Visiting York: Shopping and Culture

Yesterday I spent the most wonderful day visiting the City of York in North Yorkshire.  Although York is just over an hour away from where I live, it is somewhere that I haven't really had a chance to explore as an adult and my last visit was when I was around 15 years old. If you haven't heard of York before, York is a historic walled city in North Yorkshire with lots of history, culture and perfect for a day of shopping. York is famous for its Viking history, association with Guy Fawkes and being the birthplace of Rowntree and Terry's Chocolate, pretty much making York the birthplace of most of the chocolate we know today.

My husband and I managed to get through quite a lot of activities in York yesterday from shopping and exploring the streets to visiting the York Minster, The Castle Museum, Jorvik, The Dungeons, the Chocolate Experience and a riverboat cruise. As you can imagine that is a whole lot of things to cram into one tiny post, so today I've decided to write about shopping in York, with the history of York and the Riverboat cruise posts to follow during the week.

York is a shopaholics dream and houses an array of designer department stores, high street favourites, quirky independent stores and beautiful historic alleyways full of hidden gems. The Shambles is one of the best-preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe and although none of them have the original shop fronts, many of them still exhibit some of the original medieval features such as exterior wooden shelves where cuts of meat were served from open windows. Although the streets are small and narrow, The Shambles is a popular place for people to do their shopping and also acts as popular tourist destination for those interested in the history of York. 

If you have a love for vintage clothing and antiques, York also offers an extensive range of vintage and antique stores for you to visit.  Some of which are the Dog & Bone vintage, a brand new vintage store on Gillygate established from a market stall in Brighton and  The York Antique Centre. York's largest antique centre with five showrooms over three floors and products stocked by one hundred dealers from all the country. With everything from jewellery to clothes, homeware to ancient coins and artefacts there's something for everyone in the vintage stores in York.

Another place to really grab my attention in York yesterday was the beautiful Stonegate York's Original Teddybears store. The store has a gigantic teddybear outside and inside stocks lots of traditional teddy bears such as the Steiff range and the popular Charlie Bear collection. This store definitely brought out the child in me.

Whilst shopping in York you are more than likely to bump into many of York's street performers. From Morris Dancers to buskers and even magicians, there's something on almost every corner keeping you entertained through the day. My husband and I really enjoyed taking mini intervals during our shopping to watch all the performers and it really makes York a cultural, diverse and fun place to be.

If you haven't found what you're looking for in the centre of York or have a penchant for grabbing a designer bargain, one of the most popular places to head for a spot of shopping in York is York Designer Outlet. The designer outlet has over 120 premium, designer and luxury brands, including Calvin Klein, The Kooples and Michael Kors all alongside high street favourites like French Connection and Ted Baker, all that offer up to 60% off all year round. There's also many beauty stores, homeware stores and places to eat if you feel peckish after all that shopping. Unfortunately my husband and I didn't get the chance to visit there yesterday but I have heard so many great things about it and will be back there in the future.

Have you been shopping in York before?