The Guide March 2013

the

GUIDE SPRING 2013

A GUIDE TO BRITAIN FROM BRITAIN’S BEST GUIDES

THE HISTORY WOMAN LUCY WORSLEY, BBC PRESENTER & HISTORIAN

TWO TOURS WITH A DIFFERENCE • THREE TOWNS WITH A SPECIAL IDENTITY • LEGENDS, LIES AND LORE

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WELCOME

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NEWS 007 cars, steaming trains and moving churches. History, culture and events from around the UK.

FEATURE

TOUR DE FORCE Two cities give up their hidden histories.

Manchester’s underground scene and London’s street art.

12 LEGENDS, LIES AND LORE Facts and fiction from British history.

14 TOWNS WITH A TWIST Sophie Campbell on her favourite places.

COVER STORY

INTERVIEW Lucy Worsley – The History Woman.

8 24 MY FAVOURITE THINGS Blue Badge Guides on buildings, places, walks and more.

26 A GUIDING EYE Paul Metcalfe chooses his favourite images.

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www.britainsbestguides.org

Our aim is to inform, entertain and inspire!

David Thompson, Chair to the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides

WELCOME TO ‘THE GUIDE’... ...a new tri-annual magazine featuring some of the very best that tourist guiding in Britain has to offer. Our aim is to inform, entertain and inspire!

We bring you the tours, knowledge and ingenuity of Blue Badge Tourist Guides: people passionate about Britain, whose business is the rich diversity of our culture and heritage.

In this issue Blue Badge Guide and Telegraph Journalist Sophie Campbell writes about three of her favourite places and their claims to fame –

Newmarket, King Charles II’s favourite for horse-racing; Portsmouth, berth to Horatio Nelson’s valiant flagship HMS Victory; and Whitby, where Bram Stoker’s dark creation, Count Dracula, landed on these shores.

If something offbeat is more your line, then read what two Blue Badge Guides have to say about their very individual specialist tours: Street Art in East London and Underground Manchester.

And why not check out the Legends, Lies and Lore section for those more

This magazine is produced by the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides – the National association for Blue Badge Guides (the highest guiding qualification in Britain.)

E: theguide@blue-badge.org.uk • www.britainsbestguides.org

unusual aspects of British history.

We are delighted to feature our editor, Blue Badge Guide Marc Zakian who interviews Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces. Lucy reveals she started her career in heritage as a guide at a stately home, and says: “Tour guiding is like television presenting; finding a subject, and being enthusiastic, energetic, fun and entertaining about it.”

And we really couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

We look forward to guiding you soon.

Editor: Marc Zakian T: 020 7403 1115 E: marczakian@blueyonder.co.uk Project Manager: Maggie Barnes-Aoussou T: 020 7403 1115 E: marketing@blue-badge.org.uk Publisher Guild of Registered Tourist Guides ©2013 Design and print HMCA Services T: 01423 866985 W: hmcaservices.co.uk

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GREEN BADGE

Display advertising: Kay Scott T: 01423 866985 E: kay@hmca.co.uk

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NEWS

History, Culture

BLUE BADGE TOURIST GUIDES Blue Badge Guides are the official, professional tourist guides of the United Kingdom - recognised by local tourist bodies and Visit Britain. The Blue Badge is the UK’s highest guiding qualification.

There are over 1000 Blue Badge Guides in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We guide all the UK’s major tourist attractions, its cities and countryside. Each region has its own badge.

The Guild of Registered Tourist Guides is the national association of Britain’s Blue Badge Guides and was founded in 1950 by seven guides who met at the historic George Inn in Southwark, a stone's throw from our present headquarters.

The Blue Badge is the UK’s highest guiding qualification Since its foundation in 1950, the Guild has been dedicated to raising and maintaining the highest professional standards of its membership. The Blue Badge is recognised internationally as the qualification of excellence in site and heritage interpretation, and in communication skills. It is awarded only following extensive training and vigorous examination.

Our members work in the museums, galleries, churches and run walking, cycling and driver-guided tours throughout the country. We are happy to adapt to your needs. If it can be guided, we will guide it for you.

To find out more or to book: 0207 408 1115 guild@blue-badge.org.uk www.britainsbestguides.org

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Street Music The British music scene is getting its own walk of fame. Camden Town in north London will be home to a series of discs honouring music industry performers with what organisers are calling ‘the highest accolade in music.’

The first 20 artists to be commemorated will be confirmed in May. Fans are vying for their favourites to be recognised – likely contenders include Madonna, Radiohead and hip-hop innovators Public Enemy.

Recipients will be divided into five groups: icons; influential artists; unsung

heroes; innovative artists; producers and managers. A shortlist will go to a public vote via the Music Walk of Fame website.

One famous local resident who seems certain to be recognised is the late Amy Winehouse. Her Camden Square flat became a pilgrimage site for fans when the singer died in 2011.

Each bronze disc will cost £500 to make, and will be set in a one metre slab of concrete anchored with steel rods to stop souvenir hunters.

To book a Rock ‘n’ Roll tour visit: www.britainsbestguides.org

Mission Men This year is the 70th anniversary of the WWII Dambusters mission.

On the 16 May 1943 the RAF's 617 Squadron attacked the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany with Barnes Wallis's ‘bouncing bomb’. The action was immortalised in a 1955 film,

the theme tune becoming a football terrace favourite.

Find out more about these audacious raids at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre – a museum display including a Lancaster bomber and the operations room.

and Events from around the UK

Inbrief IN THE NICK OF TIME

The name’s Martin, Aston Martin...

Aston Martin cars celebrates its centenary this year. Sixteen Henniker Mews in London is where Bamford and Martin – later Aston Martin – was incorporated in 1913.

The Chelsea mews house now sports a commemorative plaque – unveiled in January.

There will be a week-long Aston Martin festival from the 15th of July. Events include

an open house at the company’s Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire, factory and driving tours and a 1,000-guest ‘birthday party’.

It culminates with a centenary gathering in central London on 21st July, showcasing up to 1,000 cars. It will be the largest gathering of James Bond’s favourite vehicle in the brand’s history.

Oxford Castle is opening up its prison wing to visitors. The Georgian jail is the centrepiece of a new exhibition opening at Easter. Visitors will follow the stories of castle prisoners, including Mary Blandy who poisoned her father with arsenic when he disapproved of her lover; highwayman Isaac Darkin who performed his own execution; and Anne Green who survived her hanging.

For a Blue Badge Guided tour of Oxford visit: britainsbestguides.org

LINCOLN ROCKS EUROPE Up to 150 stonemasons and carvers from across Europe will head to Lincoln in June for the European Stone Festival.

Famed for its Gothic limestone cathedral, Lincoln is marking its place as a capital of stone by opening a brand new heritage skills centre. Located in the grounds of the Norman castle, it allows visitors to watch the cathedral’s team of craftsmen at work, and to try hands-on activities – including stone carving and stained glass window making. The festival is on the 22nd and 23rd of June.

To book a Blue Badge Guide in Lincoln visit: britainsbestguides.org

PLEASE DO TOUCH

Photo: Marc Zakian

Showcasing up to 1,000 cars, it will be the largest gathering of James Bond’s favourite vehicle in the brand’s history

Cambridge has a new museum – where touching is most definitely allowed. This hands-on museum features exhibits aimed at encouraging children, families and schools to interact with science and technology.

Displays include a voice wand, illustrating how speech works; eye evolution explaining how animals see objects; and a spectroscope showing invisible light frequencies.

The museum staff interact with visitors, demonstrating science with everyday objects including: Jenga, plate spinning and ‘Pyro fun’ – which involves ‘setting fire’ to someone’s hands with methane bubbles.

To book a Blue Badge Guide visit: www.visitcambridge.org

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News

IT’S GRIM DOWN SOUTH The opening night of Tate Britain’s upcoming Lowry exhibition could mark the end of an acrimonious London vs Manchester debate. The Mancunian artist is a hometown hero – his city named an arts complex after him. But in recent decades the gallery has kept most of its 23 Lowrys in storage, with only one Lowry, Industrial Landscape, making brief public appearances.

High-profile northerners have criticised this treatment of the painter.

In 2011 Sir Ian McKellen spoke of an

MOVING SERVICE An ancient church has been dismantled, moved more than 40 miles across the River Tees and rebuilt at the Beamish Museum in County Durham.

St Helen's Church stood in its original location in Eston near Middlesbrough for some 900 years, but following damage by vandals it was destined for demolition.

It took 16 years to find the funding to rebuild it in its new home, and the restorers are now looking for Georgian box pews to recreate an appropriate interior: www.neetg.org.uk

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anti-northern conspiracy, calling Lowry's exclusion... ‘a shame, verging on the iniquitous’. Former Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher said: “They're not considered Tateworthy, or is it just because he is a northerner?”

Gallery director Penelope Curtis conceded: “Lowry has been an issue for the Tate. Many people who love his work would like to see it dealt with more seriously.”

This will be the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in London since his

death in 1976. The Tate hopes to reassess Lowry’s contribution to art history and argues that he was Britain’s ‘pre-eminent painter of the industrial city’. The critics of the Tate’s lack of Lowry will be invited to the opening night.

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life. 26 June – 20 Oct 2013.

For a tour of The Tate with a Blue Badge Guide visit: www.britainsbestguides.org

Full Steam Ahead

March is a landmark month for the Bluebell Railway. Teams of latter day navvies toiled for three years in rain, snow and heat to relay a section of track – extending the heritage line to East Grinstead and reconnecting it with the national network.

The Victorian branch line closed in the 1950s. A preservation society was formed, turning the Sussex railway into a favourite with steam enthusiasts and visitors. The Bluebell frequently features in TV and film productions, including ‘A Room with a View’ and the

pop video for Sheena Easton’s ‘Morning Train’. Horsted Keynes – preserved in 1930’s style – is the railway station in the TV-drama ‘Downton Abbey’.

The new track opens on 23rd March – 55 years after the original line closed.

There are special events, including a ‘Rail Ale’ train, tours, exhibitions and a through train from London: southeastenglandtouristguides.org

To book a Blue Badge Guide visit: southeasternenglandtouristguides.org

When I was at school, history was the subject that seemed least like work and more like playing...

Interview: Lucy Worlsey

Lucy Worsley must be the UK’s hardest working historian. She is in charge of five royal palaces, is the rising star of TV history programmes, and spends her weekends writing books. Marc Zakian steals an hour of her time to hear about scrubbing toilets and staying at Claridge’s

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HISTORY WOMAN

The Royal Guard saved Lucy Worsley from career disaster. Her final interview for the prestigious job as the head of Historic Royal Palaces took place at St James’s Palace. Arriving at the austere exterior she couldn’t find the entrance – the only person in sight was a bearskinned sentry.

Desperate not to be late, Worsley asked the soldier how to get in. He ignored her – royal sentries don’t speak to the public. After another futile attempt to locate the way in, she returned to the guard and begged for help. Taking sympathy, the soldier rolled his eyes in the direction of the doorway.

This anecdote sums up the Worsley style: passionate communication with anyone and everyone. When I meet her at Kensington Palace she leads me into a set of recently refurbished rooms –

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once Princess Margaret’s housekeeper’s apartments – and puts me at ease with a story about a Georgian dress exhibited in the corner.

So why did this energetic woman with her trademark blond demi-bob and colourful fashions want to get into the dark-suited world of curating.

“When I was at school, history was the subject that seemed least like work and most like playing, but my dad’s a scientist who thinks we should cure cancer and save the world. So I studied sciences at A-level. After suffering a term of maths and chemistry, I swapped. My furious father insisted ‘you’ll only be fit to be a toilet cleaner if you do history’. So now I pay my mortgage with my degree – and occasionally clean toilets for social history research – I am rather chuffed.”

It was a trip to a National Trust house that steered her into the heritage

industry:“I visited Mompesson House, and noticed people working there. It had never crossed my mind that there were jobs in these places. So I phoned all the stately homes near Oxford where I was at university and asked for a job.

And a crazy, wonderful, funny little place called Milton Manor said: ‘Yes. Start on Monday’. So I became their tour guide, cup washer and factotum”.

Her stellar career went via English Heritage to Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces in 2003. She was young for the curatorial world, in her late 20s, and – as was noted at the time – a woman. But Worsley insists that it was an earlier generation of females who paved the way:“When Dame Ros Savill took over at the Wallace Collection in 1974 they had a discussion about whether she might have to use the typists’ toilets. Things have moved a long way since then.”

Interview: Lucy Worlsey

My furious father insisted ‘you’ll only be fit to be a toilet cleaner if you do history’. So now I pay my mortgage with my degree - and occasionally clean toilets for social history research – I am rather chuffed Initially she found the palaces ‘a very intimidating place to come and work’.

“I didn’t have anywhere to live in London, so they put me up in a little flat in Hampton Court, which used to be Henry VIII’s confectioner’s office in the Tudor kitchens. It was so cold, spooky and misty at night. I was living there thinking what have I got myself into?

“At that time there were problems with visitor numbers and finances. We don’t get money from government. All our income comes from tickets, shops, sponsors and events. Fortunately, we

have turned things round and, touch wood, are doing OK at the moment.”

Worsley has certainly put her mark on Kensington Palace. Built in 1689, it has been home to some of the UK’s best-known royals, including Queen Victoria and Diana, Princess of Wales.

But for all its pomp, much of the building was dark and gloomy. A sixyear refurbishment has changed that.

“The ticket office used to be in the Red Saloon, where young Queen Victoria first met her government,” Worsley explains.“An immensely important place, which looked like a cloakroom. So we opened up the space with a grand entrance. Visitors were

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suffering from chronological indigestion, because everything was out of sequence.

Now it follows a logical pattern.”

“But the greatest challenge is telling the story of the buildings, through exhibitions, multimedia, guided tours or theatrical performances.”Worsley is a passionate advocate for the actors/interpreters who spend the whole day in character as a historic figure from the palaces. She does a regular ‘interview’ with Hampton Court’s resident Henry VIII.“It’s fantastic; he answers questions as Henry for over an hour.”

Worsley’s unashamed popularising has opened her up to criticism of dumbing down. She explained her approach during a debate at the National Trust AGM.“It was a bit scary.

Seven hundred passionate connoisseurs, who would be happy if we just let people wander round with no explanations. Unfortunately we can’t rely on this small group to keep these buildings open. We have to reach out to what we call the ‘cool rejecters’, a younger audience who may have never stepped inside a museum or historic house. We have to attract them away from football, Facebook or television.”

Ironically, one way of luring them away from television is for Worsley to appear on their screens. She was spotted by a BBC producer and auditioned for a series looking at the history of the British home.“I went round to her house and sat in her bed talking about 17th century childbirth.”

She presented the three-part series ‘If Walls Could Talk’ like a media natural, but Worsley says: “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or how it would work.

But it appealed to a slightly narcissistic aspect of my character. I am an incorrigible show off.”

Worsley is the antithesis of the talking-head TV historian, throwing herself into the upstairs/downstairs of British history; at one moment poshing

up in Georgian dresses to illustrate how clothes dictated women’s behaviour, then getting down and dirty with the masses as a Tudor char woman cleaning shirts with human urine.

And if there was any thought that this is simply playing with a BBC budget dressing up box, she went a whole week without washing to see how it would feel to be a 16th century worker. The reward was a bath in Claridge’s hotel.

For Worsley the devil is in the historic detail.“I tend to gravitate to the nittygritty, mucky part of life. What did people wear, how did it smell, what did it sound like, how did they go to the toilet? By being as active as possible, and putting together enough clues – from how you drink tea to how you open a jam jar, you create the bigger picture that illustrates how society worked.”

She is currently filming another BBC series called ‘Fit to Rule’.“I am practising saying that title, it’s a problem for me [she pronounces the letter R as a W]. We look at how kings’ and queens’ characters and personal lives influenced the monarchy. So how did Henry VIII’s persona impact on his rule? We finish in 1936 with Edward VIII, whose love life forced him to abdicate, changing the direction of the monarchy.”

Worsley’s grand plan is that her profile as a TV presenter will encourage more people to visit historic buildings.

“I passionately believe that an understanding of history will enrich people’s lives, and even make them happier. Curators tend to think we are the most important people in the world because we are here and now and are changing things; but we are just a blip along the way. For our buildings the timescale is millennia.”

Lucy Worsley’s new three-part series ‘Fit to Rule’ starts on BBC2 at 9pm on 26th April.

Factfile

Historic Royal Palaces

KENSINGTON PALACE Home to the British Royal family since the 17th century. The state rooms follow the stories of its residents, from William and Mary to Queen Victoria.

HAMPTON COURT A riverside Tudor palace for Henry VIII, enlarged in the 17th century.

THE TOWER OF LONDON Founded in 1066, this medieval fortress on the Thames has served as a royal residence, prison and execution site - home to the Crown Jewels.

KEW PALACE In Kew Gardens on the banks of the Thames.

BANQUETING HOUSE Built in 1619, this is the only remaining building of the Palace of Whitehall.

For a Blue Badge Guided visit to any of these palaces go to: www.britainsbestguides.org

I tend to gravitate to the nittygritty, mucky part of life. What did people wear, how did it smell, what did it sound like, how did they go to the toilet?

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R

HYME WITHOUT REASON

‘Ring-a-ring a roses, a pocket full of posies…’

The nursery rhyme that tells us all about the plague: the rings that appear on the victim’s body, a posy of flowers to keep away the infected air, sneezing, then falling down dead. It all makes sense.

Except that the first appearance of ‘Ringa-ring’ in print was 1881, over twohundred years after the last visit of the plague in Britain in 1665. And, as any plague doctor will tell you, the symptoms do not include a ring-shaped rash or sneezing.

LEGEN DIAMOND TEASER

Pointing the Finger It’s a popular story that Queen Anne Boleyn had an extra finger on one hand. One in every 500 babies is born with this condition, called polydactyly. A simple operation removes the extra digit; as happened to Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’ actress Gemma Arterton, who was born with six fingers on each hand. But there is no evidence from portraits or reliable accounts that Queen Anne had an extra finger. It was almost certainly gossip put about by her enemies – what Boleyn biographer, historian Antonia Fraser calls ‘venomous propaganda’.

Where is the largest diamond in the world?

In the Tower of London: the First Star of Africa, 530.4 carats of blinging brilliance, set in a golden sceptre. Well, no. The Golden Jubilee, at 545.67 carats, is currently the largest faceted diamond in the world. The a yellowbrown gem took the title in 1985, and is currently in the Royal Thai Palace.

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FACTS AND Noon

Time stops for one man Good Blue Badge Guides never use vague definitions such as ‘the olden days’. ‘Time immemorial’ might be considered another guiding gaffe, but in English law, time immemorial is ‘a time before legal history and beyond legal memory’. A medieval statute dates this precisely to the 6th July 1189, the start of the reign of Richard I. So if you could show proof of unbroken possession of land, or use of any right from that time, you could make a claim in law. The modern legal definition is that right must to be in continuous use for twenty years, and there is no reason why it could not have been in existence in 1189.

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is derived from the Latin nona hora – ninth hour of the day. A medieval monastic day began at 6am, so the ninth hour was 3pm.

The meaning of the word shifted to midday in the 14th century.

Siesta comes via Spanish from the Latin hora sexta; the sixth hour after 6am – our noon.

VFOR... ER?

We all know that the British ‘V’ sign – sticking two fingers in the air to tell someone to… go away – originated when the French threatened to cut off the English longbowmen’s first and second fingers, to permanently disarm them.

When the English won, they waved their two fingers defiantly at the enemy. But look for evidence and there’s no record of captured bowmen being mutilated at Agincourt, or elsewhere. If the practice was widespread enough to launch the ‘V’ sign, there would surely be records from a time when all aspects of warfare were closely scrutinised and chronicled.

NDS

IES, AND

COWS have regional accents and a group of twelve or more cows is a ‘flink’.

Y. R O T IS H H IS IT R B M O FR N IO T IC DF ‘SOCCER’ is not an Americanism.

It is short for

‘ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL’

and was popularised by the captain of the English national team 1894-5

Whenever

THE QUEEN

stays abroad she takes her own Dundee cake, teas and electric kettle which she insists on plugging in herself.

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Feature

Whitby, Newmarket and Portsmouth – three towns that are incredibly welcoming to visitors.

They are all...

TOWNSwith Words: Sophie Campbell

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WHITBY Whitby is close to my heart for its beauty, eccentricity, magnificent history and sheer joie de vivre, which is ironic, really, because Whitby, on the North Yorkshire coast, is most famous for its association with death.

The town is divided by the River Esk, which is crossed by a charming swing bridge, and its old fishermen’s houses are described by Mina Harker, heroine of Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’, as ‘all red roofed… piled up one over the other any old how…’ That’s before she finds out the Count himself has come ashore here disguised as a huge dog. The ruins of St Hilda’s Abbey and next door St Mary’s Church, reached by 199 steps on one of its headlands, play a part in the story.

Not only does Whitby have Dracula associations, it used to be one of the great centres of jet jewellery manufacture. Jet comes from the fossilised remains of araucana or

monkey puzzle trees found on this coast and the jewellery, black, of course, was popularised by Queen Victoria following Prince Albert’s death.

There are still jet shops in the town. There are also Dracula and Abbey tours and a Goth Weekend every Spring, when practically the entire town wears black. Poor Captain Cook, who was born here, gets rather edged out.

NEWMARKET On the High Street in Newmarket in Suffolk stands a bronze effigy of Hyperion, one of our great flat racing champions. It’s remarkable not only for its diminutive size – he was one of the smallest stallions to win the Derby – but because it’s a statue.

Most horses in Newmarket, and there are around 5,000 of them, are very much alive! This tiny town, houses around 60 racing yards, the National Stud, the National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket Racecourse – which has

WHITBY WHITBY ABBEY Is open year round, weekends only November to February.

The young James Cook served his apprenticeship at the seventeenth-century harbour house that now contains the CAPTAIN

COOK MEMORIAL MUSEUM Visits must be pre-arranged in winter months (November to February), otherwise open year round.

THE WHITBY JET HERITAGE CENTRE Is a working jet shop that also has an original Victorian jet workshop at the back. www.whitbyjet.co.uk Don’t miss the wonderful

WHITBY MUSEUM Started by the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society in 1823.

For more information on the area: discoveryorkshirecoast.com

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IST

For a Blue Badge Guide tour of Whitby visit: www.britainsbestguides.org

Whitby is close to my heart for its beauty, eccentricity, magnificent history and sheer joie de vivre, which is ironic – because Whitby is most famous for its association with death 15

Feature Newmarket residents barely notice several million pounds’ worth of thorough-breds clip-clopping purposefully through the streets, nor the fact their traffic lights allow for horses as well as cars two courses, both originally built on the instructions of King Charles II, who was not only a racing nut but actually won the Town Plate in 1671.

To me, this makes it a mesmerising place to visit. There are many prettier towns in Britain, but the focus in Newmarket is not tourism, but horseflesh. The residents barely notice several million pounds’ worth of thoroughbreds clip-clopping purposefully through the streets, nor the fact their traffic lights allow for horses as well as cars. Buyers pour in for the bloodstock sales at Tattersalls, which started life at London’s Hyde Park Corner. Get up at dawn and you will see strings of racehorses and jockeys on the Gallops, the huge practice tracks on Newmarket Heath, which is a magical sight. As a visitor, you are merely a spectator as the town gets on with its day job, and that makes it very special.

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PORTSMOUTH My final ‘specialist town’ – sadly there is only room for three – is Portsmouth, Her Majesty’s Naval Base on England’s south coast, which is not only home to around 16,000 personnel, but twothirds of the surface fleet, including the aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, currently under construction.

Visitors can’t enter the base, but we can visit its 18th/19th century equivalent, the vast Historic Royal Dockyard, a mighty complex behind high redbrick walls, containing everything from HMS Victory – on which Lord Nelson met his end at Trafalgar in 1805 – to the fantastic National Museum of the Royal Navy.

From part of the harbour you can do boat tours (from Spring 2013) to the elegant timber ellipse of the new Mary Rose Museum, featuring one of Britain’s

most famous restored Tudor ships.

The Mary Rose is famous because of her dramatic story. She had provided sterling service to King Henry VIII’s navy – it was Henry who first formalised the Royal Navy – for over 30 years when she sank in the Solent, dramatically and with terrible loss of life, not far from the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour. So valuable was she that even then divers were sent to try and retrieve her guns, but there was no hope. She finally came to the surface in 1982, as the nation held its breath.

The Mary Rose Trust has spent 30 years restoring her and commissioning the architects Wilkinson Eyre to build the new museum.

All three towns, despite their busy interior lives, are incredibly welcoming to visitors and have lively programmes of events, some of which are listed in the panels in this feature.

Portsmouth, Her Majesty’s Naval Base on England’s south coast, which is not only home to around 16,000 personnel, but two-thirds of the surface fleet

NEWMARKET NEWMARKET RACECOURSES

PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC NAVAL DOCKYARD Is open year round. Tickets include HMS Victory and five other attractions, including the Royal Navy Museum and a 45-minute boat tour of the harbour.

THE MARY ROSE MUSEUM Opens in Spring/Summer.

The existing feature, the Mary Rose Story shows many of the artefacts and personal possessions of the four hundred crew members who went down with the ship. This will remain open until April 1 2013. After April, make sure you have an upgraded site ticket (valid for a year) including the new museum. It’s 10% cheaper to buy them online.

Run race meetings between April and October, including the first classics of the season, the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas Stakes, and has a whole programme of outdoor concerts, Adnam Newmarket Nights, in summer.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HORSERACING Is on the High Street but has exciting plans to expand into the old Rothschild training yard, built on the site of Charles II’s original racing stables, in 2014. You can also do a tour of the National Stud from February to October (closed to visitors over the winter).

NEWMARKET TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE 63 The Guineas, Newmarket www.visiteastanglia.net To book a Blue Badge Guide visit: britainsbestguides.org

PORTSMOUTH VISITOR INFORMATION SERVICE Clarence Esplanade, Portsmouth, is open daily. www.visitportsmouth.co.uk To book a Blue Badge Guide visit: britainsbestguides.org

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Tour deNews force

Two Blue Badge Guides talk about their unique tours: street art in East London, and a visit to underground Manchester

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To u r D e

Interview: Marc Zakian Photographs: Sarah Franklin.

MANCHESTER UNCOVERED In 1954 a mine shaft mysteriously appeared in the centre of Manchester. The locals wondered what was going on. Why wouldn’t the workmen speak to anyone? Had they found gold under the city streets? Were they building an underground metropolis? Then, suddenly, the miners disappeared without a trace.

This is one of the subterranean secrets that is revealed in ‘Underground Manchester’, a tour exploring the underbelly of this industrial city.

“They were building a nuclear bunker,” explains Blue Badge Guide Sue Grimditch, “112 feet below the city, paid for by the USA at a cost of £4m, it was a command and control centre with a six-week supply of food for those chosen to run Manchester if the bomb was dropped. All that remains is a mean looking 1950’s brick building surrounded by razorwire – but the bunker is still down there.”

Grimditch is a native Mancunian with a passion for the secret corners of her city: “The underground visit is an eye-opener for locals who have no idea what lurks beneath their feet. We start the tour with a five minute walk though the familiar city streets. Then we descend into the cavernous Great Northern Goods Warehouse – where cotton, wool,

e Force

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The underground visit is an eye-opener for locals who have no idea what lurks beneath their feet

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coal, ironware, and industrial machinery arrived before being sent by horse and cart, rail and canal across the country and the world.

“You can sense the sweat of the 300 men who toiled here during the industrial revolution. If you brought in a parcel of goods by 4pm, it would be delivered by the next morning. If only that were true of our modern postal system.

“Beneath the warehouse is an extraordinary canal tunnel, created in the 1830s to transport goods, it was constructed underground to avoid the chaos of the city streets. When steam trains arrived, the canal was abandoned.

There were plans to revitalise it with gondolas and turn Manchester into the Venice of the North West – but in the end they simply drained it.

“During the Second World War it became a key part of the defence effort, a million gallons of water were removed to create a deep-level air raid shelter. People fled there during the 1940 Manchester christmas Blitz, huddled together for days.

They would get up, go to work, go home and then come back down the shelter.

“But it wasn’t all Vera Lynne songs and camaraderie. There are newspaper reports of drunkenness, fighting and swearing in the canal shelter, in particular on Saturday night – so not much has changed in Manchester.

“We can still see wartime chemical toilets (large tin cans) a sick bay where the WI provided tea and snacks, and notices explaining the rules of the shelter: no gambling, obscene language, and my favourite, ‘unseemly conduct’. Though we refrain from offering a detailed explanation of that during the tour.

“We continue along the tunnel until we are underneath the most famous road in Manchester, Coronation Street. Above us is Granada Studios and the outdoor set of the UK’s celebrated soap opera. I would like to put in a personal plea here, ITV is moving the production to MediaCityUK in nearby Salford. We really want the old set to be left behind, so in the future we can run outdoor tours of the TV street, as well as our underground visits. It would bring thousands of ‘Corrie’ fans to Manchester and boost tourism in the city.

“Back at street level the tour passes the Midland Hotel. This building was earmarked by Hitler to be the Nazi headquarters in the North West once they had invaded. There’s a poignancy in seeing the air raid shelter, and then the hotel.”

Manchester’s underworld has proved popular. “We take over 400 people a month into the tunnels. It’s a dark, fascinating world down there. It is pitch black, so every client brings their own torch. Some people say they have felt a paranormal presence – though I have never seen anything.

“I love showing people this secret space. We are lucky to be able to go into the tunnels. There were plans to put an underground train down there in 1840.

Thankfully for our tours they didn’t, but I remind tourists that if they had, it would have been the first underground train in the world. And, more importantly, have beaten London by 23 years.

Manchester would never have let the capital forget that.”

For information on this tour visit: www.newmanchesterwalks.com or email info@newmanchesterwalks.com

Interview and photographs: Marc Zakian

THE ART OF THE STREET “I never dreamed I would be leading tours through the area where my great-grandparents lived and worked,” says Pepe Martinez.

“They were Jewish refugees who came to the East End of London and started a corset business.

“Underwear was something I didn’t want to get into,” he jokes.“So I avoided the family business. I was passionate about theatre and street art.

So when I qualified as a Blue Badge Guide, I decided to turn my lifelong passion into a tour.

“On a freezing January morning in 2012 I was standing outside Liverpool Street ready for my first tour and afraid that nobody would turn up. But sixty people joined me for an art walk around Shoreditch and Spitalfields.

I was thrilled, fifteen years ago you

would have had to pay people to visit the area.”

The Matinez tour takes in the diverse range of street paintings in London’s coolest quarter, including an iconic work by Ben Eine: Sell the House, the Kids, the Wife, it's Bonus Time.“This is a wall mural made from large letters that takes a swipe at the money culture in the City of London ironically, where the tours starts.”

The Old Truman Brewery is Brick Lane’s hub for creative workers and a canvas for street artists.“It’s like an outdoor gallery. There’s a Bansky called ‘The Triumph of Death’, a sculpture, made from an old Triumph Spitfire car that is spray painted pink. We’ve also got a piece by Space Invader. He makes mosaics with small tiles, mimicking a 1980’s arcade computer game.

Sixty people joined me for an art walk around Shoreditch and Spitalfields fifteen years ago you would have had to pay people to visit the area

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Banksy’s ‘Triumph of Death’ sculpture

It was Banksy who single-handedly changed people’s perception. He is witty, controversial, mysterious and he captures the mood of the time

The Hanbury Street Crane

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There are hundreds of these hidden all over London, commenting on CCTV – his message is; ‘people may not see them, but they can see us’.

“The brewery also has work by Shepard Fairey, an American best known for a series of posters supporting Barack Obama's 2008 candidacy with the iconic HOPE portrait. Many people say it got Barack Obama the youth vote.

“The Hanbury Street Crane is a local landmark. Painted by Roa over five stories of a building, the original image was a heron – Roa works around the world, making murals of indigenous animals – but while he was working a local Bengali man commented ‘you’re painting a crane, a bird sacred to our culture’. So the locals now refer to it as a crane.”

So is street art part of local culture?

“It was Banksy who single-handedly changed people’s perception. He is witty, controversial, mysterious and – like great artists – captures the mood of the time. In 2005 he went into the

British Museum and put his own work on the wall – an image of a stone-age man with a spear, pushing a shopping trolley. It remained there for several days until the museum realised what had happened. They took it down and put it in their permanent collection.

“That reflects the move from the street to the art gallery. Two decades ago all street art was illegal – today it is usually done with permission. A few years ago a pub in Liverpool was sold with a mural on one wall. They advertised it as a Banksy, with a pub attached – doubling its value. In 2008 Sotheby's sold a Banksy for $1.87 million.

“Some artists now see the street as a way of publicising exhibitions. They ‘bomb‘ the area with images in the run-up to a gallery show. Mobster, a stencilist from Newcastle, mocks this with a street mural in Spitalfields declaring: ‘This Will be Available on Canvas Later’.”

But galleries may be the only way

The letters mosaic

Space invader on the wall

street artists can leave a legacy.“Every year a third of works disappear.

Sometimes the maker replaces it, and new artists are appearing all the time.

But the genre is ephemeral; I have learned to recognise the technique and style of the artist so that when a new image suddenly appears, I can talk about it.

“At the end of my tour we visit the Pure Evil gallery. This artist and owner has put on more than fifty shows featuring up and coming street painters. He chats with my groups when they come in.

“We share a passion for street art. For me these artworks are like old friends.

They are out there 24 hours a day, rain, sleet, sun or snow. In time they fade and disappear, but not before they have made people stop and think.”

Pepe Martinez’s street art walk is weekly on Sunday afternoons from 5th May. For more information visit www.walks.com or email josemartinez@hotmail.co.uk

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...WALK ... only takes 45 minutes, but takes in two lovely Wiltshire villages and a splendid riverside. It starts and finishes in Lacock, follows the little stream – after which Lacock was named –and then takes in the water meadows of the River Avon.

Depending on which way round you do the circuit, you either start or finish with wonderful views of Lacock Abbey.

Belinda Gornall, Blue Badge Guide for the South West, belindagornall@waitrose.com

...MURAL ... is tucked away in the East End between Shadwell overground and a Hawksmoor church. It is a modern masterpiece, commemorating the day in 1936 when the residents of the East End faced down Oswald Mosley’s fascists. This mural captures the democratic spirit of London in a passionate kaleidoscope of images as vivid as anything that you could see in Tate Modern.

Geoffrey Levett, Blue Badge Guide London, geoffreylevett@me.com

MY FAVOURITE ...PLACE ... is Liverpool Cathedral. It may be the largest cathedral in the UK, but it is also a wonderfully intimate space, which not only leaves the visitor standing in awe and amazement, but also gives them a sense of tranquillity. It is an incredibly welcoming building and, what is more, is free of charge to enter. I always feel a thrill when I approach the cathedral and am greeted by The Welcoming Christ – the final work of master sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink, installed just before she died in 1993.

Paul Beesley, Blue Badge Guide for Merseyside, office@paulbeesley.co.uk

...WALK ... is a Sunday morning thing: starting at London Bridge, heading north through the quiet City, into sparky Spitalfields and hip Hackney, arriving at Colombia Road Flower Market.

A delicious bacon bap brunch in Ezra Street flea market, and listening to the busker bands.

Then the serious business of choosing flowers for the week, maybe dipping into a little vintage boutique behind the stalls for a browse. Top deck of 48 bus from Hackney Road with my fragrant bouquet, I enjoy the views back to London Bridge.

Eve Milner, Blue Badge Guide for London, yourguide@leisureroundlondon.com

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... is a curious tower known as Perrott’s Folly, standing 96 feet over the leafy suburb of Edgbaston. It was built in 1758 by local landowner John Perrott – some say to keep watch over his wife – whom he suspected of having an ‘improper liaison’ with the gardener.

The tower is one of a number of places in Birmingham associated with the author JRR Tolkien. The ‘Maker of

Favourite things

...BUILDING Middle Earth’ lived almost opposite for a time and the view of the Folly, along with the chimney of Edgbaston Waterworks behind, is said to have been the inspiration for The Two Towers in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’ve always held the Folly in special affection, because I was born about 300 yards from it and my mother-in-law now lives even closer.

Ian Jelf, Blue Badge Guide for the Heart of England, ian@bluebadge.co.uk

BLUE BADGE GUIDES SHOW YOU THEIR FAVOURITE PLACES AROUND THE UK ...PLACE ... is White Park Bay, in County Antrim. This crescent-shaped Atlantic surf beach, flanked by chalky white cliffs, is on Northern Ireland’s spectacular north coast. The bay is overlooked by high ridges offering vistas across 25 miles of ocean to the often mist-cloaked Scottish islands of Islay and Jura. Cattle graze on nearby dunes, and sometimes share the sands with walkers.

Maureen Maginnis, Blue Badge Guide for Belfast and Northern Ireland, imhmaginnis@btinternet.com

...PLACE ... is Wells in Somerset. When you’ve finished marvelling at the medieval gems in the smallest city in England, take a look at the surprising swans gliding round the Bishop’s Palace moat. If you’re lucky you’ll see them pull the rope attached to a bell at the gatehouse window when they’re hungry – a tradition going back to the 1870s when the Bishop’s daughter first trained swans to ring the bell for food.

Patricia Isaac, Blue Badge Guide for the South West, patisaac@btinternet.com

Causeway Coast and Glens Tourism

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Photography

A Guiding Eye Blue Badge Guide and photographer Paul Metcalfe chooses some of his favourite images St George’s Chapel, Windsor

I am fascinated by the way people react and interact with the places we visit. As a guide I notice difference reactions to the places I take visitors – even when I have been somewhere hundreds of times. I watch them, observe what they see and that helps me to take a different photograph.

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My love of London and Britain is combined with my passion for photography. What I try to do with my images is document past and present.

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