A walk around Stratford - Part 2

-
After I left the riverside, I made my way around the town center. What I think I love most about Stratford-upon-Avon is the mix of old and older architecture. You've got Tudor buildings alongside Victorian which but up against Georgian. The architectural hodge-podge adds to the quaint charm of the town.

While the specific Shakespeare houses are noted, the rest of the Tudor-era buildings (with an exception here and there) don't boast of their history. They're just shops or restaurants . . . 

Or the public library.

This is the restored 16th-century timber house where Shakespeare was born.

You can't appreciate how twinkly this Christmas shop actually was. I felt it was imperative that I have a browse around inside the store because I try to buy a special ornament every year. I like unusual ones, so I settled upon Santa dressed up as a Beefeater. Each Christmas, when I put it on our tree, I will remember my lovely day in Stratford-upon-Avon.

I came to realize that one way to tell the difference between a genuine Tudor house and a younger house built in the Tudor style is how warped it is. I'd like to think modern architects would not deliberately make houses askew like this. It may not be as obvious in the picture as it was to my eyes, but the section of the house with the two windows without the roof peaks is leaning forward quite a bit. This is the Stratford Hotel.

I nabbed this photo from the internet because I never got back to take a picture of it. This is the police station. It offers the best example of the warped architecture I was talking about.

This is the Garrick Inn, the town's oldest pub. It's been "making people happy" since 1594. I was quite annoyed that there was construction work next door that led to the scaffolding truck to be parked right in front.


This is Nash's House. Shakespeare's final home, New Place, once stood next door. It's now a museum.

These are the gardens next door to Nash's House. Again, the camera failed me but the tree on the right boasted this incredible pop of yellow. It was almost luminescent.

How would you like to be strolling down a street that looks like this? I walked around for about three hours and enjoyed every minute of it.

This is the Guild Chapel. It's across the street from Nash's House and the garden. The Guild of the Holy Cross has been in existence since 1269 when Bishop Godfrey Gifford of Worcester granted a license to the Brethren of the Guild to construct a chapel and found a hospital for the poor priests of the diocese. The current chapel incorporates the original building. The nave and tower were added in the 15th century.

A view of the theatre as I walked along the street.
A zoomed-in view of the theatre.

This viewing tower at the theatre is supposed to mimic the original tower that burned down. 

Another Stratford street. Once I made my first circuit, I just wandered around.
This photo demonstrates how the windows are actually made of tiny squares of glass. No double glazing here!

And one more scenic street to close out this portion of my Stratford stroll.
























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to drop the curtain

-
When my Mom passed away in March 2018, my zest for this blog fell dramatically. She was my biggest fan and enjoyed combing through the photos I'd post. But I tried to continue on because my Aunt Jody also enjoyed the blog. Well, she passed away early last year. It's time to call it for this blog. The hubby and I moved to Ireland late last year and I have ideas for an ex-pat in Ireland blog. When we were considering the move, I found little current blogs on the subject. I'm thinking maybe I can fill a gap. But Back and Forth Across the Pond is done now. It was fun and I hope you enjoyed it. Hail and well met. Deanne
Read more

Inverewe Gardens

-
Image
We stopped at Inverewe Gardens on our way home at the recommendation of one of Steve's work mates. It's a property within The National Trust for Scotland, so admission is free to Trust members. We had been pondering joining since we first moved here and decided to just bite the bullet and sign up whilst we were at the gardens. We only have to visit about four more places to have the membership pay for itself. Since the Culloden Battlefield near us in Inverness is part of the Trust, and our membership also grants us access to England's National Trust locations, we figure our membership will end up saving us quite a bit within the year. Inverewe Gardens was once the estate of Osgood Mackenzie. He built his mansion house on a rocky promontory overlooking Loch Ewe in the mid-19th century. He dreamed of having a walled garden of flowers and vegetables and set about excavating a raised beach and building retaining walls and terraces. By 1870, Osgood had created a productive gar...
Read more

Bus, Wall, Pavement, and Park: A Wander Around York

-
Image
The heatwave finally came to an end on our final day in York. It was offered much appreciated relief. We had afternoon tea scheduled in the mid-afternoon, so we broke our day. The morning included an open-top bus tour and a wander along the city's medieval wall; and the afternoon included a stroll through a surprisingly expansive park. We bought a ticket for one of the ubiquitous Hop On-Hop Off bus tours. Pretty much every major city has one of these. Heck, Inverness has one! The ticket is good for 24 hours, so you can actually use the bus as transport if you want. That had been our original intention, but we ended up just doing the hour-long tour and that was the end of it. But we enjoyed it. And I saw bits of York I had never seen before. And learned some interesting tidbits. The tour was broadcast in English, but if you had headphones you could select other languages. Like Kids English  and Yorkshire. When the "bus" part of the day was o...
Read more