Silver Street, Shambles Market, (City Sightseeing Bus Stop 6)

About Silver Street, Shambles Market, (City Sightseeing Bus Stop 6)

No organised police force existed in Britain before the 16th century, fighting crime was simply left to local communities to handle.

More formalised policing institutions developed over time and by 1835, all towns and cities were required to form their own police forces.

York’s main police station was opened on Silver Street around 1841 and received criticism from the local prison inspector soon after, unhappy about a lack of apparatus for warming and adequate ventilation in cells which lacked toilet facilities.
Little had changed two years later when the official visited again, commenting on the cell’s poor conditions and an unwholesome odour throughout the building.

The Silver Street premises were converted into shops and York’s first ladies public lavatory in 1896.
Woman complained about men using the male toilets opposite of behaving in an unacceptable way, resulting in a new underground gent’s lavatory opening nearby whose takings were collected by the City Police Force.