Bauman Lyons won a competitive tender in 2013 to transform York’s daily market, then known as Newgate Market. Bauman Lyons undertook an extensive community engagement process which involved interviewing traders, holding weekly focus group design reviews with traders and exhibiting our proposals to the public on a market stall.
Key moves included re-orientating and re-sizing the existing stalls to create a legible route to bring visitors into a newly created food court in a previously neglected corner of the market. The food court provides new build kiosks featuring a distinctive pattern inspired by The Shambles that is laser cut into contemporary gold coloured cladding. The food court supports small start-up businesses and has gone from strength to strength becoming one of the most popular lunch time destinations in the city centre.
On the advice of the market’s traders, the previously dark and dingy stall structures were re-painted and their canopies replaced to permit more natural daylight to better illuminate goods. Side canopies were added to provide more sheltered frontage from which to trade. An improved gutter system was incorporated into the stalls to better protect traders and stock from rain and for the first time in the market’s history, LED lighting and power were installed to improve night time safety and create evening and winter-time animation. Further public realm improvements included illuminating the snickelways connecting the market to the adjacent Shambles, re-surfacing the entire marketplace with new sandstone paving and introducing strategically placed wayfinding signage.
Highlights
- Bauman Lyons fortuitously met during a public consultation event York-based fabricator Phil Crowder of York Transmission Supplies (YTS) who originally created the stalls over 30 years ago. We were fortunate to be able to collaborate closely with YTS to rejuvenate and extend the life of the stalls for the next chapter of their use.
- One of our simplest yet most effective proposals was to re-brand the market as Shambles Market to better associate the market with its famous neighbouring street.