The
first week of has been very interesting. Meeting the traders and
citizens of York has been very fun and raised some interesting
points. On the whole, York is a very well established tourist city
and a large part of the city centre and the vibrancy around
parliament street. It is quite clear there are two parts of the
centre; There is the highstreet stores down Coney street and
Parliament street. Then there are the small local businesses
radiating around.
From
scouting the area and also past experiences, there is clearly a large
number of tourists travelling to and from the train station via
Lendal bridge towards the York Minster. Then I notice that they
reach the minster, then turn into Stonegate or Low Petergate, and
then finally spreading and filtering towards Parliament street and
Spurriergate. Across the street from York St. John, there is a coach
parking from travel agents such as Megabus that frequently bring
visitors. These visitors tend to mostly go down Gillygate to get to
the Minster.
From
feedback I got from a few hours of talking to people about York, I
have discovered a few issues:
- Streets are not clean and tidy
- Central fountain is unappealing
- Newgate market is not attractive
- Signs are confusing
- Residents feel neglected by council
- Poor communication of city changes
- Overpriced parking charges
Evenso,
there were plenty of compliments given to York as a city and that
York really isn't swamped with issues. Many people I talked to loved
the city, its friendliness and character. Residents take pride in
their historic city and talk enthusiastically about it. Everytime, I
walk into York I see something different or interesting. For
example, there are very unique buskers in York that make this place
special. There used to be a purple statue man, a one man band and
his dog, electric violinist and an entertaining ventriloquist to name
a few. This is the same for the street traders in York. There are
street traders that I see every year, such as the roasted chestnut
trolley, the lemonade wagon and the turkish wraps man. It all give
York a very homely feel seeing them there as a resident. Eventho, I
do not visit them all, I do enjoy the Turkish wraps every now and
then.
Overall,
York is a very welcoming city for tourists, and for the residents,
there is still a lot to offer. You are able to visit the high street
shops as well as the small local business in the more historic
sectors of the city. The best part is that they are not more than 10
minutes walk away. Being able to see the diversity is interesting
and I think helps to brings visitors and residents together.
Please
help contribute to my Uni project by completing some questions:
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| Vandalised Telephone booth |
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| Derelict space behind city wall. |
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| Unkempt gardens and ruins |
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| Commercial bins clearly visible in market |
