York is a historic city situated in North Yorkshire, England and is the traditional county town of Yorkshire which is where York gets it's name. The city of York offers a lot of historic attractions including York Minister and the variety of cultural and sporting activities makes it a popular tourist destination. Since 1997 York has held a Festival of Food and Drink each September. The festival is held to spotlight the food culture in York and North Yorkshire by promoting the local food production. The festivals brings over 150,000 visitors from all of the country to York over a ten day span. One of the most well known local food products is York ham. It is a mild flavoured ham which is a delicate pink in colour and it is traditionally served with Madeira Sauce. Accodring to Folklore the oak construction for the York Minister provided the sawdust to smoke the ham. The birth place of the original York Ham is Robert Burrow Atkinson's butchery shop located in Blossom Street and is why the premises became famous. In St Helen's Square of York there is the York branch of Betty's Cafe Tea Rooms and the founder of the Tea Rooms was Frederick Belmont. He traveled on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary in 1936 and he was so impressed by the appearance of the ship he employed the designers of the Queen Mary to turn a neglected furnature store into an elegant cafe. War broke out a few years after Betty's was opened and the basement 'Betty's Bar' became the favourite place of a lot of airmen around York. 'Betty's Mirror', which many airmen engraved there signatures on, remains on display in the cafe today as a tribute.
There are lots of Cafes situated around York and my brief is to create a series of illustrations which represent the culture around York cafes. For my next stage of research I am going to go on a visit to York and look at the cafes, inside and out, and sketch some images, take some photographs and pick up any leaflets or menus I find there.
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