YORK city centre was heaving today for the first Saturday of this year’s Christmas market.
Crowds thronged Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square, and stalls were doing a roaring trade.
In fact, there were so many people that at one point this lunchtime, forcing your way through to Shambles market from Parliament Street became almost impossible.
Despite the crowds, most visitors admitted to having a great time.
Mother and daughter Gemma and Emma Evans had come from Retford with Gemma’s friend Sharon James from Doncaster to enjoy the market. They admitted they weren’t disappointed.
“It’s really good!” Sharon said. “It seems a bit bigger than last year.”
Gemma admitted she’d enjoyed sampling the wares from the mulled wine stall. “I just so like York!” she said.
Dorothy Robinson had come from Rochdale with her husband Colin. At lunchtime, the pair had managed to find a seat to rest their legs in Parliament Street.
“It’s busy!” Dorothy admitted. “But you expect that. And I’ve bought some lovely jewellery as a Christmas present for my daughter.”
Both Sharon and Dorothy admitted that actually getting into York hadn’t been that easy.
Sharon and her friends had gone to the Designer Outlet at Naburn first. But then the queue for the bus was so long that they took an Uber instead to get into town.
Dorothy and her husband, meanwhile, parked at the Union Terrace car park – and then had trouble finding the Christmas market. “It wasn’t signposted well enough!” Dorothy said.
But once they got there, it was worth it, she stressed. “It’s so pretty to see.”
Simon Watkins, who come from Halifax for the day, was less happy.
“It’s a nightmare!” he said. “The car parking is a joke!”
Traffic queues along the A64 were also horrendous, he said – and then once he got into the city centre it was hard to get anything to eat because the queues at the food stalls were so long.
“We like York generally,” he admitted. “But there are just too many people – and the infrastructure for York isn’t suitable for it.”
Stallholders were delighted with the heavy footfall, however - and many admitted that York’s controversial new security bollards did make them feel safer.
Mark and Sharon Pacan from Northampton, who run a stall selling decorative paper stars, said it was their sixth year of coming to the market.
“It’s been good!” Mark said, in between serving customers. “The weekends are always busy!”
Graham Tusker was busy making ‘Rustic Rudolph’ Christmas toys out of wood in his stall in St Sampson's Square.
“We have been doing this for 10 years, and it’s always very, very good,” he said. “So far the signs for this year are good too. It has been very busy.”
He approved of the new high-tech bollards sealing the city centre off from traffic on market days, he added – and of the York Bid rangers on patrol. “You feel so safe and secure,” he said. “There aren't many cities where you feel so safe.”
Sarah Roberts, who was selling leather beer tankards in festive colours from her Hide Bound stall, agreed.
“It’s early days – we’re only on Day 3 and so a lot of people are still just browsing,” she said. “But so far it has been good.”
The new bollards hadn’t caused any problems for her, she said. “They do make you feel safe – and they look much better than the previous ones!”.”
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