Micklegate Bar,York
I’ve been away for a few days, happily wandering around the city of York - happy, that is, until I saw a snack bar.
There was nothing wrong with the particular establishment (perhaps apart from its run-down look and linguisitcally dated title), but the words ’snack bar’ caused some momentary confusion.
Anywhere else, a snack bar would be a place that had a counter (a ‘bar’ perhaps) where you could obtain snacks. But this is York, remember. Remember, the Vikings. You see, because of the Vikings, nothing is that simple in York.
You might be forgiven for thinking that Monk Bar would be a place where male members of religious orders could obtain alcoholic refreshment after a hard day at prayer. But you would be very wrong. Many of the ‘bars’ in York are not bars as most of us would expect, but ‘gates’ in the city walls.
And then, and then, and then just when you think you have got it, you go looking for Micklegate, or Fossgate, or Colliergate only to find that in York ‘gates’ are streets.
Get it? ‘Bar’ equals ‘gate’ and ‘gate equals ’street’. It has all the makings of a Ronnie Barker sketch. Once you do get it, asking for Micklegate Bar makes perfect sense.
Just as I was beginning to understand the lingo, I saw a sign for Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate (it was near the Shambles - the Butchers’ Street). I needed to sit down. Perhaps that snack bar would do.
York, beautiful city. Lived in Gillygate for 5 years. I miss so much.
Goodness gracious. I’ve always figured that, if I visited England, language wouldn’t be too much of a problem, aside from such oddities (to me) as lorry, wireless, etc. Now, I’m not so sure. Could you recommend a good English-to-English dictionary?
Thank you for drawing my attention to York. It sounds like a fascinating place. Being so ignorant of England, I didn’t know there were such places there. But I think I saw a TV program about it a while ago.
That place is my sort of place. I love anything walled. It transports me to the past.
Would my husband’s Anglo-Saxon dictionary help in that area? I’ve always wondered why he owns one.
I don’t know that I can ever tour England. It is so, so, so expensive there. Once, in London, I bought a Samosa for 3 pounds. It costs $1 CND here. So cost-wise the UK really scares me.
I shall have to see it through your eyes. So thank you for sharing. I hope you had lots of fun.
I like York and have been there several times, accompanying Tigger on courier runs.
Every area has its little peculiarities and half the fun of exploring new places is getting to grips with these local features (like the “twittens” of Sussex and the “ginnels” of Yorkshire). England has an astonishing variety of local terms for such a small country.
The Vikings were thrown out of York after less than 100 years (though York still makes much of the Viking connection) but they left indelible traces on the language and on place names. This is perhaps not surprising when we remember that William the Conqueror’s “Normans” were also Norsemen.
And they, after all, never left…
Love this funny little blog.
You are a great observer but then that’s your job. Throw some words into the bargain, another passion, and hey presto we have this.
Only you could come up wih this.
I love the end. The twist is so funny.
I love York, it my and my other-Half’s place.
We went their on our first trip together, honeymooned for five rainy days there.
We went back on our 10 wedding anniversary, just before everything went “tits up” for us. And no doubt we will visit again some day.
In fact, I fancy a trip to look at all these bars and gates.
Will give the snack bar a miss though.
Lorena
You should come now. Our currency has more or less collapsed and strangely, we are attracting tourists by the plane load as we are so cheap in comparison to the Euro zone. And York is miles away from London, so much cheaper.
The Anglo-Saxon dictionary would help with the Shambles, but I suspect he would need an Old Norse dictionary to crack many of the other place-name elements in the city.
Silver Tiger
My wife and I regularly make the car journey from Norfolk to Pocklington (just outside of York), and it is really noticeable how you move from an area where Anglo-Saxon names dominate to one where the Vikings certainly left their linguistic footprint on the settlements.