Brighton - A hip and historic day out of London

We had a houseguest recently who wanted to take a day trip out of London. We discussed the usual suspects: Bath, Stratford, Stonehenge and many more and then it came to me, lets go to the seaside city

 of Brighton. An easy train ride from Victoria Station, it has the over-the-top Royal Pavilion, the Victorian Brighton pier and cool little shopping streets called the Lanes with all kinds of crazy stuff.

And so we went. The Indian/Chinese inspired Royal Pavilion was big fun -fantastic and fantastical all at the same time. I’ve been keen to see it for 20 years and I wasn’t disappointed. It was Monday so the Brighton Museum in the Pavilion gardens was closed. Too bad.

The Brighton pier is like most piers these days, filled with rides, arcade games and bad food. But if you try, you can almost imagine what it would have been like in Victorian times, when building a place for pleasure and entertainment jutting into the English Channel would have been exciting. As it was a cool, gray weekday, the rocky beach was empty except for the occasional rough sleeper and teenage smoker.

As part of its alternative and bohemian reputation, Brighton is known for its vegetarian restaurants and we had a superior lunch at one – Terre a Terre on East Street. Their publicity states that it will change your mind about vegetarian cuisine forever. Not really, but it did change my mind about excellent vegetarian restaurants. We loved it.

After our lovely lunch, we wandered around the Lanes looking for a non-homogenized shopping experience. We certainly found plenty of independent shops selling such essentials as vegetarian shoes as featured above. I was ecstatic when I found a bookstore selling desirable books at greatly reduced prices and filled my backpack with as many as it would hold.

On the train ride back, my American friend and I discussed what a jolly day it had been, historic and hip all at the same time, a great break from the relentless pace of London and while filled with tourists, ours were the only American accents we heard all day.

A Fun Day Out with Jane Austen

We planned to take out daughter to the Hans Christian Anderson exhibit at the British Library, but we were too late. It had closed the week before. Foiled in my original attempt to improve Eloise’s mind through literature (after all, she was named after literary heroine), I suggested that we drive out to Hampshire to visit Jane Austen’s house. Groans all around. “Who is that stupid Jane Austen and why do we have to visit her boring old house?” And from my husband came the lament that it was quite a long drive just to commune with some “namby pamby”woman’s writer. Still, I had just seen the latest feature film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and there was no putting me off.

Following an inauspicious start but with the promise of a slap-up pub lunch in a pretty English village, we set out for Chawton, home of the Jane Austen House and Museum. We stopped for the promised lunch at The Chequers (tel: 01256 862605), in Well near Odiham. This is an attractive pub featuring a vine covered terrace, cosy rooms with good food, good beer, attentive staff and appreciative locals, most of whom had on riding clothes or were walking dogs.

After lunch and a ten minute drive, we arrived at Jane Austen’s pleasant 17th century house where she lived with her mother and sister from 1809 to 1817. Her years in the house were her most productive and it was there that Austen wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion while revising Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility which she had written some years earlier.

Inside, the house is filled with everyday objects used by Jane and her family including furniture, dishes, jewellery and examples of needlework as well as pictures and correspondence relating to her writing. One of my favourite objects was a letter about Pride and Prejudice, written by a bed stricken Winston Churchill during the war, where he described “how he envied these people their quiet life”.

Even Eloise was struck by the small size and humble nature of Austen’s writing table which measured no more than 2 feet in diameter. “She wrote all those stories on that!” Eloise was also interested in the fact that Jane used the creaking door into the front dining room to alert her to intruders during her writing sessions whereby she would hide her work. This initiated a lively Q&A as to why women in the 18th and 19th century hid their writing and often used boy’s names to get published.

The bookstore within the house also has an extensive collection of Austen’s work including rare editions as well as biographies, literary criticism and works related to the period. Hard core fans will be delighted.

The beautifully tended gardens surrounding the house contain plants, shrubs and herbs that would have been used in gardens during Austen’s day. Also interesting is the little donkey cart which Jane used during her mysterious last illness when she was too weak to walk unattended, which can be found in the old Bakehouse.

Following our visit to the house, we had tea at Cassandra’s Cup Tea Rooms and Bed & Breakfast (Tel 01420-83144) across the road which had excellent cakes and where a double room with bath will set you back £55. We then walked the five minutes to the lovely St Nicholas Church, resting place of Austen’s mother and sister and had a peak up the road at the “Great House”, Chawton House, which had belonged to Austen’s brother and would have been most useful in teaching Austen how it felt to be a poor relation which she so eloquently described in her books.

On the drive home, I asked for my family’s critique of their day out with Jane Austen. As Jane Austen often does, she had worked her magic on husband and daughter. Gone were references to “stupid” and “namby pamby”. Eloise wanted to know more about this lady. That night, we took out the 10 year old, 4 hour long BBC production of Pride and Prejudice and although some was lost on her, Eloise understood the spirit and intelligence of Elizabeth, the haughty attraction of Darcy and the pure romance of the thing. “Will they get together in the end?” she kept asking.

Addendum – Getting to Chawton

To reach Jane Austen’s house without a car is detailed on the website, which from London would involve a train and bus ride and a walk. My suggestion for fans of Austen would be to first visit the interesting and historically significant nearby city of Winchester, particularly the Cathedral where she is buried and then make your way to Chawton. A good place to both eat and sleep in Winchester is the Wykeham Arms.

Historic Wales Delivers Family Fun

It’s a real invitation, emailed my friend Liz. We’d love it if you would visit us in Wales. Be careful what you wish for, I fired back, we’re coming. With a child to occupy during the school holidays in early June and a fierce determination to finally explore the Britain outside of London, we set off.

As it turned out, Wales is a first class “No Crowds” destination with a rich offering of things to do and see. There are stretches of dramatic, pristine coastline, superb sandy beaches, small villages undamaged by modern tourism, hazardous country lanes that put the thrill back in driving, and enough castles and fortifications to satisfy the most romantic history buff. Although we did not make this a sporting holiday, we saw much evidence that Wales is an athlete’s paradise with lots of opportunities to hike, bike, ride and sail.

As we were only in Wales for 3 nights/4 days, we confined our explorations to the south and the west. We saw lots of castles in various stages of disrepair. We visited a beautiful beach with well built surfers ( these people are hardy), went swimming ourselves ( we’re less hardy and didn’t last long ) and spent a lovely afternoon in St David’s which has been an important monastic site since 500 AD. The village, which qualifies as the smallest city in Britain due to its medieval Cathedral and once magnificent Bishop’s Palace, sits in a romantic position on the coast which is, in turn, part of the 250 miles of unspoilt coastline which make up the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

We also spent a blissful afternoon in Laugharne, a well preserved seaside town of pretty Georgian houses immortalised by Wales’s most famous poet, Dylan Thomas. In addition to visiting the medieval castle which was later transformed into a Tudor mansion, you can visit several important landmarks in the life of Thomas, his writing shed, the house where he spent the last years of his life, the pub where he perfected his enthusiasm for drinking which ultimately killed him and the churchyard where he is buried. Not yet a fan of Thomas, my 7 year old daughter nevertheless found his seaside writing shed inspiring. She noted that it contained crumpled up and discarded drafts thrown casually on the floor. “So you mean this famous writer had trouble with his writing too.” She was incredulous but relieved.

That evening we had dinner in Laugharne in one of the most remarkable and singular restaurants I’ve been to in a long time. Located in a romantic manor house set in lush and spectacular gardens, this small restaurant is presided over by Nick Priestland, who was once an artist. The artistic sensibility is visible in everything Nick does from the drama of the gardens, to the decoration of the house and the artful presentation of the food. The night we were there two local and seasonal specialties were on offer and they were delicious, wild Towy Sewin (sea trout) and a rack of Welsh “salt marsh” spring lamb. The Cors can be found on Newbridge Road in Laugharne. Booking on 01994 427219 is essential as there are a limited number of tables. Dinner for 5 came to £175.

All in all, we had a great time in Wales. My daughter, who always worries about going back to school with a competitive holiday story to tell (we hope we didn’t teach her that), understood perfectly the understated chic of Wales versus Malaga or Mauritius. The Welsh were a helpful, straightforward bunch. The historic sites, National Trust properties, National Parks and beaches were beautifully maintained. These sites were well attended but by no means crowded. Prices for food and attractions were reasonable. At our first castle we purchased a 3 day family explorer pass which gives free admission to more than 30 historic attractions which more than paid for itself. The weather mostly co-operated and we returned to London happy and refreshed.