Many building on the street today date back to the late fourteenth and fifteenth century. In this era they were lacking modern day facilities. This meant there was a constant problem of disposing of waste products from the butchers aka the blood and guts. To facilitate this the pavements were raised either side of the cobbled street to form a channel where the butchers would wash away their offal and blood twice a week.
More recently, two Harry Potter shops have opened on the street. It is lead to believe that J K Rowling actually based Diagon Alley “the cobblestone wizarding alley” on The Shambles. #harrystakeover