WHOEVER dreamed up Shambles Market, this new name for the York market Shambles Market?

The market is not in Shambles (how could it be?), but one end of it is, as before, in Newgate.

I understand the thinking, that tourists coming to look at Shambles may think they should look at the market with the same name. But for anyone who doesn’t know we have a street called Shambles, whatever will they think of the name?

In normal speech the word means “a mess”, and if you “make a shambles” of something, it means you fail to achieve what you were trying to do.

I spoke to a number of stallholders. Four were happy with the new name, three didn’t mind either way, but six would have much preferred to retain the name Newgate (and they hadn’t been consulted).

To me, the name Shambles is quite wrong and I wish we could go back to Newgate or even just York Market.

What does anyone else think?

Margaret Birch, Fenwick’s Lane, Fulford, York.