York Castle Museum

Star Object

Street Treats

We asked staff to choose their highlight from our popular re-created Victorian Street, Kirkgate, named after the founder of the museum, Dr John Kirk.

The result is a weird and wonderful selection which gives a flavour of the wide variety of shops and produce on display.

We have listed them in the order you would see them when walking down the street.

China
 A mixture of a Crown Derby dinner service and coffee service (1800 1825) and a Spode tea and coffee service (1790 1820).
 Location: Joshua Turner, showrooms for tableware and toiletware

I could gaze at this shop window for hours. I think that its absolutely beautiful and just shows how our way of life is completely different today. When you look at all this and then think when you go to places like McDonald's today you don't even get your tea in a cup! I love the gilding - it would have been designed to reflect the light and would have twinkled in the candlelight.

Larch Cardona - guide

Timber framed building, 17th century
Location: Now the toy shop

People always notice this building and it always catches your attention. It reminds them of the Shambles in York, which was originally a street of butchers' shops. This shop was originally an open-fronted butcher's shop in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and was taken down, transported here, then put together again. When Dr Kirk was putting together the museum, it made the headline news, and Woolworth's donated this shop front and another as they were building a new store in Stamford.

Denise Hamilton - deputy senior guide

Hansom Cab 1890
Location: Centre of the street

This sums up the street for me really. It looks a bit mysterious, with the life size driver and horse. It was invented by a York man, Joseph Aloysius Hansom, in 1834 and it's amazing its survived for so long.

Les Pierce - guide

Scottish snuff mull
 Made in the design of a ram's head, 1860 - 1880
Location: J Bell's Fancy Repository

I think this is an incredible piece of apparatus. It is on wheels and was used at gentlemen's dinners to pass snuff (ground tobacco breathed in through the nose) around the table. Attached to it are several gadgets. There is a needle for dislodging snuff inside the container, a hammer for tamping it down afterwards, a little spoon on a chain for taking snuff from the container, depositing it on the fold of skin between the thumb and first finger, and a little brush to brush the back of the hand clean. Having been involved in various Officers' Messes in my career, I can imagine a table of Victorian Scottish gentlemen at a big dinner taking part in this elaborate ritual.

Dave Cree - deputy senior guide

Advert
Early card advertisement for Rowntree's Elect Chocolate, 1890s
Location: William Henry White's grocer's shop

I think this is amazing because it looks so weird compare with today's adverts. I'm not sure if it is supposed to appeal to children - there is something strange about the cat character covered with Rs! It's the beginning of advertising for Rowntree's - they resisted advertising for a long time because they were Quakers, but once they started they really went for it.

Sherri Steel - curator of social history

Clock
 Late Victorian clock with a rosewood case, painted floral and medallion decoration, a brass dial and three regulating dials for the striking mechanism.
Location: Wehrly & Co, Clock and Watch Maker

Every time I come past this I always stop and have a look at it because it's so beautiful. Were I to imagine myself in a grand Victorian house and had a lot of money, this would be a piece I would absolutely love to have in my house. I love the painted inlay of roses and swags and the fretwork at the side.

Nina Wilson - guide