Standen

     Being a fan of the Arts and Crafts movement, especially the work of William Morris and William De Morgan, I was naturally very interested in visiting the estate called Standen which is a National Trust property in Sussex. This particular property was built in the late Victorian period as a summer home for the family of James Beale, a wealthy London solicitor.  The architect of this project was a man named Philip Webb, who was deeply involved in the Arts and Crafts movement, and naturally the house is a prime example of this particular artistic style.

     From start to finish, I was enchanted by this property:

-There are William Morris wallpapers, fabrics, tapestries, and needlework.
-The architecture is beautiful - natural, homey, and elegant.
-William De Morgan ceramics are dotted throughout the house.
-There are a number of stunning works of art done by numerous Pre-Raphelite artists, including Burne-Jones.
-The grounds are lovely as well, and include formal gardens, a kitchen garden, and lovely wooded walks.

     In short, I had a fantastic time and I would highly recommend this house if you're in the area.  And if you're an avid Arts and Crafts fan like myself, than it is well worth going out of your way in order to see it.

Visiting Tips:
-I ended up visiting in March so the gardens were only just starting to grow.  The house is interesting enough to make a March visit worthwhile, but if I were to go again, I would make sure that it was during the late spring or summer when the flowers would be blooming.
-This property is interesting enough that visiting could take the whole day. If you were motivated, you could see it in a couple hours though (but you might feel cheated if you had such a short time)
-There is a very nice cafe on site, and a wonderful gift shop with lots of William Morris-esque merchandise.


Useful Information:

Postcode - RH19 4NE
Website - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/standen/
Transportation Requirements - If you don't have a car you will need to use a Taxi at some point, but this property is only two miles from the nearest train station.

Standen, March 2012

How To See Everything

Well, this is a bit of a misnomer, because you can't.  What you can do is really research your destination before you get there, so you know exactly what opportunities there are to take advantage of.  Here are a few helpful tips:

1. Check to see if you're going to be there during a holiday.
Britain has a few unique holidays, and it can be a lot of fun to experience them.  Check guide books or tourism websites to see "what's on" during the year.

2. If you're visiting a larger city, see if there are any concerts, theater performances, or sporting events to take advantage of.  Britain is host to a lot of the most popular musicians, and has fantastic theater opportunities (particularly in London or Stradford-upon-Avon).  Stand-up comedy is an unconventional option but is a British institution, and it might be something you want to experience while you're there.  Also, if you are a celebrity enthusiast you can find regular film premiers in London, and once in a while you'll find that there is a big name performing on the London stage.

I also want to put in a particular good word for taking advantage of the Royal Shakespeare company.  There's nothing like seeing a Shakespearian play performed by this particular company. If you have any interest in theater, do try to go if you have the time.

3. Ask a local.
Take this with a grain of salt, because your idea of a good time (or good food) is likely to be different from said local.  Choose a person whose tastes you trust, and go with their suggestions. It is a calculated risk, but great food, fun shops, and beautiful scenery can be found this way.  Locals will also know where the less touristy areas are (but be careful with this one too, because less touristy sometimes means less interesting - especially to us Americans).

4. And the best, and most effective tip of all... Check local events calendars.
This may take a little searching, but most cities, major attractions, and tourism sites have events calendars that list opportunities that you might have otherwise missed out on.  Imagine visiting an amazing castle the same day as a jousting competition! Or touring a grand estate when they're hosting an antiques show.  You can also get a much better flavor of the culture if you attend a local musical gathering, a farmers market, or a town festival.

Here are a few helpful websites:

National Holidays: http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/index/festivals.htm
What's on: http://www.whats-on-guide.co.uk/
London Theater: http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/
Royal Shakespeare Company: http://www.rsc.org.uk/
Performances: http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/
Film Premieres: http://www.premierescene.net/film-calendar.html
Stars on the London Stage: http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/starsonstage/index.htm

Hidcote Manor Garden

The first attraction in Britain I'm going to share is one of my all-time favorites.  It is a garden called Hidcote and it's divine. 

Hidcote Manor Gardens, a National Trust property, is located in the Cotswolds which is a beautiful area in and of itself.  Hidcote Manor (a small, undecorated house that is not open to the public, but makes a beautiful backdrop for the garden) was originally owned by Mrs. Gertrude Winthrop.  When her son, Lawrence Johnston, returned from WWI having been badly injured he came to live with her and took to gardening.  The National Trust website writes, 
"Johnston spent 41 years creating what would become one of England's most influential 20th-century gardens. He began work in 1907, becoming interested in making a garden out of the fields surrounding the house.  The garden was developed in the fashionable Arts & Crafts style: a series of outdoor 'rooms' offering surprises and discoveries at each turn. By the 1920s, the transformation was well under way. Johnston employed 12 full-time gardeners to help shape his 10-acre creation." 
Hidcote is a masterpiece of English gardening.  There is a wide variety of colors and landscape, and everything is maintained with incredible care and beauty.  The 10 acres are separated into several different styles of garden, including:

"Room" with a white garden

-The "Rooms", in which the walls are hedges and the ceiling is the sky.  Each room has a different color scheme, and is sometimes topped with romantic topiary 
-Red and blue border gardens
-A rose walk
-A "long walk" which is an avenue bordered by hedges that leads down to beautiful views of the surrounding valley
-Hidden paths
-A "Wilderness" section, with many different kinds of trees and wildflowers 

-A kitchen garden
-An orchard
-A rock garden
-A shade and bog garden
-A multitude of impressive trees, including a massive cedar of lebanon


And this is just what I can think of off the top of my head.  There are few places where you can see as perfect an example of the Arts and Crafts garden, or even a garden with half so much variety.  Visiting Hidcote takes the better part of a day, and if you're someone who likes to take their time, it could take a whole day.  There are plenty of places to enjoy a picnic, and a restaurant right on the property that serves wonderful lunches and teas. 


If you're wondering what time of year you should visit, that would be mostly up to you.  Hidcote is probably beautiful during the whole growing season, but if you have a flexible travel schedule, than choose a time when you'll have the chance to see some of your favorite flowers in bloom.  I've visited Hidcote in May and in July, and both times were incredible.  In my opinion, however, I would think that the best time to visit any garden in England would be during the first three weeks of June, when the roses will be coming into their peak and the gardens haven't had a chance to become overgrown yet (because of the perfect growing climate in the UK, plants have a tendency to become pleasantly gigantic by the end of the summer, and in September, England can sometimes look as if it has been swallowed whole by green, growing things).

Here are some more pictures:
( The pictures I've included of Hidcote were all taken by me in mid-July)

Hidcote Manor Garden Blog Post

Useful Information:


Postcode - GL55 6LR
Website - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hidcote.htm
Transportation Requirements - If you don't have a car, this trip will require a taxi at some point. 
Accessibility - The terrain is pretty consistent (no big hills or sharp inclines) and my 80-year-old Grandmother was able to explore the whole grounds (with the aid of a walking stick) without any trouble or too much exertion. If you want to know how much of the property is wheelchair accessible, you'll have to check the website. 

So you want to go to the UK...

So you've decided to make a trip to the UK, but where do you start?  Here's a brief guide to planning your visit.


1. Start with the big decisions:


-How many days will you be there for? (don't include travel days)
-What region of the UK will you be traveling to? (i.e. London, South West England, Yorkshire, Northern Wales, Northumberland, Southern Scotland, etc).
-Are you going to stay in one location and explore locally, or are you going to hop across the countryside to various big-ticket attractions?
-Will you be renting a car, or traveling via public transportation?
-Do you have any destinations or attractions that you can't live without seeing? (Planning around these attractions is important because their respective opening times will determine the rest of your itinerary options)




2. After you've made your big decisions, pick your attractions accordingly.  This requires either a good travel guide or some internet research.  Just start searching/flipping through pages, and bookmark anything that jumps out at you (you can always edit later).  If you are traveling with a companion, share your top ten or fifteen favorites and then edit together, keeping in mind whether you want to see a variety of attractions, or if you want to stay focused on a particular theme (such as gardens, castles, rural estates, super-fancy estates, museums, landscapes, city, historical sites, food, theater, etc.)


*As part of the process of choosing attractions, you want to keep in mind the amount of travel time and visiting time each attraction is going to require.  This will play a big part in narrowing down your final choices.




3. Once you've narrowed down your attraction choices (but not finalized them yet), this is the time when you start looking for lodging.  Finding the perfect location, type of lodging, and price can be a tricky business, especially if you're staying in more than one area during your trip.  If cost is not an issue than you'll have a much easier time, but for a lot of us that's not the case.  If you're one of the many, than look for affordable lodging in larger towns that are either within easy reach of your chosen form of transportation (i.e. a tube station, a train station, or a major highway), or in a location that is close to the majority of your chosen attractions.  Remember, traveling to your attractions usually takes longer than you think, so you're better off staying near your ultimate destinations as opposed to spending all your time traveling to them.  Then reserve those rooms - availability can be scarce, especially in the summer, so booking far in advance can be essential.




4. Now it's time to finalize that itinerary:


-Create a document that organizes your trip day by day, so that you know what attractions are open when, and how you need to organize your time accordingly.
-Build in travel times and directions (by using google maps or another map website), reservation numbers, and even historical information about your destinations.  It can be as basic or as detailed as you want it to be, but even the bare-bones will help you to remember what you want to do while you're on your trip (you may think you'll remember, but once you're there its easy to get distracted and forget about really important attractions, trust me).
-Be aware of the pace you want to set for yourself and your companions, taking into account respective energy-levels and regular meal-times. Almost everybody requires a rest time at some point in the day.
-You might want to build in free time so that you have the option of checking out some attractions you didn't know about until you got there (there are usually some pleasant surprises).
-You can also double book yourself for possible attractions, and then choose the one that most interests you once you're there.  It doesn't hurt to have back-ups, especially if one of your first choices happens to close unexpectedly.




5. Once your itinerary is finished, and your reservations are made, it's time to get ready for your trip.  Everybody's requirements are different, but these are some of the travel essentials:


-Find out if you need passports, visas, international health insurance, travel insurance, rental car insurance, etc.
-If you need a passport (as most of us do) make sure that you know where it is, and that it's current.  If you put it in a "safe place" prior to travel, make sure that you make a note of where you put it, and that it's somewhere that you look often.  It's very easy to hide your passport on yourself.
-If you need to get a passport or renew it, make sure you start the process as soon as six months before  your trip (if not earlier).  Otherwise you may find yourself needing to hire a passport expediter service, and those are not cheap.
-Make sure your credit card company knows when and where you are going to be traveling (or they can turn off your credit card/debit card, and it's a pain to get that fixed in the middle of your trip).
-Pack for the weather, with an emphasis on choosing appropriate footwear.
-Purchase an international cell phone, an international calling card, or get Skype for your internet-capable device.  If you don't want to pay for a phone, than finding wi-fi for your Ipod or Iphone can be a relatively easy alternative (unless you are in a rural area, of course), and calling home via Skype is ridiculously inexpensive.  My preferred way to travel is with a pay-as-you-go cell phone for emergencies and very short calls, and Skype on my Ipod for longer calls home (bring a headset with a built-in mic, since cities can be noisy).




Well, I guess that's it for now.  I can get into a lot more detail, but I'll save that for later.


Good luck, and happy traveling!