walls. Ice was collected from ditches and lakes in winter, and placed in the house from where it was taken to keep food cool in the summer.
Return to Goodramgate and immediately, on the left is Monk Bar Chocolatiers, where hand made chocolates are made in the shop. The machinery for preparing the chocolate can be seen on display.
As you retrace your steps, note the pubs on the right, the Golden Slipper and the Royal Oak. This was once a single establishment, parts of whose structure date from the 15th century. The Royal Oak has longstanding reputation for its real ale.
When you reach the National Trust shop, follow Goodramgate to the left past a range of restaurants, pubs and cafes. At the end, turn right into Low Petergate. Above a shop to right, you will see a statue of an American Indian, indicating that the shop used to be a tobacconist.
Further up on the left is George Scott pork butchers, famous for pork pies and traditional York Hams. A dry salt cure gives York Ham its particular character, it’s been exported widely for centuries from York and the surrounding area.
The next left hand turn takes you into Grape Lane. This district known as ‘The Quarter’ is famous for its café-bars, restaurants and boutique shops. At the bottom of the street is El Piano, a vegetarian restaurant renowned for its work for those with restricted diets.
Turn right, just past El Piano, into the passage now called Coffee Yard. Coffeehouses were an integral part of eighteenth century life, and Coffee Yard held the first coffeehouse in York. There is still a coffee-roasting oven in one of the neighbourhood cellars. Barley Hall in Coffee Yard has been reconstructed to provide an example of a medieval townhouse, which today is frequently used, for feasts and other celebrations.
You will emerge from Coffee Yard into Stonegate. Look out to the right for Little Betty’s, part of the famous Yorkshire chain, but continue left following Stonegate briefly until you can turn left into Little Stonegate. Here you are re-entering ‘The Quarter’ and the café-bars and restaurants resume.
Walk to the end of the street. On the right, just round the corner is a small passage called Nether Hornpot Lane. Follow this to St Sampson’s Square, traditionally the “Thursday Market”, which supplemented the more regular market on Pavement. This is the site of the Food Theatre during the York Festival of Food and Drink, and hosts competitions, demonstrations, evening events and tastings.
If you walk diagonally through the square and across the road, the city centre widens out into Parliament Street, the site of York market until 1964. The street now hosts a variety of events including visiting farmers’ and other markets.
Walk down to the fountain, here is the entrance to Newgate Market. Open daily this is the principal market of York. Within the market is a timber-framed house. Walk around it to the right and you will pass most of the food stalls. Around the back of the building you will find Cross’ fish stall and nearby Henshelwood’s Deli. This is the end of this tour: you will note that the second and/or third tour can be started here.
Start with your back to Cross’s fish stall in Newgate Market, turn left and then right at Henshelwood’s deli. The cobbled street will take you to one end of the Shambles, perhaps York’s most famous street.
Walking down the Shambles, you can still see hooks on the exterior of some of the shops, along with the broad windowsills (called “shammels”, leading to the name of the street) – both were used to display meat. There is still one butcher here. Among contemporary retailers, Via Vecchia is well worth a visit to buy Italian style bread. Monk Bar Chocolatiers also have a shop in the Shambles, as well as the highly traditional sweet shop John Bull. Cox Leather offers us a faint echo of York as a centre of the regional meat industry – immediately to the rear of the Cox site was an old slaughterhouse.
On leaving the Shambles, cross the road (called Pavement) to the Golden Fleece (parts of the interior date back to the sixteenth century). Here in the 19th Century, the Rowntree family ran a grocers shop. Turn left and then right into Fossgate. The tiny Blue Bell pub on the right has a reputation both for its Real Ale, and its historic interior.
Fossgate (and the initial part of neighbouring Walmgate) is known for its independent restaurants, which include some of the best in York. Foss Bridge at the bottom of the street, would originally have been wooden, and was the site of a sea fish market. Walmgate, which starts immediately after Foss Bridge, used to boast 26 pubs. There are now only three fully-licensed premises, and curiously the one with the oldest interior, Melton’s Too, was historically a saddler’s, and now a Café Bar Bistro.
Between Fossgate and Walmgate is the short street called Merchantgate, which starts close to the Bridge. At the end, cross the road by the mini roundabout and walk right, over the bridge and then immediately left by the river, following the signs for the JORVIK Centre. Double glass doors take you through to the Coppergate Centre, once the site of the Craven’s factory, one of York’s important confectionery companies.
When you emerge, the JORVIK Centre is on the opposite side on the square. Because of the waterlogged conditions on the Coppergate site, large amounts of waste including tiny items like seeds and fish-bones all survive. This material has allowed archaeologists to understand what York Vikings ate. A fascinating selection of this material is exhibited and explained by the narrator. You can also purchase a range of unusual food and drink.
Facing Fenwick’s, take the passage to the right, which leads directly to an entrance to Fairfax House. Built in 1762, this townhouse contains one of the finest collections of Georgian furniture in the country, as well as a fully restored kitchen. Fairfax House often run exhibitions around Food and Drink themes.
The tower of York Castle (Clifford’s Tower) and beyond it the York Castle Museum are now in view. Food and Drink themes run through many of the museum’s collections. These include a working flourmill, agricultural displays, a recreated confectioner’s shop (within the museum’s reconstructed Victorian street) as well as displays about York’s chocolate manufacturers, Rowntree’s and, historically, Terry’s.
Follow Trail 2, until you reach the end of the Shambles. Then turn right and pass in front of Marks and Spencer’s. This street, Pavement, was the site of York’s market prior to the development of Parliament Street (so-called because the demolition required was sanctioned by an Act of Parliament). You will see the Church of All Saints, Pavement, now isolated from the rest of the street, across the junction in front of you.
Stop by the large red post box. On the right hand side of the junction, to the right is Parliament Street (York’s market from 1836 to 1964). To the left is Piccadilly, another creation of the first half of the 19th Century. Prior to these developments, traffic from the West of the York came over Ouse Bridge and down High Ousegate (in front of you). These congested streets were also the principal Markets of the city.
The paved area in front of the church was created in 1782 by the demolition of the chancel, in order to create space for a herb market. The Church of All Saints, Pavement, appropriately situated in the heart of the city commerce, is the Guild church of York.
Continue on, to the right of the church and along High Ousegate towards the River Ouse. At the junction, you will see the church of St Michael (now the Spurriergate Centre) to the right. Traditionally food and other market stalls were set up against the church wall. Cross the road here, then continue straight on over Ouse Bridge.
The latest of a succession of Bridges here, Ouse Bridge was the site of a freshwater fish market. To the left you will see the King’s Staith (the cobbled dock at the side of the river) the heart of York’s traditional port. Until the coming of the railways, a substantial number of ships and barges used York as an inland Port.
Continuing straight on you will pass two junctions. The second is George Hudson Street; this area is associated with large restaurants serving all-you-can-eat buffets to the office population at lunch, and in the evening to those enjoying the nightlife of the area.
Continue to follow the road (Micklegate) up the hill. The church on your left is St Martin-cum-Gregory, and the area surrounding it was the site of the York Butter market. The market reached its height in the 18th Century, when legislation gave York exclusive rights to sell Yorkshire butter.
Should you wish to try a local pub, the Ackhorne is just down St Martin’s Lane to the left. As you continue to walk up the hill, soon the street will level out. Micklegate was the principal way into the city from south of the River Ouse; once infamous for its raucous nightlife, it now contains a mixture of retailers, pubs and restaurants. These continue just beyond the impressive gateway (Micklegate Bar), at the end of the street. Just before the Bar, turn right onto Bar Lane. Follow the road around to the right for about 50 yards into Toff Green and you will reach York Brewery.
Most people in medieval cities would drink beer rather than water, particularly ‘small beer’, which was lighter in alcohol. There were numerous brewers in York over time, and there were also far more pubs than we see today. York Brewery is now the only brewery in the city. Opened in 1996, it has won a strong reputation and many awards for the quality of its Real Ale. A tour of the brewery is highly recommended as a great way of rounding off the trail.
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