Micklegate - So Misunderstood

Reel Cinema

They start at 10 or so, and make their ways - on progressively less steady footing - from one establishment to the next, drinking, then dancing, then devouring doner kebabs and cheesy chips with a joy and enthusiasm that could only ever emerge at three in the morning when one's taste buds have been numbed by vodka.

In the daylight hours, however, the street is student free. It is as though the other side of the river was some sort of mystical, Narnia-like ambit that can only be found on Wednesdays, after dark and after a drink, and which can only be entered if you journey there in an Ebor Taxi, pocketing your student discount.

To clarify, this is not true. Micklegate is a full-time road, with twenty-four hour access. However, between the hours of 9am and 5pm, when the shops are open and the bars are not, it really is a different world.

You may think of Walmgate as the kooky avant-guard gate, where all things vintage can be found, and the riches of ages are stowed. But Micklegate is every bit as much the fashionably shabby-chic bohemian wonderland, boasting second-hand bookshops, fashionable Delis, quaint churchyards and more.

First stop the Oxfam bookshop. Crammed full of beautiful old hardbacks, the sort that might line the shelves of a 1920's dandy, or that might be read under a tree by a starry-eyed young man to his lover. This shop has character, and is one of many great retail finds on Micklegate, along with a handful of boutique clothes shops, gift, and even furniture shops.

Tired from browsing the shelves and ascending the hill, The Yorkshire Food Company is worth a stop in. The first thing to say about this place is that it is huge, and once you've been and seen it you'll wonder exactly how it is that you've never once noticed it on a night out.

The left-hand side is the café / restaurant. White walls, floor to ceiling windows and an assortment of dark wood and brown leather furniture marries the ambiance of a cosy café with the minimalism of a modern, big-city establishment.

Customers can idle away the hours here without being frowned at by the management. They even provide a shelf full of papers and cookery books for you to devour as you wait for your cheese board, deli-platter, or Yorkshire-produce filled sandwich.

The right-hand side is the deli. Imagine what would happen if The Hairy Fig, the Shambles Deli and Old Fizzywigs joined forces; the result would be The Yorkshire Food Company Deli.

They have all the usual cheeses, cold meats, and pâtés of a good deli counter. They have jams in every flavour from classic strawberry extra jam, to elderflower and gooseberry, rhubarb and ginger, peach and pear. They have chocolate and bread and tea, and things you never even knew existed.

The most exciting part of the shop, however, is their drink section, which is sizeable, and in which you can of course purchase local ales, but also award winning Yorkshire wines, and even a selection of sparkling ones.

If bookshops and local produce aren't up your gate, then how about the cinema? The old Odeon, an art-deco retro bingo-hall-esque building, reopened as a Reel cinema last summer and, being so far on the other side of town, has managed to escape the attention of many.

The City Screen is always packed with Orange customers and their friends on Wednesdays, but Reel play by a different book, having their own promotional offers, including all tickets priced at £3 on Mondays and Wednesdays. As a student, whenever you go, you won't pay more than £4.50 for a ticket.

Micklegate; by night all bright lights and loud music, by day a stomping ground fit for the urbane and cultured young gentlemen and women of York. Just as the street is one thing by night and something quite other by day, most likely the revellers who frequent it each Wednesday are similarly complex creatures who might find something to their taste there in the daylight hours.

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