The simple observation of those eternal rituals of buying and selling, as shoppers stop to examine, or pass over in disinterest, the assorted goods to be found in a typical market.    What could be more humdrum than simply pointing a cine camera at the mundane scenes of an ordinary street market on an ordinary day in 1985?  Well, here York cine enthusiast the Revd. David Simpson shows us once again that the everyday can be just as fascinating, if not more so, than the unusual, when subject...

The simple observation of those eternal rituals of buying and selling, as shoppers stop to examine, or pass over in disinterest, the assorted goods to be found in a typical market.   

What could be more humdrum than simply pointing a cine camera at the mundane scenes of an ordinary street market on an ordinary day in 1985?  Well, here York cine enthusiast the Revd. David Simpson shows us once again that the everyday can be just as fascinating, if not more so, than the unusual, when subject to the distancing effect of the camera.

This film was made by the Revd. David Simpson, a member of York Cine Club, which awarded his earlier film From Rome He Came, winner of their 10 Minutes Film Competition in 1983. David Simpson made many films spanning a period from 1978 to 1986, mostly, like this one, simply pointing his camera at people in everyday situations and letting the camera do the talking.  In this case it is the Newgate Market (now the Shambles Market), a collection of stalls tucked away between the Shambles and Parliament Street in York.  Dating back to medieval times this was the Thursday Market in St. Sampson's Square, which become a car park in 1955 (markets were often named after the day of the week they were held).