Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon sits on the middle reaches of the River Avon in south Warwickshire, roughly where the flat market country of the Feldon meets the first rising ground of the Cotswolds. It is a market town of about 30,000 people that has been laid out on the same grid since the Bishop of Worcester chartered it in 1196, and the street names give the plan away: Sheep Street, Wood Street, Rother Street, all pointing back to the trades that once filled them. The town would be a pleasant enough Midlands market town on its own account. That it is one of the most visited places in England outside London comes down to a glover's son born here in April 1564.

The Shakespeare connection shapes almost everything a visitor sees, but it does not flatten the place. Stratford still holds its Friday market on Rother Street, still floods gently along the Avon meadows in a wet winter, and still empties out on a Tuesday in February to something close to ordinary. What the town does have, unusually for its size, is a full-scale producing theatre company at its centre. The Royal Shakespeare Company works from two auditoria on Waterside, and its presence gives Stratford a genuine cultural weight and a rhythm that runs to curtain-up rather than to closing time.

Physically the town is compact and almost entirely walkable. From the railway station on the western edge to the river is about ten minutes on foot, and the five Shakespeare family properties, three in town and two in surrounding villages, can be reached without a car if you are willing to walk or take the seasonal hop-on bus. The half-timbered frontages along Henley Street and Chapel Street are the postcard image, though a good deal of what surrounds them is handsome Georgian brick, and the Victorian arrival of the railway added the terraced streets north of the centre where much of the town actually lives.

Top things to do in Stratford-upon-Avon

A first visit tends to divide between the Shakespeare properties, the theatre and the river. Two full days covers the essentials comfortably; three lets you reach the surrounding countryside.

• Shakespeare's Birthplace — The Henley Street house where he was born and grew up, restored and interpreted by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, with the glover's workshop his father used and a garden used for short performances in season.
• Royal Shakespeare Theatre — The RSC's main house on Waterside, rebuilt around a thrust stage in 2010; tickets are often available at short notice for weekday matinees, and the tower gives a wide view over the Avon meadows.
• Anne Hathaway's Cottage — The substantial thatched farmhouse in Shottery, a mile west of the centre, where Shakespeare's wife grew up; the gardens, orchard and woodland walk are as much of the visit as the house.
• Holy Trinity Church — The riverside parish church where Shakespeare was baptised and buried, with his grave and the funerary monument set in the chancel, and a fine avenue of limes running down to the door.
• Shakespeare's New Place — The site of the large house he bought in 1597 and died in, now a garden and exhibition rather than a reconstruction, next door to the Tudor Nash's House.
• Mary Arden's Farm — A working Tudor farm at Wilmcote, three miles out, where the buildings belonging to Shakespeare's mother's family are run with period livestock, falconry and open-hearth cooking.
• Stratford Butterfly Farm — A large tropical glasshouse on the Swan's Nest bank of the river, reliably useful with children and reliably warm on a bad day.
• The MAD Museum — Mechanical art and design on Henley Street, a collection of kinetic sculpture and automata that most adults enjoy more than they expect to.

Getting to Stratford-upon-Avon

Chiltern Railways runs a direct service from London Marylebone to Stratford-upon-Avon, usually about every hour, taking roughly two hours twenty minutes. Advance singles start low if you book ahead, and the line runs through Warwick and Leamington Spa, both worth a stop. From Birmingham, local services from Snow Hill and Moor Street take around fifty minutes to an hour and run frequently, which makes Stratford an easy day out from the second city. There are two stations: Stratford-upon-Avon, five minutes' walk from the centre, and Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway on the northern edge, which is aimed at drivers and has its own car park.

By road the usual approach is the M40. Leave at junction 15 near Warwick and follow the A46 south-west for about ten miles, or come off at junction 12 and use the A429 if you are heading for the southern side of town. From the west and the Cotswolds the A46 and A3400 both feed in. Town centre parking is plentiful but not cheap in summer: the largest options are Bridgeway and the Recreation Ground on the Swan's Nest side, with the Windsor Street multi-storey closest to the shops. On busy weekends the park and ride at Bishopton, north of town on the A3400, is a great deal less stressful than circling Bridgefoot.

Birmingham Airport is the nearest major airport, about twenty-five miles north and reachable in around forty minutes by car, or by rail with a change at Birmingham Moor Street or Leamington. Coventry, Warwick and Leamington Spa are all within half an hour by road, which matters if you want a wider choice of accommodation.

Best time to visit Stratford-upon-Avon

Spring is arguably the best of it. April brings the Shakespeare birthday celebrations around the 23rd, the Avon meadows are green, the cottage gardens at Shottery and Wilmcote come into their own, and the Vale of Evesham asparagus season starts just to the south-west. Crowds build over Easter but the town has not yet reached high-summer density.

Summer is the busiest stretch by a wide margin. July and August bring coach parties, long queues at the Birthplace and full car parks by mid-morning, but also the fullest theatre programme, river boats running all day and long light evenings on Bancroft Gardens. Book accommodation and theatre tickets well ahead, and consider visiting the Shakespeare properties either at opening or in the last two hours of the day.

Autumn suits people who want the town without the pressure. September and October are quieter, the beech and lime turn along the river walks, and the surrounding Cotswold and Warwickshire lanes are at their best for driving and cycling. Rates drop noticeably from late September.

Winter is genuinely low season. The Shakespeare properties operate reduced hours and some outlying sites close entirely, but the RSC keeps working, the Christmas market and lights brighten Bridge Street through December, and hotel prices in January and February are the lowest of the year. The Avon can flood after prolonged rain, which occasionally closes the riverside paths.

Where to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon

The town centre, roughly the block bounded by Henley Street, Chapel Street, Sheep Street and Waterside, puts you within a few minutes of everything and is the obvious choice for a theatre trip. Rooms here run from historic coaching inns to small townhouse hotels above restaurants, and the trade-off is street noise and paid parking rather than any shortage of character.

Waterside and the streets immediately behind it are the theatre quarter proper, useful if you have evening tickets and do not want to walk far after the curtain. The Old Town, around Church Street, Chestnut Walk and Holy Trinity, is quieter, largely Georgian and only five minutes further out, and tends to suit couples.

Across Clopton Bridge, the Swan's Nest and Tiddington Road side has the larger hotels with grounds and parking, plus a straightforward walk back into town along the river. Alcester Road and Grove Road, on the western approach near the station, hold most of the town's guest houses and small B&Bs and are the best value if you are travelling by train.

Out of town, the villages of Alderminster, Billesley, Wilmcote and Ettington offer country house hotels and inns in real countryside, generally five to seven miles away. These need a car, but they buy you space, gardens and often better value than the equivalent room in the centre.

Food and drink in Stratford-upon-Avon

Sheep Street is the town's densest run of restaurants, with Lambs and The Opposition both long-established in timbered premises and both geared to pre-theatre service. For serious cooking, Salt on Church Street holds a Michelin star and works from a short seasonal menu, while The Woodsman on Chapel Street builds its list around live-fire cooking, game and Warwickshire produce. The RSC's own Rooftop Restaurant is worth booking for the river view alone.

Pubs are plentiful and several are properly old. The Old Thatch Tavern on Greenhill Street is the town's oldest, thatched and low-beamed; the Dirty Duck on Waterside, formally the Black Swan, is the traditional post-performance haunt of RSC actors and has the signed photographs to prove it. Local ale comes from Purity Brewing at Great Alne and North Cotswold Brewery near Shipston, both widely stocked in town.

For provisions, the Friday street market on Rother Street is the general one, and a farmers' market runs there twice monthly with Warwickshire cheeses, cider and baking. Regional specialities worth seeking out include Vale of Evesham asparagus in May and June, Berkswell ewes' milk cheese, and the local truckle cheddars. Afternoon tea is close to an institution here: Hathaway Tea Rooms on Sheep Street is the most photographed, but there are plenty of quieter alternatives in the Old Town.