今朝のＢＢＣニュース（日本時間。英国では8日午後6時に放送されたイブニングニュース）で知ったのですが、ヨーク大聖堂の裏手にあるシャンブルズという通りが英国で最もピクチャレスクな（picturesque 絵のような）通り、というグーグル・ストリートビュー賞を受賞したそうです。
http://www.google.com/landing/beststreetsuk/
なるほど。一度は歩いてみたいと思わせる、なかなか趣のある舗道ですね。
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8554388.stm
Wikipedia では以下のように解説されています。
The Shambles (official name Shambles) is an old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. 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. As recently as 1872 there were twenty-five butchers' shops in the street but now there are none. There is still a butcher in the adjacent Little Shambles which leads to York's open-air Newgate Market.
Among the buildings of the Shambles is a shrine to Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was married to a butcher who owned and lived in a shop there.
Although the butchers have now vanished, a number of the shops on the street still have meat-hooks hanging outside and, below them, shelves on which meat would have been displayed. The shops currently comprise a mixture of eateries and souvenier shops, but there is also a bookshop and a baker.
Five Snickelways lead off the Shambles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shambles
