The Shambles

This popular tourist street with picturesques overhanging second stories in York was once the street of butchers. This is the origin of the word shambles, having come from the Anglo Saxon "fleshamells" becoming shamells and eventually shambles. Before modern sanitary practices the street would have been littered with offal and flowing with blood from slaughtered animals. Nowadays it is much more picturesque with souvenier shops, jewellers, restaurants and a shoe and leather repair shop. The butchers have all long since departed except for one that remains just off the Shambles in Little Shambles leading into Newgate Market. The photograph is as many tourists would not see it, having been taken after most tourists have gone home but before those that are staying overnight have joined one of the many ghost walks.