DISCOVER STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, 22 miles (35 km) south east of Birmingham and 8 miles (13 km) south west of the county town, Warwick.
The town is a popular tourist destination owing to its status as birthplace of the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, receiving about three million visitors a year from all over the world.
Stratford has Anglo-Saxon origins, and grew up as a market town in medieval times. The name is a fusion of the Old English straet, meaning "street", and ford, meaning "ford".
Stratford is also close to the Cotswolds, with Chipping Campden 10 miles (16 km) to the south. As a major sheep producing area (Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, bought and sold sheep wool illegally for a while) the Cotswolds, up until the latter part of the 19th century, regarded Stratford as one of its main centres for the slaughter, marketing and distribution of sheep and wool. As a consequence Stratford also became a centre for tanning during the 15th–17th centuries.
 THEATRES OF STRATFORD
The first real theatre in Stratford was a temporary wooden affair built in 1769 by the actor David Garrick for his Jubilee Celebrations of that year to mark Shakespeare's birthday. The theatre, built not far from the site of the present Royal Shakespeare Theatre, was almost washed away in two days of torrential rain that resulted in terrible flooding.
A small theatre known as The Royal Shakespeare Rooms was built in the gardens of Shakespeare's New Place home in the early 19th century but became derelict by the 1860s.
To celebrate Shakespeare's 300th birthday in 1864 the brewer, Charles Edward Flower, instigated the building of a temporary wooden theatre, known as the Tercentenary Theatre, which was built in a part of the brewer's large gardens on what is today the site of the new, and temporary, Courtyard Theatre. After three months the Tercentenary Theatre was dismantled, with the timber used for house building purposes.
In the early 1870s Charles Flower gave several acres of riverside land to the local council on the understanding that a permanent theatre be built in honour of Shakespeare's memory, and by 1879 the first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre had been completed. It proved to be a huge success, and by the early 20th century was effectively being run by the actor/manager Frank Benson, later Sir Frank Benson.
The theatre burned down in 1926, with the then artistic director, William Bridges-Adams, moving all productions to the local cinema.
An architectural competition was arranged to elicit designs for a new theatre, with the winner, English architect Elisabeth Scott, creating what we see on the riverside today. The new theatre, adjoining what was left of the old theatre, was opened by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, in 1932.
The new theatre had many illustrious artistic directors, including the actor Anthony Quayle.
Peter Hall took over the theatre in 1961 (he'd been a director there from 1959), creating the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) that same year.
Swan Theatre was created in the 1980s out of the shell of the remains of the original Memorial Theatre, quickly becoming one of the finest acting spaces in the UK.
The Waterside Theatre - the newest, and only privately owned theatre in the town, re-opened in December 2004 after lying empty for approximately ten years. Prior to this the space operated as a automobile garage, a cinema and a visitor attraction (The World of Shakespeare). Following closure in 1994, the space lay empty for just under a decade before being bought by Dynamic Attractions Ltd and re-opened. At present, the theatre houses the Shakespearience visitor attraction (daytimes only), and offers other facilities such as a bar, gift shop and rehearsal spaces.
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
The town is located on the River Avon, on the banks of which stands the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) — designed by the English architect,Elisabeth Scott, and completed in 1932 — which is the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Until recently the RSC also ran two smaller theatres, the Swan, which is modelled on an Elizabethan theatre — which closed in August 2007 as part of the refurbishment plans — and The Other Place theatre, a black box theatre, which closed in 2005 to make room for the temporary RSC Courtyard Theatre, which opened in July 2006.
This theatre is now the home of the RSC while the RST is being refurbished; the interior of which is similar to the planned interior of the refurbished RST. The site of The Other Place has now become the foyer, bars, cloakroom, dressing rooms, and rehearsal space of the Courtyard Theatre. The Other Place will be reinstated after the RST and Swan refurbishment is complete in 2010 and the Courtyard Theatre is dismantled; although many in the town would like to hang on to the Courtyard so that it can used by local theatre companies.
Other tourist attractions within the town include Shakespeare's Birthplace, one of five houses relating to Shakespeare's life, which are owned and cared for by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. T
hese include Hall's Croft (the one-time home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susannah, and her husband Dr John Hall) and Nash's House,which stands alongside the site of another property, New Place, owned by Shakespeare himself, and the house in which he died. Near to the town are Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, the home of Shakespeare's wife's family prior to her marriage and Mary Arden's House, the family home of his mother. Elsewhere in the district are farms and buildings at Snitterfield, that belonged to the family of Shakespeare's father.
The most recent addition to the town is Shakespearience. A timed show that takes place each hour, each day in the Waterside Theatre. The show takes the story of Shakespeare into the digital age, exploring this life and legacy alongside highlights of his plays using a 21st Century version of the Victorian stage illusion Pepper's Ghost.
At the top end of Waterside is Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was baptised and is buried.
Non-Shakespearean attractions include the Stratford Butterfly Farm, which is on the eastern side of the river and the Bancroft Gardens.
The influx of tourists into Stratford (3.5 million a year) has caused tension with residents for decades, and there are perennial complaints about numerous tour buses clogging certain roads in the town.
Each year on 12 October (unless this is a Sunday, in which case 11 October) Stratford hosts one of the largest Mop Fairs in the country. Then, on the second Saturday following, the smaller Runaway Mop fair is held.
HENLEY STREET
Henley Street is one of the oldest streets in Stratford-upon-Avon, where, in 1556 John Shakespeare bought a half-timbered farm house that is typical of the Tudor style of architecture of its day, which, in 1564 became the birthplace of his son William Shakespeare. The birthplace now stands alongside the Shakespeare Centre, completed in 1964 and not far from the Carnegie Library, which was completed in 1905. Henley Street is now a major tourist and shopping area for the town, with many pavement cafes and street entertainers.
SHEEP STREET
As the name suggests Sheep Street—which leads down from the Town Hall to Waterside and the RST—was, from early times and until the late 19th century, the area where sheep, brought from the neighbouring Cotswold Hills, were slaughtered and butchered. Today it is the restaurant centre of the town. Sheep Street also has some long established ladies 'gown' shops.
The oldest house in Stratford, The Shrieves House, where Oliver Cromwell is thought to have stayed in 1651, before the second battle of Worcester,can be found in this busy street. Alongside, and behind The Shrieves House is the Falstaffs Experience, which is an entertaining museum of the macabre.
WATERSIDE AN SOUTOHERN LANE
This area of Stratford, which runs from the foot of Bridge Street to Holy Trinity Church (and leads directly off Sheep Street and Scholars Lane) runs alongside the River Avon and offers access to the Waterside Theatre and all areas of the RST. The RST is currently undergoing great renovation works, including work to the Bancroft Gardens at the front of the main RST building.
The Bancroft Gardens run from Waterside to the River Avon and include a canal basin. During the Summer months there are often street performers performing to the public on the lawns.
In October 2007 the Italian restaurateur and broadcaster Antonio Carluccio opened a new restaurant below the Waterside Theatre (previously Hamiltons restaurant).
From Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia
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Shakespeare's Birthplace, in Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, United Kingdom
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