Old York By Night

All of us New Englanders can recognize that like the very label our group of states was given, many of our towns and cities also take their name from English towns. With the exception of a few towns in my area (Bozrah, and the the idiotically pronounced Versailles to name a few), a vast majority of the towns take their names from towns, cities and families in England (colchester, salem, ledyard, montville, and my favorite New London on the Thames). York, England spawned the great city of New York so I was interested to see the town that inspired one of the best known cities in America. Plus every British person I have talked to in my weeks here has told me I have to go there.

We set out Friday afternoon for our 2 hour drive into the county of Yorkshire and arrived at our Bed and Breakfast mid-afternoon after which we ate a quick lunch (goat cheese and emmembert pizza for me – YUM) and wandered around the city taking in the sites. I even managed to find an entire store dedicated to Pandora bracelets and my lovely husband bought me a nice wood bead to add to my bracelet. While Old York was (obviously) nothing like New York, the real difference came in the evening. Often described as the city that never sleeps, New York seems to get more crowded at night. Old York, on the other hand, turns into a ghost town.

Shambles – York’s most famous street due to the buildings that lean towards the center. Kevin tells me that the overhang on the top stories of the building was meant to shelter passing woman from the latrine waste being dumped out of the windows above. Apparently, this old disgusting habit is also the reason why women traditionally walk on the inside when out with a man.

York’s most famous street, Shambles, once packed with people shopping elbow to elbow was virtually deserted. York Minster was quiet and lacking in the throngs of people streaming in an out and around it. All the shops were closed even though it was still light outside. Now this is a normal occurrence in the British Town, but I incorrectly assumed that York, being a large city, would have a bit more of a nightlife. This became increasingly evident when, at 9:30, Kevin and I were eextremely hard-pressed to find a restaurant still serving food. We did manage to find one restaurant called Plunkets – serving Americanized Mexican food and luckily were saved. Plunkets, while not having a very interesting menu, has been in business for over 30 years, and boasts the signature of Keith Richards on the wall in the upstairs bar from a visit he and the Stones made to the joint before it became Plunkets.

Where is everyone?