Shambles Market, one of the few UK markets open seven days a week, will officially reopen at the end of March following the completion of a £1.6 million refurbishment project.
York’s daily market has undergone an extensive redevelopment to deliver improved facilities for traders and a better shopping experience for visitors. New to the market will be seven new trading kiosks, four of which will house food outlets, with fully folding front doors made from aluminium with a bespoke, perforated design. This will be backlit at night to add an illuminated artwork to the area.
Improvements include a new layout of stalls to make access to all areas of the market more attractive, aided by a new central aisle leading to a new street food area. All the stalls have been fully repaired and repainted, with several design changes including better weatherproofing with new canopies to increase daylight and coverage, better guttering and drainage, side protection from the rain and sturdier stall frames. The new built-in lighting is energy efficient LED and will feature warm uplighting to give a more pleasant shopping experience. The refurbishment has included extensive paving repairs, retention and repairs to the cobbled areas and brand new paving in Yorkstone flags in many of the open areas. There are also small uplighters set flush with the ground.
From Monday 23 March, 86 stalls and seven kiosks will operate out of the new-look market square. Traders have been temporarily housed in Parliament Street since the start of 2015 during the final stage of the redevelopment programme.
Councillor Sonja Crisp, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism, will oversee an official Shambles Market reopening ceremony with musical entertainment and meet traders on Wednesday 25 March at 11am.
Cllr Crisp said:
“I am thrilled to be officially reopening Shambles Market and can’t wait to see traders back in their fantastic new-look and much-enhanced home. Shoppers will benefit immensely from the market’s new and upgraded features and can enjoy their purchases in a welcoming environment.”
Paul Anderson, chair of the Market Traders’ Association and a Shambles Market stallholder, said:
“We’re all really happy with our new-look market and are positive it will be a success. The work that has been done will really revitalise the market and we can’t wait to move back in and look forward to welcoming more customers to our new-look stalls.”
Shambles Market offers shoppers an eclectic mix of stalls with something for everyone, every day, including beautiful pottery, artisan breads, crafts, handbags, mobile phones, pet foods, army surplus and vintage clothing. There’s also superb regional produce with locally-sourced fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers plus a fantastic selection of deli cheeses, fresh meat work that has been done will really revitalise the market and we can’t wait and fish from the Yorkshire coast.
Shambles Market is supported by £1.6million from City of York Council’s Economic Infrastructure Fund (EIF) that was created to enable projects of strategic importance to the city’s ambitions for creating jobs and growing the economy.