Diagon Alley is Not a York Street

The fascinating stories behind York's street names (Diagon Alley not included)

Many visitors to York (and some locals) are always getting lost. The easy-to-navigate straight line and grid plan of Roman Eboracum gave way to Anglian curved streets and shortcuts, routes plotted as a result of grassroots convenience rather than top-down planning. Over the centuries, York’s streets have evolved to the point where, admittedly, there seems to be little logic to the overall layout. And when the narrow streets are boxed in by looming medieval buildings, it’s easy to feel confused.

The street names don’t help much either. Famously, in Yorkspeak, bars are gates and gates are streets. There are lots of streets named ‘gate’, and some of them sound distinctly alien: Jubbergate, Skeldergate, Feasegate. But Whipmawhopmagate has to take first prize, especially when it’s also York’s shortest street.

But every street and street name tells a story. Stonegate follows the route of the Via Praetoria, the Roman road leading to the fortress of Eboracum. Bedern, Ogleforth and Shambles are Anglian; Micklegate, Googramgate and Coney Street are Viking; and the less said about Grape Lane, the better.

Whipmawhopmagate

The longest street name in York is also the shortest street in York, at just 32 metres. The name possibly derives from a local custom of whipping small yelping dogs called Whappets, which was apparently observed in this area in medieval times. ‘Whipmawhopmagate’ may also translate as ‘Neither one thing nor the other’. According to York Civic Trust, the street was called ‘whitmourwhatmoorgate’ meaning ‘what a street’.