MEDIEVAL

to 1485

8 SHAMBLES, YORK YO1

A medieval timber-framed house (now a shop and offices), dating from the early fifteenth century - it forms part of a well preserved medieval shopping street of butchers’ shops and houses with many of the buildings dating back to the late fourteenth and fifteenth century (around 1350-1475). The overhanging timber-framed fronts of the buildings are deliberately close-set so as to give shelter to the ‘wattle and daub’ walls below.

Shambles was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086. It was once known as ‘The Great Flesh Shambles’, probably from the Anglo-Saxon Fleshammels (literally 'flesh-shelves'), the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat - a prominent feature of the open shop-fronts

JOHN KNOX HOUSE, 45 HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH

John Knox House dates back to 1470, which makes it and Moubray House attached, the oldest, original medieval building surviving on the Royal Mile. It is an important and rare survival of a medieval house, having escaped calls for its demolition first in 1794, then in the 1850s and again in the 1950s. The connection with John Knox is significant and, although he may or may not have lived in the house, the persistent association has undoubtedly helped prevent its demise during successive periods of 'improvement'. Instead, the mid 19th century conservation campaign to save the building was one of the first of its kind in Scotland.

The luckenbuiths (stone stalls) on the ground floor, once open to the High Street, are the only surviving examples of medieval shops in Scotland.