waterstonesquest – Page 23 – Janet's Adventures in Waterstones

Hampstead – Saturday 25th August 2018

I left Peter in the Horseshoe pub in Hampstead (the Camden Brewery started life in this establishment) and popped back to the graveyards at St John-at-Hampstead to look at some of the famous graves there. Amongst the ‘residents’ are actress Kay Kendall who co-starred in the film Genevieve, landscape artist John Constable and former Labour Party leader, Hugh Gaitskell. After we met up again we went to visit the Waterstones located in Hampstead High Street.

Hampstead 25.08.18 (15)

This shop was a Woolworths before it closed down in the 1970s. You can see an image of it here taken in 1937.

Clockwise from top left are 1. author Eleanor Farjeon (she wrote the words for the hymn ‘Morning Has Broken’), 2. Mary Knox (daughter of the Winnie the Pooh illustrator E H Shepard and an artist in her own right – she illustrated the Mary Poppins books), 3. Peter Cook, satirist and comedian and finally 4. author Penelope Fitzgerald.

Hampstead Camden Brewery

Finchley Road – Saturday 25th August 2018

Having arrived in London we hopped on a bus and headed to Hampstead. However, we discovered from a fellow passenger that the bus was being rerouted due to a road closure so we hopped off at Broadhurst Road and decided to walk the rest of the way. It’s a good job too as we walked past the Finchley Road Waterstones which we hadn’t realised was in the o2 shopping centre nearby! The shop is light and airy with an interesting layout. Despite its name, the o2 centre has nothing to do with the telecommunications services provider of the same name – it had the name first. I really liked this store, so apologies for the number of photos…

The Children’s/Young Adult Department

Finchley Road 25.08.18 (24)

After leaving the shop we walked towards the pretty London village of Hampstead. On the way we popped into St John-at-Hampstead church, home to several famous graves (more about that later!) before heading into the High Street for a drink.

Camberley – Saturday 25th August 2018

We stopped overnight in Camberley on our way to London for the late August bank holiday weekend. Although we wanted to get off early in the morning it would have been silly not to go to the Waterstones whist we were in the vicinity so we made a quick visit to the store after breakfast.

Camberley 25.08.18 (26)

Camberley 25.08.18 (40)

Camberley is well-known as being the location of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and one of the entrances was opposite The Premier Inn where we stayed the night. Famous alumni include Princess William and Harry, chef Keith Floyd and musician James Blunt.

‘The Right Way’

Rick Kirby’s sculpture, ‘The Right Way’, was installed in the town in 2009. Its purpose suggests that whichever way one goes in the town, they will not be disappointed, but as we didn’t have time to spend exploring I cannot agree or disagree with this statement! Maybe we’ll return one day?

Currently reading The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

Lymington – Friday 3rd August 2018

We drove down to Lymington, a seaside town on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, to meet up with our friends Sarah and Mark from Kent who were staying nearby. Lymington is a pretty and popular town which gets very busy in the summer months. The Waterstones here is in the High Street and there has been a book shop on this since the early nineteenth century, when, according to the book Lymington Through Time by Jude James and Roland Scott, the King family moved their Bookseller and Stationers’ business to this address.

Lymington 03.08.18 (3)

Lymington 03.08.18 (16)

After leaving our friends we headed to Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest for a wander round the town. The ashes of Alice Liddell, who is considered to be the inspiration for Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are buried in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels Church in the town.

Currently reading Heartburn by Nora Ephron and listening to Tooth and Nail (Inspector Rebus #3) by Ian Rankin

Northampton – Sunday 15th July 2018

Our final stop on the way home from our week away was Northampton for breakfast! We didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town but it has some gorgeous buildings. The Waterstones is in a pedestrianised area close to a large sculpture of a cobbler’s ‘last’ – the work of sculptor Graham Ibbeson, whose most famous piece is probably his statue of comedian Eric Morecambe which overlooks Morecambe bay in Lancashire. The ‘last’ is in homage to the shoe industry which was once prevalent in the area.

Northampton 15.07.18 (2)

Northampton 15.07.18 (11)

Ibbeson’s Cobbler’s Last Sculpture

Northampton Guildhall

Former building of Malcolm Inglis and Company, leather importers of Glasgow

Now a sandwich shop, but what a gorgeous building!

Peterborough – Saturday 14th July 2018

Next up on our holiday was Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. The Waterstones here is in a pedestrianised area close to the Guildhall and the Cathedral, which this year celebrates its 900^th anniversary.

Peterborough 14.07.18 (1)

Peterborough 14.07.18 (10)

Katherine of Aragon’s grave is situated in Peterborough Cathedral. Katherine was Henry VIII’s first wife. He divorced her in 1533, causing the split from the Catholic Church and leading to the formation of the Church of England. People leave pomegranates on her grave site – the fruit is her heraldic symbol. It is also the former burial site of Mary Queen of Scots, but she was moved to Westminster Abbey by her son James I in 1612.

Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Guildhall

King’s Lynn – Friday 13th July 2018

King’s Lynn was originally called Bishop’s Lynn, but became a royal town when Henry VIII dissolved the monarchy – first becoming Lynn Regis before being given its current name. It is a pretty market town set on the river Great Ouse with many beautiful old buildings. The Waterstones in King’s Lynn is set on one floor and has a large children’s department.

Kings Lynn 13.07.18 (2)

Kings Lynn 13.07.18 (8)

Town Hall and Trinity Guildhall

The Corn Exchange

The Custom House

The man in the statue is Captain George Vancouver who explored parts of the North West cost of North America and has several places named after him. The plaque on the statue reads:

Kings Lynn

King’s Lynn Conservancy Board Offices and Pilot’s Tower

River Great Ouse

Norwich UEA – Friday 13th July 2018

There are a couple of branches of Waterstones based in University campuses – this one is at the University of Anglia, situated to the west of Norwich. The University was founded in the 1960s and notable alumni from the world of literature include Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and Tracy Chevalier.

Although this branch is open to anyone, it felt really weird walking to the branch through the campus – I felt like an interloper!

Norwich University 13.07.18 (9)

The architecture of the site is in the Brutalist style and was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun with later additions by Sir Bernard Feilden. This type of building is considered by many to be ugly, the construction material being concrete, but I quite like it!

Norwich – Friday 13th July 2018

We left Ipswich on Friday after a lovely couple of days, and decided that as we were in the east of the country we would do a couple of branches of Waterstones before heading west to our next destination. The first of these was in Norwich city centre. The Waterstones here is a large store with entrances on two streets and is set over two floors. The store has signage celebrating people associated with the area including Delia Smith and Alan Partridge. (Ah-haa!).

Castle Meadow Entrance

Castle Street Entrance

Norwich 13.07.18 (8)

Norwich

Norwich has a fab cathedral which has some great stained glass, some of which produce stunning reflections when the sun shines through them.

There was a sculpture trail taking place over the summer months (popular in UK cities as they encourage visits from locals and holiday-makers alike) – Norwich were focusing on hares. The hare doesn’t seem to have any particular significance to Norwich apart from the fact that they are “a popular iconic subject for artists and can regularly be seen in the countryside of East Anglia“! We spotted several – Mr Harebean (left) being a rather freaky example!

Mr Harebean

Tiger Hare

Royal Arcade

Norwich Market – one of the oldest open-air markets in the country

Currently Reading: Alice by Christina Henry and listening to A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves

Ipswich – Thursday 12th July 2018

We spent our last day in Ipswich exploring the town. First stop after breakfast was Waterstones, which is split over three levels, one being a mezzanine, and the shop has some lovely reading seats on the top floor with ornate ironwork Ws at the back. It’s quite large store, with an escalator in the middle and feels quite open and airy. The first floor is larger than the ground floor but unfortunately I cut the photo of the shop off so you can’t see the full extent of the top floor!

Ipswich 12.07.18 (3)

Ipswich 12.07.18 (16)

Ipswich 12.07.18 (20)

A friend who lives nearby (more of her later!) suggested we should visit Christchurch Park so we headed there and discovered a rather lovely museum on the site which includes plenty of works by artists associated with the area including Constable, Gainsborough and Airy. The museum is free (donations welcome!) and definitely worth a visit.

The park itself is also a must, especially on a sunny day. They have plenty of wildlife including cormorants and turtles and even a resident owl although we weren’t lucky enough to see her on the day we were there.

We also visited the Ipswich Museum. It has rather a lot of stuffed animals and birds, a World War Two exhibition and an interesting history of the town on the first floor gallery.

Ipswich Waterfront

We found a couple of blue plaques – one for Charles Dickens who stayed in the Great White Horse Hotel and one on the waterfront to Edward Ardizzone, a children’s author and illustrator who is a particular favourite of mine.

We met up with our friends for dinner and went to a Pan Asian restaurant called Aqua Eight. The venue has a contemporary feel and really pretty mood lighting. The food was delicious and the company great! It was lovely to see our friends and we had a really good evening – the perfect way to round off our stay in Ipswich.

Cloggy