Experience underground shopping at Scarborough’s vaults market

Scarborough, North Yorkshire

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Under Scarborough’s streets lies a treasure trove of antique and craft stalls, where artists and jewellers sell their wares.

Enter a Lewis Carroll-like world of underground curiosities. The people of Scarborough have been shopping for food and produce at the town’s Tuscan-style indoor market since 1853, in St Helen’s Square, where today you can pick up fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, homemade pies, freshly baked breads.

Once your basket is full, however, you can descend to another level and explore the market vaults, below. Here, in the arches of an old bonded warehouse, is a labyrinth of crafty stalls selling jewellery, vintage clothing, art and trinkets. There’s even a stall selling cowboy boots and hats.

A wealth of local superstition and ghost stories surround the vaults, and it’s celebrated each year in a series of Halloween events at the underground warehouse.