WITH the further easing of Covid restrictions from today (12th April), many of York’s retailers and businesses offering outdoor hospitality will be reopening in the city and safely welcoming back residents and visitors. 

To ensure an enjoyable and safe experience for people coming into the city centre, Make It York has been working alongside York BID and City of York Council to introduce new temporary outdoor spaces across the city. The new seating areas will allow people to safely see their friends and family and create additional seating to support nearby cafes, pubs and restaurants.

In Parliament Street, a tipi-style covered seating area with benches has been set up in partnership with Thor’s Tipi, offering extra space for nearby hospitality businesses. The space will be fully managed, with regular cleaning and stewards on hand to ensure social distancing is in place. The installation of temporary public toilets, additional litter bins and city centre cleaning will also ensure the space is welcoming and safe for all to enjoy.

Shambles Market will reopen for all traders from today - with a wide variety of independent traders offering local produce, crafts and delicious street food. To help manage the space effectively and aid with social distancing, a number of the Shambles Market street food businesses will be trading from St Sampson’s Square where additional benches will be provided for the public. This will include Shambles Kitchen, KREP and Stam & Maria Greek Street Food.

York’s Visitor Information Centre will also reopen its doors from 16th April with reduced opening times (Friday-Sunday 10.30AM - 3.30PM) - with plans to open seven days a week from 17th May. The Visitor Information Centre team will be on hand to give locals and visitors a warm welcome and provide information on a range of areas including travel advice, guidance on what is open locally, and expert insight on the city – including leaflets and trail maps.

Ashley Young, Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at Make It York said: “We are delighted that more of York’s businesses are able to reopen today as lockdown restrictions ease. York has so many incredible independent retailers and a world-class hospitality industry, and it's a positive step forward that we can start to see some of the businesses that we’ve greatly missed over the last few months now reopening. Local York businesses need our support more than ever before and so it’s really vital that people shop local and get behind the wonderful retailers and hospitality businesses we have in the city.

“Safety continues to be paramount and we know that a huge amount of work has been done by businesses to ensure that they are offering safe and enjoyable experiences for their customers. The new outdoor spaces in the city centre have also been created to help support nearby businesses by providing additional seating areas for people to relax and safely enjoy their food and drink. “

Councillor Andrew Waller: Executive Member for Economy and Strategic Planning, said : “We are extremely lucky in York to have such an incredible range of independent and micro businesses. They make our city an exciting and dynamic place to visit, and many of us will be looking forward to being able to support them from Monday. Whilst we are delighted to be able to enjoy even more of what our city centre has to offer, we would still encourage residents to continue behaving safely and following hands, face, space to stop the spread of the virus and keep the people and places we love safe. Let’s keep York open.”

Click here for more information about what is open from today.