Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
York has it's fair share of shops selling tourist tat - all red phone boxes and Grenadier Guards and "My Mum went to York...." teeshirts and so on. Normally I don't need to go anywhere near them, but today and increasingly frustrated search for something drove me into the Minster gift shop, a rather schizophrenic mix of religious texts, medieval garden ornaments and York branded tat. And there I saw the best/worst tat ever.
In the background, a drawing of York Minster so vague and generic that it could have been one of 5 or 6 English cathedrals, or even 2 or 3 ruined abbeys. In the foreground, a red Routemaster bus, with " York, The Shambles" on the destination board. Around the 'Minster' some trees in full leaf - fair enough, there are trees around the Minster, but as this item was a SNOWGLOBE, the trees were a little unseasonal.
Where shall I start? The bad drawing of the Minster? The lack of red routemaster buses in York? The fact that even the nearest to a red Routemaster, the open top tour bus, doesn't come within 500 yards of the Minster, which is surrounded on 3 sides by a park and pedestrian only streets. Or perhaps I'm just thinking that since I walked past the Minster only last night, in a real snowstorm, and thought how utterly beautiful it all was, this piece of tat was unbearably awful...
Sadly, there was no price on them, but I suspect it would have been more than the £1 I would have been prepared to pay to bring one home and photograph it for ridicule. So just take my word for it.
What's the worse tat you've seen? And indeed the best, for the line between truly awful and delightfully kitsch is a fine one, I admit.
Also, on a related note - you know how a couple of years back you couldn't move for china mugs with lids, designed to keep bugs out when in the garden (just lids, not the sort with a built in tea strainer). Suddenly, they don't exist any more, which is a shame, because my Mum broke the lid on one of hers, and I wanted to get her one for Christmas. bah!
In the background, a drawing of York Minster so vague and generic that it could have been one of 5 or 6 English cathedrals, or even 2 or 3 ruined abbeys. In the foreground, a red Routemaster bus, with " York, The Shambles" on the destination board. Around the 'Minster' some trees in full leaf - fair enough, there are trees around the Minster, but as this item was a SNOWGLOBE, the trees were a little unseasonal.
Where shall I start? The bad drawing of the Minster? The lack of red routemaster buses in York? The fact that even the nearest to a red Routemaster, the open top tour bus, doesn't come within 500 yards of the Minster, which is surrounded on 3 sides by a park and pedestrian only streets. Or perhaps I'm just thinking that since I walked past the Minster only last night, in a real snowstorm, and thought how utterly beautiful it all was, this piece of tat was unbearably awful...
Sadly, there was no price on them, but I suspect it would have been more than the £1 I would have been prepared to pay to bring one home and photograph it for ridicule. So just take my word for it.
What's the worse tat you've seen? And indeed the best, for the line between truly awful and delightfully kitsch is a fine one, I admit.
Also, on a related note - you know how a couple of years back you couldn't move for china mugs with lids, designed to keep bugs out when in the garden (just lids, not the sort with a built in tea strainer). Suddenly, they don't exist any more, which is a shame, because my Mum broke the lid on one of hers, and I wanted to get her one for Christmas. bah!
