Narrow cobbled lane of timber-framed houses with jettied upper floors, used for an AMC pilot and a Christmas film.
What The Shambles looks like
The Shambles runs from in the north to in the south. It is narrow enough that the sky shows as a strip between the gables, and timber-framed houses with jettied upper floors overhang the cobbled roadway by several feet. Many of the buildings date from about 1350 to 1475, and their pitched roofs are covered in red pantiles.
Shopfronts line both sides at street level, with painted hanging boards and fascia signs above them. Some of the shops still have meat hooks hanging outside, with shelves below them. Restaurants and a bakery sit among the gift shops.
Five narrow passages, called snickelways, lead off the street to . Little Shambles, a short street, runs west off the centre.
10 and 11 Shambles is a Grade II* listed house with timber framing behind an orange brick front. That front has two storeys and two windows across. Opposite it, 35 Shambles is a religious shrine in a house with a bay window on a brick lower floor.
Shot in The Shambles
The AMC pilot Knifeman was shot on the street in June 2014. The Christmas film My Dad's Christmas Date filmed a montage there in December 2019, and the Hindi-language action thriller Commando 3 staged a motorcycle chase in the Shambles and along the riverside at King's Staith.
Knifeman, AMC pilot, 2014
The Shambles
Played London, England, 18th century
For the pilot, modern signs were replaced with period ones, barrels were set outside the shops and wooden shutters were fixed across the windows. The pilot is set in eighteenth century London, and the street stood in for it.
My Dad's Christmas Date, 2020
Shot as Let There Be Love in December 2019, the crew filmed a Scrooge-like figure chasing children down the cobbled street. Amazon Prime released the film as My Dad's Christmas Date.
Elm Hill is a historic cobbled lane in Norwich with many buildings dating back to the Tudor period, which matches the Shambles in age and surface. The match holds best at street level, where the cobbles and the older fronts fill the frame. Frame away from the square, where the elm trees that gave the lane its name have stood. Try searching cobbled Tudor lane now.
Market Place in Lavenham, Suffolk
Lavenham has half-timbered medieval cottages, and many of its medieval and Tudor buildings still stand. The fronts match the Shambles closely, but Market Place is a square and far wider than a lane. Frame tight on a single front, since a wide shot of the square shows its open space. Try searching half-timbered medieval cottages now.
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