Your Guide to York Shopping, Restaurants & Businesses
Discover York
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Reviews about York
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York Shopping Streets
Explore the best shopping streets in York, featuring trendy boutiques, supermarkets, and cozy cafes. From the latest fashion to everyday essentials, find it all here.
Discover York: Shops, Restaurants & Highlights
A walled city with quaint cobbled streets and a magnificent minster, York is well known for its historic Tudor buildings and old-world feel. Proud of its Viking heritage, the city has numerous tourist attractions, plus lively bars to keep its university population happy, yet it’s still a great place for a quiet meal and a wander around the boutique shops.
The city centre sports upmarket boutiques and high street brands, plus some specialist tourist shops and quirky themed little stores.
Mainstream Shopping
The main streets for high street shopping and familiar brands are Parliament Street and around to Coney Street in the city centre. It’s a compact shopping area, making it easily walkable.
Luxury Shopping
High-end stores can be found dotted around York, but Daveygate is a good place to start. Take a walk up Low Petergate and High Petergate for more luxury shopping.
Boutique Shops
The Shambles, a narrow, cobbled street of Tudor buildings, is where you’ll find small, quaint boutique shops, including chocolate shops, jewellers, and a Harry Potter shop.
Shopping Centers & Retail Parks
Within the city walls, the Coppergate Shopping Centre features brand names and familiar fashion, while out of town the Vangarde Shopping Park and the Monks Cross Shopping Park are both in the Huntington area and include high street names and well-known stores. On the other side of the city, in Fulford in the south, is the Designer Outlet where big names in fashion arrive at discount prices.
For a small city, York has a wide range of restaurants, including world foods, authentic old pubs, and trendy new eateries. With such a compact city centre it’s easy to walk between restaurants, and, refreshingly, you won’t find too many chains, it’s mostly independents.
Traditional Cuisine
On Colliergate in the centre of town, you’ll find traditional pubs serving traditional English dishes like fish & chips and steak. Carry on up to Church Street for more rustic pubs and the famous York Roast Company.
High-End Dining
Grape Lane is a great place to start for fine dining in York, and just around the corner is the Minster restaurant for something very special.
Casual or Trendy Spots
In the Stonegate area of town, heading towards the Theatre Royal, rows of casual dining restaurants can be found, with a few chains thrown in and some great lunch spots.
Food Markets
The Shambles Market is popular with tourists and features food huts and stalls, while the Street Food Market on Parliament Street has more traditional food stalls including cheese, meats, and sweets.
As a popular tourist destination, York has many attractions ranging from historic buildings and landmarks, to museums and tours.
- Railway Museum: Close to the train station, the museum is a favourite with schools and tourists. It covers the history of rail travel in Britain.
- York Minster: Dating back to the 7th century, this impressive minster sits in the centre of town and features stunning stained glass.
- City Walls: It’s free to walk the city walls, giving you a sense of the history of the city and some great views.
- York’s Chocolate Story: With interactive displays that take you through the history of chocolate in the city, and lots of chocolate to sample.
- Clifton: North of the city, this area has a village feel to it, while still being close to the city centre, and has lovely green spaces for picnics.
- Heworth: Easily walkable from Monk Bar in the city, this north-east area has small shops, quiet cafes, and pubs.
- Bishophill: Situated within the city walls, this is a quiet area of town close to the river, with some peaceful walks.
- Micklegate: Famous for being the gate, or entrance to the city, used by royalty, here you’ll find delis, and cafes, plus you can walk the walls from here.
- Fulford: A residential area in the south of the city, where there’s lots for families to do, including an ice rink, parks and playgrounds.
Public Transport
The local buses run a regular service that spans the entire city and surrounding areas. The train station is right in the centre of the city and trains travel from all major British cities to York, with a good service from London.
Driving Directions
It takes around 4 and a half hours to drive from London to York, all the way up the M1, and around 2 hours from Manchester along the M62.
Walking/Cycling
Being a small city, York is very walkable, and you can easily cover the entire city centre on foot. It’s also a great city for cycling, though there are some restrictions in some parts of the inner city. Many areas within the walls are pedestrianised, making it ideal to explore on foot or by bike.
Parking in York
There’s plenty of parking in the city centre, but many of the carparks are small and do get full quickly at weekends and in high season. It’s also quite expensive to park in the city. If you don’t mind a walk, it is possible to park a little way out of the centre on the street and take a walk in.
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