From the 1920s, York City Council had purchased numerous properties from private owners with the aim of saving them from ruin.

These included the small snickelways between the buildings that led to some medieval halls and old slaughter houses that the butcher shops used.

[3] Today, some of these restorations are seen as insensitive, since a great deal of historic fabric, including slaughterhouses and outbuildings at the rear of the properties, was demolished.

The Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society's annual report of 1949 contains plans of the Shambles showing the buildings to be removed.

It was grade II* listed in 1954,[5] and in 1957, the York Conservation Trust purchased the freehold.