Next up was Redhill. We didn’t have any time to explore the town – we just nipped into The Belfry Shopping Centre where Waterstones is based. The shopping centre is pretty soulless, but the shop has a nice feel about it.
I don’t really have any more to say about Redhill. We may visit again some time, but it seems unlikely.
We were going to Kent for a wedding and so stopped at a couple of towns en route to break up the journey. The first was in Dorking, which is a place we hadn’t been to before. We were pleasantly surprised by Dorking which seems like a really nice town. The Waterstones is small and really cute – I think, especially looking from the back to the front, that it looks a little like a maze!
There are a couple of large antiques emporiums in the town which we enjoyed wandering round!
We went to Cirencester to meet up with friends. Ironically we usually meet them in Waterstones, but today we decided to meet at a different venue. There was time to pop in and take a few quick pictures.
The loos in this branch used to have some gorgeous drawings of children’s book characters, but sadly, after a refurbishment, they have all gone. Here’s one from an earlier visit.
The last leg of our wonderful trip to Yorkshire saw us stopping at Chesterfield on the way home.
The Waterstones here is quite small and is situated in a rather soulless shopping centre – but there are some really pretty parts to the town too – we would definitely like to visit here when the market is open.
Chesterfield is famous for the twisted spire on the church of St Mary and All Saints. The church is pretty inside too!
There is a lovely modern stained glass window, installed in 1984 to commemorate the church’s 750th anniversary.
The Waterstones in Sheffield is based in an open pedestrianised shopping centre and is set over two floors. It has a nice feel inside – modern, light and airy.
I bought a book here – Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which is a collection of stories by and about inspirational women. It’s gorgeous!
Sheffield was a bit of a revelation. We had only been to Meadowhall before our stay here, and the only thing we knew about the city apart from the famous Sheffield Steel was that the film The Full Monty was set there. It’s a great city and the area we stayed in which includes the Town Hall and Peace Gardens and also The Winter Garden is really lovely with lots of restaurants and bars and well worth a visit.
Currently reading: Cowboy Song: The Authorised Biography of Philip Lynott by Graeme Thomson
I know this is probably a bit sad, but I had never been on a tram before, so I was excited to see them in Sheffield! We therefore decided to have a trip out to Meadowhall just to go one one. We hadn’t actually looked to see if there was a Waterstones there (although we thought there probably would be). In fact, there are two – Park Lane and The Arcade. Having been to Meadowhall before, and not really wanting to do shopping we just went and photographed them and then got back on the tram and went back to the city!
Park Lane
The Arcade
The tram was wonderful – I wish we had them in the South West!
On the next leg of our trip to Sheffield we planned to stop at Eyam, also known as the Plague Village. We decided to stretch our legs at Buxton on the way. We walked up to the Opera House and found a pop-up Waterstones which was there as part of the Buxton Festival. As you can imagine it was very small… and rather cramped!
After leaving Buxton we did indeed stop at Eyam. We visited the National Trust property and then went into the church. We didn’t have time to explore the whole village and would like to go back. The villagers, suffering from an outbreak of plague, took the decision to quarantine themselves to stop the plague from spreading. Their selfless actions meant that they achieved their aim of containing the disease, but at the end of the outbreak the population had shrunk from 350 to 83. More people died in Eyam than in the whole of London.
After leaving Bradford we stopped in Huddersfield for breakfast – a very nice bacon and egg roll – or as the Huddersfieldians call it, a teacake! I asked what they call what we would call a teacake and they said “a current teacake” – so that clears that up then!
Huddersfield was much bigger than we expected. Wikipedia tells me that it’s the 11th largest town in the UK. One of Huddersfield’s most famous sons was The Right Honourable The Lord Wilson of Rievaulx KG OBE PC FRS FSS (better known as Harold Wilson) who was Britain’s Prime Minister and served in that office twice. There is a statue in his honour in front of the town’s railway station.
The Waterstone’s in Huddersfield is a small shop in a rather bland shopping centre, but at least it was busy with shoppers. The Waterstones was rather quiet though.
I actually bought a book today! My family usually buy me Waterstones gift cards for birthdays and Christmases so I used some of it to buy Winnie The Pooh: The Best Bear in the World, which was brought out last year to celebrate Pooh’s 90th birthday. Gotta love Winnie the Pooh!
Our holiday continued with a visit to Leeds by train from Bradford. We visited Leeds in 2012 but didn’t really explore the city in depth. This time we did quite a bit of walking – the art gallery we wanted to go into was closed for refurbishment, but as the weather was so lovely we decided to stay mostly outside. We visited the wonderful Kirkgate Market (it recently featured on the news as one of the stalls was selling an item of pork that might be more suited to a bush-tucker trial…) and also the Marks and Spencer Archive which is free and well worth a visit. It’s a little way out of the town, being situated in part of the University campus, but very interesting and worth the walk.
The Waterstones in Leeds is a large store set over three floors and according to their website is Yorkshire’s largest book shop. I left Peter having a coffee here whilst I went to snap some shots and buy some postcards. I know it’s a bit old-fashioned now but I love sending them!
The photographs below are from the County Arcade in the Victoria Quarter and the Kirkgate Market.
The second store in Manchester is much larger than the one in the Arndale – and much grander! The store’s website informs me that Deansgate is “the biggest bookshop in the North of England”. It has rooms off the main building with sign-boards above the door and stocks over 80,000 books! I particularly loved the colourful children’s department and the funky cafe (sadly no time for a cuppa).
We were going to have a meal in the Printworks which is, as the name suggests, the site of a former newspaper publisher, but as our friend couldn’t make it we went back to our hotel. It’s an area we love though, so here’s a photo from our visit in 2014!
Janet's Adventures in Waterstones 