Where Northern culture is built into the bricks and mortar, where unsteady cobbled streets are welcomed underfoot. Narrow alleys that don’t feel claustrophobic but welcoming, as if the City is asking you to step into its history. From castles to canals, high street stores to market stalls, classic pub grub to modern vegan bao and bowls, York has it all.
If you have moved to Yorkshire, then you need to visit York; it’s a no-brainer. Only a twenty-five-minute train journey from Leeds, it is an easy day out or a great place to spend the weekend, as I did. I had the joy of introducing my Southern friend to the joys of the North. Having been to York plenty of times over the years, I was happy to play tour guide, and she indulged in my ramblings around the Shambles. I hope you are happy for me to play tour guide and listen to my ramblings because York is so full of little surprises, and I am certain you will be as enamoured with this city as I am by the end of this.
Food: if I’m eating out, I am getting something I can’t cook myself. Otherwise, what’s the point? My friend is also vegan, so with that in mind, we booked a cute Chinese restaurant called The Orchid. A fully vegan menu with so much to choose from and try – I really struggled to pick. In the end, I went with an array of starters, steamed Gyozas, spring rolls, fried noodles, and aromatic shredded duck. Now, the duck was insane. Made from soya, I couldn’t tell the difference (except maybe that meat duck is usually drier). It was sweet, juicy, and so refreshing with the spring onions. Service was amazing, everything came really quickly, and we were done in forty-five minutes. Unfortunately no room for dessert, but looking at other tables, their cake options looked mouthwatering. I will definitely be going back here on my next visit to York.
The Botanist: I’m sure all Leeds residents are familiar with the Leeds Botanist below Trinity. The way I described the difference between the Leeds and York locations kinda went like this. The Leeds Botanist is a bit more of a rustic potting shed with ‘rusted’ metal grates and gardening trinkets. The York Botanist is more of a glass greenhouse, adorned in greenery and fairy lights. You are able to look out onto the cobbled street, and it’s a very picturesque spot to enjoy the music and a good chat. After a lovely meal, we headed there for drinks. Get the Botany Bay Rum Punch and take it steady! Because with three different rums in this drink, it definitely hits you quickly. I was one and done, after a long day of walking the streets, stuffed from a lovely meal, we were both ready for bed.
If you want to break up your day or escape the rain, definitely check out the cafes dotted along Station Rd (Lendal Bridge). We ended up in the Perky Peacock. The cafe and bar are run out of a small tower, which also happens to be seven hundred years old. I went for a hot chocolate. Now, I am very particular about hot chocolate, one can make or break my day. This one made my day, made from actual chocolate, rich, smooth and just the right amount of sweet. The only downside being my friend paid the bill before I could, but I got her back later, though.
Pho: not the first time I’ve visited here – their place in Oxford made me fall in love with their wok-fried beef noodles. My next food mission is to try to recreate their lemongrass and peanut sauce. A great place to grab a quick bite before heading to the train.
Some places are just a ‘must see’ in York, but you need to plan. This is why sometimes a weekend getaway works best. There are ghost merchants; you may have seen videos of this little shop in the Shambles of York. Can you guess what they sell? GHOSTS! These adorable little statues are all one of a kind, and despite them opening in 2019, I had yet been able to visit. Queuing can often take up to two hours; we, on the other hand, started queuing before they even opened. Grabbing a Gregg’s bacon sandwich for the wait, we started queuing at around 9:30 (30 minutes before opening), and we weren’t the first! People got there before us to make sure they were the first in. After about forty-five minutes, we got in and enjoyed looking at all the unique statues, seeing which one called to us… Three… I got three. Not my finest spending moment, but OMG, they are so cute. My mission was to find the most murderous-looking little ghosts, and I did. One tall and two small. You get to take pictures with your ghosts, and they are tucked away into the cutest little boxes with illustrations of the shop (I ended up cutting the boxes up and pinning them to my wall), great for junk journaling or scrapbooking!
Are you a cat lover? Because an interesting part of York is the cat trail. Starting at the Lucky Cat shop, you can visit another twenty-seven places to spot little cat motifs or other cat shops. The Lucky Cat also has its own ghost cat collection that I am partial to. Another one for my collection!
Shambles Market, comprising two courtyards, is abundant with fun little trinkets, from jewellery to plants. My go-to is always the pin badges, though, I find that this market has always been the best for pin badges, being the most reasonably priced as well as the variety they keep stocked on the tables. This time around, I was drawn to K-pop Demon Hunters, gaining a Derpy Tiger and Sussy Crow pin to add to my collection.
Charity shops are a university student’s best friend, in my opinion. There is at least one on every street. I am partial to Oxfam and the British Heart Foundation. I managed to walk away with some excellent trinkets and clothes. Really random, but any coin collectors go to the Oxfam. I managed to snag an old penny from 1863. A 158-year-old piece of history just sat in a charity shop, unbelievable!
Some great free attractions are the gardens around the side of York Minster, giving you a great view of the cathedral and letting you see all the crocuses blooming. St Mary’s Abbey is great to walk around as well, even though there are only two walls left of the Abbey, it’s peaceful to see parts of history still standing. Now we didn’t go into Cliff Castle, we didn’t even mean to go there (Google Maps sent us the wrong way), but by pure accident we got there just as the sun was setting, casting a warm golden glow on the solitary castle. It was a weird sight, seeing this castle on the hill, in the middle of a car park, surrounded by modern buildings.
York Wall: I can’t believe this was the first time I had walked across it. We timed our walk very poorly. Be aware that they start closing the gates around 5pm, having to turn around, walk back the way we came, then walk the main road in the direction of our hotel! We managed to walk the rest of the wall the next day. You get an excellent view of the city, and it’s also more peaceful than walking the main road.
There is so much to do, it’s such an easy city to walk in; we did about 25,000 steps across the two days, and with the weather, it never quite feels like the same city twice. Cobbled streets feel very different in the rain than in the summer sun, which is why I keep going back. I hope you have enjoyed this guide through York, maybe I have tempted you into planning your own trip, and you can fall in love with this City as I have, one cobbled brick at a time.
Editor: Grace Lees