Year: 2023

Canterbury – Wednesday 6th December 2023

Canterbury is an historic city in Kent, famous for its Cathedral and for being a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It has been the centre of Christian worship for over 1400 years.  During the Middle Ages it became a place of pilgrimage following the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, in 1170.  It is known for its historical buildings and pretty medieval streets.  Although we were staying in the city, we didn’t really spend a lot of time here, preferring to visit areas we didn’t know so well, because we’ve visited Canterbury many times over the years, but I’m sure we’ll be back.  The Waterstones is located in a modern building in the city centre. It used to be an Ottakar’s bookshop, as can be seen from the King Ottakar mural on the wall by the escalator, and Captain Haddock, both of whom come from Hergé’s Tintin books. 

Canterbury map

Canterbury Cathedral

St George’s Tower

St George’s Tower is thought to be Norman. It was part of a church which was bombed during WW2, and the tower was all that survived.

Hastings – Wednesday 6th December 2023

Hastings is a seaside town in East Sussex, probably best known for the famous battle of 1066, although that actually took place about seven miles away.  There are several distinct parts to the town including the beach area, the historic Old Town to the east, and a more modern area to the west.  This is where the Waterstones is located, in a modern shopping centre and set over two floors.

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Hastings map

Just outside Waterstones is this statue. 

The plaque by it reads:

THE SPIRIT OF CRICKET
Unveiled by HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN to celebrate the
opening of the Priory Meadows Shopping
Priory Meadow Shopping Centre is built
on the site of the former Central Cricket and Recreation Ground
on which the game was enjoyed for over 130 years.
Commissioned by Boots Properties PLC.
Sculptor – Allan Sly FRBS                                                  6th June 1997

Historic Hastings

This area is very quaint and picturesque with lots of restaurants and independent shops.  The statues below are by artist Leigh Dyer.

Clockwise from top left – 1. Pelham Arcade, built in 1825 and Grade II* listed.  2 and 3. Wellington Square, where Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was a frequent visitor to the home of his aunts.  4. Hastings Town Hall, built in 1881.

The Rye Bookshop – Wednesday 6th December 2023

Rye is an historic town located near the coast in East Sussex, known for its pretty medieval streets and historic buildings.  It was an important trading port during the Middle Ages.  A wall was built around the town in the 1300s with four gates, Landgate, Strand Gate, Postern Gate and Baddings Gate. Of these, only Landgate remains today. Rye has many literary connections – the authors Henry James, E F Benson and Rumer Godden lived in the town (in Lamb House – see below), as did author Radclyffe Hall, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness.  Like Deal, Waterstones is called The Rye Bookshop. It’s located in the High Street in the main shopping area of the town in a Grade II listed building.  As you can see, it had scaffolding up when we visited.

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Rye map

Lamb House (National Trust)

The American author Henry James lived in Lamb House from 1897 to 1914, and E F Benson, who became the town’s Mayor, lived there from 1919 until his death in 1940.   I forgot to take a photograph of the front of Lamb House on this occasion, so some of these photos were from a visit we made in 2015 in the summer, as you can see by the difference in the foliage.  This time the house was decorated in the style of a 1970s Christmas in honour of Rumer Godden who lived there from 1967 until 1974.

St Mary’s Church Tower

After leaving Lamb House, we went for a wander around the town, and spotted some people on top of the church, so we went in and paid to climb the tower.   The climb was… interesting, as there were some skinny, low-ceiling passages to negotiate, and some steep ladders, which made my legs a little wobbly, but it was worth it for the amazing views of the surrounding area from the top.

Landgate

Rye Castle Museum – Ypres Tower

Picturesque Rye

The Deal Bookshop – Tuesday 5th December 2023

Deal is a medium-sized town on the coast of Kent.  It is claimed that Julius Caesar landed here in 55BCE, although the veracity of this has been disputed. Deal Pier is the last pier to have been commissioned since WW2.  It opened in 1957 and is Grade 2 listed, and is the last fully-surviving pier in Kent.  The town itself has plenty of independent shops as well as national chains.  The Waterstones here is styled as ‘The Deal Bookshop’ rather than the Waterstones branding and is located in the main High Street shopping area. 

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Deal map

L-R.  1/2. The artist Edward Ardizzone, who is one of my favourite book illustrators, lived in Deal and his house has a blue plaque in his honour.  3. Deal Pier.

L-R.  4/5. Statue – Embracing the Sea by Jon Buck. 6. The Town Hall. This attractive Grade 2 listed building was completed in 1804 and is still used by the town council. 

L-R. 7/8. Middle Street – the first conservation area in Kent. 9. Author J B Priestley wrote The Good Companions whist living in the town.  The house he stayed in has a blue commemorative plaque outside.

 

Folkestone – Tuesday 5th December 2023

Folkestone is a port town which used to have one of the main ferry routes between England and France, until the Channel Tunnel meant ferry crossings in this area went into decline and were no longer cost-effective.  We stopped in the town for breakfast and then headed to the Waterstones, which is located in the main shopping area. 

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Folkestone map

Folkestone Harbour Arm

After breakfast, we walked down to the harbour area to visit another of Antony Gormley’s sculptures, Another Time XVIII.  This one is located on the Harbour Arm, the former port area and site of the now closed Folkestone Harbour train station, which has been regenerated as a site for recreation, with bars and restaurants.  It’s a great use of the old site.

Another Time XVIII

Thanet – Monday 4th December 2023

Thanet is an area of Kent which was once an island before the Wantsum Channel was reclaimed in the Middle Ages.  The three main towns in this district are Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate.  Waterstones Thanet is located in an out-of-town shopping centre called Westwood Cross, which was built on the site of an old Edwardian hospital.

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Thanet map

Another Time

In the morning, before arriving at the Waterstones we had been to Margate to look at the Antony Gormley artwork Another Time.  Gormley is one of my favourite artists, and Another Time is one of a series of sculptures in various locations, based on Gormley himself.  The figure reveals itself three hours before low tide. 

Broadstairs

Later that day, we visited Broadstairs for lunch. The town has strong connections to the author Charles Dickens, who owned a house there.  The character of Betsey Trotwood from David Copperfield was based on a friend of his who lived in the town.  The animator and writer Oliver Postgate, who created some famous children’s TV shows for the BBC from the 1950s to the 80s, including Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine and The Clangers also lived in Broadstairs for many years before his death in 2008.  His former home has a blue plaque and a Clangers mosaic on the front.

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Below, clockwise from top left (all photos of Broadstairs).  1. Viking Bay. 2. A decorative street lamp.  3, 4 & 5. York Gate.

 

Croydon – Sunday 3rd December 2023

Croydon is a large commuter town in south London. It was home to London Croydon Airport – the UK’s first purpose-built airport terminal.  We were staying overnight in Leatherhead in order to visit the Airport Visitor Centre the following morning.    After our visit, and before heading to Canterbury for a few nights, we had time to quickly pop into the town to visit the Waterstones, which is located in a large indoor shopping centre, and is set over two floors.  We had to get on the road quite swiftly after our visit, so sadly didn’t have time to explore the town.

Croydon map

Historic Croydon Airport Visitor Centre

Croydon Airport opened in 1928 and was operational until 1959.  It had the UK’s first control tower and is where Air Traffic Control first started.  It also had the first British airline called Imperial Airways. As well as that, the distress call “Mayday” was conceived here when a radio controller was asked to come up with a word as a distress signal.  Mayday is the phonetic equivalent of the French term m’aidez, which means help me.  

The centre, which opened in 2000 is run by volunteers and opens on the first Sunday of every month. At a recommended minimum donation of just £6.00, is definitely worth a visit.

Sutton – Saturday 2nd December 2023

We stopped for a quick visit to the town of Sutton on our way to an overnight stay in Leatherhead, so didn’t have time to have a proper look round the town.  Sutton is the main town in the London borough of Sutton.  Originally a village, it grew in population with the arrival of the railway in 1847.  The Waterstones is located in a modern building in the High Street. 

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Sutton map

Murals

The first is the Twin Towns Mural, which celebrates the town’s links to their twin towns of Gagny in Paris, Gladsaxe in Copenhagen, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlinand Minden in Germany.  The artists are Rob Turner and Gary Drostle.

The second, by the same artists and called Sutton Heritage Mosaic is located opposite the Waterstones and measuring 9 x 5 metres, this was unveiled in 1994 and, as the name suggests, reflects the town’s heritage.  At the centre is Nonsuch Palace, a Tudor building built for Henry VIII in 1538, and the outside edges depict coats of arms and local buildings. 

The Millennium Dial armillary

This artwork was funded and presented to the town by the Rotary Club.  It functions as a timepiece (we didn’t know this until we’d left, so we didn’t see if we could actually tell the time by using it!).  The inscription on the piece reads:

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“Service Above Self” *

Rotary Armillary

 This Armillary was presented to the people of the London Borough of Sutton in grateful thanks for their generosity in supporting Rotary Charities and to mark the new Millennium. The Rotary Club of Cheam has joined with the Rotary Clubs of Carshalton, Carshalton Beeches, Sutton, Sutton Nonsuch and Wallington. December 2000

 The Project was made possible by the following Sponsors: Securicor plc. Holiday Inn Sutton London. The Crown Agents. South Sutton Neighbourhood Association. Sutton & Cheam Society.

The London Borough of Sutton.

*Service Above Self is the Rotary Club’s motto.

Currently reading: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman and The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights – short stories by various authors

High Holborn – Sunday 12th November 2023

Holborn sits in the middle of central London and is synonymous with the legal profession. The area includes Hatton Garden – the jewellery quarter and centre of the country’s diamond trade – and is home to around 300 businesses and 90 jewellery shops.  We walked up Hatton Garden on our way to visit the Postal Museum, but this being a Sunday nothing was open and it was very quiet.  After our visit we headed back to Holborn for the tube, stopping at the Waterstones, which is housed in a modernist building that was designed by architect Frederick Etchells for Crawford’s Advertising in 1930.

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High Holborn map

The Postal Museum and Rail Mail Train

The Museum was very interesting and included a trip on the Post Office Railway, also known as the Mail Rail Train, with amusing commentary and stops for informative videos.  This train carried post underground from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east from 1927 until its closure in 2003.

UK Parliament

The day before our visit to Holborn we spent the day at the UK Parliament.  In the morning we did a tour of the Elizabeth Tower, arriving next to the famous bell, Big Ben, just before midday, in time to hear the quarter chimes and twelve ‘bongs’, which are famous across the world.  We were not allowed to take photographs on this tour for security reasons.  In the afternoon we did a tour of the Houses of Commons and Lords.  Again, no photography was allowed on the tour, although we were able to take pictures in Westminster Hall (where the Queen lay in state in September 2022 following her death) and the outer room of the House.  Both tours were excellent, and well worth doing.

Foyles Birmingham New Street – Friday 15th September 2023

Birmingham New Street is one of the busiest railway stations in the UK. It has undergone major renovation in recent years, and the Foyles’ bookshop is bright and airy and a perfect place to grab a book before catching a train!

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Foyles Birmingham map

Ozzy the Bull

Ozzy was created for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.  He was named after Ozzy Osbourne, the singer for Black Sabbath, after a public vote.  The mechanical bull is huge, and he comes alive on the quarter hour between 8.15am to 20.15 when he moves his head and swishes his tail!