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About Tour End, Stonebow: Bus Stop, (City Sightseeing Bus Stop 6)
This iconic street, one of York’s most-loved sights, is the picturesque setting for scenes in the TV mini-series Crusoe, which began filming in York in 2008. In Daniel Defoe’s original 1719 novel, Robinson Crusoe, the hero is a young man from York who sets sail from Hull. In the TV series, all the scenes shot in York are, of course, set before he travels on his epic adventure and ends up marooned on a desert island. Businesses on the Shambles even closed as filming took place here. In a flashback, Crusoe, played by Philip Winchester, walks along the Shambles with his father, played by Yorkshire-born Sean Bean. Familiar shop fronts can be seen, but the street looks lived-in and grimy, with sacks and barrels, cows and horses, and scores of extras in drab and ragged costumes. Other locations where filming took place are St William’s College, and a boat scene on the River Ouse.
The Shambles is famously thought to have been the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films. It certainly looks a bit like it, but JK Rowling claims she has never seen or been to The Shambles. Perhaps the street inspired the movie production team, although the Diagon Alley scenes were actually shot in a studio. One Harry Potter connection the city does definitely have is the York-born actor David Bradley, who played the caretaker at Hogwarts, Mr Filch, in the Harry Potter movies.
You have now reached the end of this tour of York’s film and TV locations. Please follow the guided route to our nearest bus stop, number 6, on Stonebow.
