Interviewing York Cont.

n.b due to problems with internet, past week or so has been very inactive on blog. Sorry :(

Elderly couple coming through York from Harrogate to see a fair in Hull.

Me: “So you enjoy the pubs the most?”

Man: “Yeah, some of them”

“You're not a visitor, just travelling through?

Me: “You find the streets clean and tidy?”

Man: “No, a lot of waste paper about. They don't empty the waste baskets.”

Me: Any other complaints?”

Man: “Train connections are really poor. I just got off now, and gotta wait another hour for the train to go.”

Me: “Where are you going today?”

Man: “To Hull, from harrogate”

Me: “Do you think anything can be improved in York?”

Man: “Well, to start with they need a mini bus station at the train station, so you don't have to get one over here, another lot down the road. So they need a bus station”

Me: “If you come to york, what do you do?

Man: “To come to the pubs for a meal, see a few shops, do weekly shopping.”

Me: “Which pub do you go to?”

Man: “She likes the Punch Bowl. £3.30 for breakfast”

Me: “Have you visited Newgate Market?”

Man: “Yes, yes it wasn't as good as it was twenty years ago. The stalls aren't there anymore, it used to be there. If you went twenty years ago, and you go now, you'd notice the difference. Well, there used to be more clothing shops, cake shops, biscuits, you know, more variety of stalls. There just a few now isn't there. If you want a mobile phone, you're alright there aren't ya. It's probably someones nicked them”

Me: “Which streets of York do you spend the most time visiting?”

Man: “Well, if i'm coming to York, it could be anywhere in York, Hull road...”

Me: “Do you go to Micklegate?”

Man: “Yea, the Punch Bowl is just at the top of there, I haven't walk up there for a long time, but I know where you mean, down the long street. They say it's a bit rough on a saturday night. You know, flying bottles and things, I think its a drinker's paradise down there. I haven't walked down there for many years, but I know what you mean.”

Me: “We're going to be presenting to the York Council next week, about what problems we've found out”

Man: “Well they need to do sommut cos it's going down hill. They shut Lendal bridge off. It dont bother me cos I know where I'm going to miss it, so it ain't a problem. But wheres are the tourists going to go, that don't know their way round?

You can have breakfast at the Punch Bowl at blossoms street, now you used to go past the station, over lendal bridge that way down Bootham out onto the bypass. But now they shut the bridge, there no problem. You go the same way, but instead of heading over the bridge, you turn left into Leeman road, over clifton bridge, turn left at the end and you're left on the ouse. Now I know that route, but visitors won't have a clue.Silly things like that.”

Me: “Were there no Diversion routes then?”

Man: “I've never noticed one, mind you I probably never really looked for one. But it is a silly manoever shutting that bridge. It wants scrapping that idea. Scrap it.”

Woman: “The York trains coming in, the Harrogate trains gone, so you've got an hour or so to wait before its coming in. They don't think at all. You've got to wait till ten past two.

You see, I come on the train today to go to Hull, It would have been an hour and half quicker driving.

Me: “Well why didn't you drive today?”

Man: “Well, I've got a free rail pass.”

Carey: “Why don't you go leeds and then hull?”

Man: “It wouldn't be free with the Northern rail pass, i'll have to pay if I go that way, because its the Transpenine running the other way. I only get a free pass from Northern. But there again, having said that if you go that way, you know it's dearer than going York, Hull. It's faster. I can usually pass to leeds, but I can't go the transpennine express to hull without paying. Whereas this way, I can get this one, and it's free. Although by the same token, its quicker to drive. Trying to find somewhere to park, is it hard?”

Carey: “Yeah, its really hard because if I had to drive into University, I have to park in the parking lot, which is expensive. Ten pounds a day.”

Man: “Nunnery lane ain't too bad. It's again near the Punch Bowl.... it's a long narrow car park. You can usually get in there. But it ain't anywhere near the shops.”

Carey: “I know there a public carpark outside, near my university, on the other side. But apart from that, I don't know any of the other car parks. For two hours, it's like three, four pounds”

Man: “Find out why don't they empty out the city centre waste bins more often? Because I know that there's more than me that have complained about that. They used to have like a small dust-cart go around, especially around the weekend, you know, going round the waste bins, emptying them.”

Carey: “They have them in Harrogate”

Man: “yeah, but they don't in York now, well I've never seen them for a long, long time.

Carey: “Every morning, I don't see anything like that. Whereas in Harrogate I see that every morning. Yeah every morning.”

Man: “York don't seem to do that, so they overfill. Coming in to York is so much like going into Newcastle. The minute you walk out through the station it's chaos........ If you know the buses there's a bus that goes into town every 10 minutes.”

Man: “if they're not careful we're going to lose a lot of visitor next year. Well, if you walk around York now and look at the people that's in the streets. The majority are foreign, chinese, Hong Kong, Europeans. They're not english. You watch as you go round. Name whatever county you want but that's where majority of visitors are. Now once people go back home and tell them what rubbish they've seen, the others aren't going to keep on coming are they.

Woman: “At one time it was free to go to the Minster, free to go into this, free to go into that. You're paying for everything now. Before you start. I had my Auntie and Uncle come in from the states and I took them to the Minster. They wanted to go in the tower see what York was like at the top. They said are you coming up? And I said no. Then you won't have any lunch. They forced me to come, and the sight was marvelous. It was a lovely clear day.”

A young couple come to York for the first time. They are from Turkey, Istanbul. The man is an Architect.

Me: “Why did you come here?”

Man: “..the city plan and the city is really interesting, its completely old, the buildings are nice...and streets.”

Me: “Did you find it clean?”

Man: “It's quite clean actually, comapred to home, this is better.”

Me: “Where else are you planning to visit today?”

Man: “We will walk around, we have been walking on the city walls. That's good, we will continue walking and then there was a big building around there... 'Clifford's tower?'(me) yeah, so we will go there. So we don't have much plan.”

Me: “Has there been anything you don't like about York so far since you've been here?”

Woman: “No.”

Man: “I don't know.”

Me: “Anything you particularly like then?”

Woman: “Gardens”

Man: “Gardens, there are live animals still in there”

Man: “After York we will pass Oxford, and then London. We started in Manchester.”

Me: “Have you been to Newgate Market?”

Man: “Actually, I think we just pass through. It's ok, it looks ok actually. It was ok, it was nothing special you know.”

Woman: “actaully, we are used to know that kind of thing in turkey. There are many Bazaars. It is quite clean.”

Man: “We could not see any signs. We just walking, maybe there was.”

Me: “Are you having any difficulty nagivating?”

Man: “I like finding my way. I'm good at directions. We are architects. It's ok for us. Without a map, we can find our way. But I guess for the people, it can be difficult, what can you do...”