Vilage Life, Surrey Style

GUILDFORD, England —  When my stepson and his wife, longtime Londoners, told us they planned to relocate to Guildford in Surrey, I could ask only, “As in the Guildford Four?” All I knew of the town was that, in 1974, it was the site of two fatal bombings by Irish Republican Army sympathizers.

So when my husband, Gerry, a British native, and I visited last fall, Guildford was a pleasant surprise--a nice change of pace from London. The town is 35 miles southwest of London, about an hour’s drive, except during rush hour, on the A-3 highway. One of the affluent towns in the “stockbroker belt,” Guildford has long been a bedroom community for London professionals but is little known to tourists, although it has a deluxe hotel, good restaurants and handsome public gardens and is a perfect base for exploring quaint nearby Surrey villages.

The first thing to know about Guildford, the county seat of Surrey, is that the first “d” is silent. I learned from Matthew Alexander, curator of the Guildford Museum, that the “d” was often dropped in the spelling in the late Middle Ages and it remained silent in speech when the current spelling was adopted in the 18th century. Guildford, population 65,000, boasts a famous son, humorist P.G. Wodehouse (“Carry On, Jeeves!”), who was born there in 1881. A blue plaque on a house on Epsom Road marks the place. And the town claims Lewis Carroll as a Guildfordian--a somewhat tenuous claim, as he lived only briefly in Guildford, but his family’s home, “The Chestnuts,” is here. And that is reason enough for there to be a statue of Alice in Wonderland on the grounds of Guildford Castle and a display of Carroll memorabilia at the Guildford Museum. The castle, built about 1150, is in ruins, but its grounds overlooking the center of town are a favorite destination of locals.

Our three-day visit began when my stepson, Paul Graber, picked us up at Heathrow Airport one early November afternoon. Paul and his wife, Shirley, are now nicely settled into a tri-story house in Guildford only a short walk from the town center. With Paul as our guide, we set out the next morning--a cold, drizzly one--on a walking tour of Guildford’s cobbled main street. Despite the weather it was a pleasure to amble along “the High Street,” as locals call it, which starts at the River Wey and slopes uphill for about a mile, with the old town blending into modern Guildford near the top. As it’s a pedestrian-only zone at specified hours, I was able to station myself in the street and admire the town’s most photographed attraction, the medieval Guildhall, with its ornate gilded bracket clock that has kept the time since 1683.

We weren’t lucky enough to get in on a conducted tour of the Guildhall (Tuesdays and Thursdays only), but on High Street we did peek inside the Angel Posting House and Livery, where locals were having tea by an inviting fire in one of its three lounges. I made a note that we must stay sometime in one of the rooms in the old wing with their antique furnishings and beams fashioned from timbers from old sailing ships dismantled at Portsmouth.

A 16th century coach stop, the Angel Posting is today Guildford’s premier hotel, with a reputation that keeps it booked weeks ahead (Lord Nelson and Sir Francis Drake slept there). I enjoyed learning that the aptly named Angel is said to have two resident ghosts. One is a Crimean War soldier in uniform, reported by guests staying in Room 1; the other is a nun who is said to hang around the balcony.

In the 18th century, when Guildford was a halfway point on the two-day coach journey from London to Southampton and Portsmouth on the coast, six coaching inns and 30 beer houses prospered along High Street. But the coming of the railway to Guildford in 1845 doomed them, and only the Angel survives.

As a university town--site of the University of Surrey--Guildford offers cultural amenities often lacking in small communities, including a philharmonic orchestra and two small legitimate theaters. But this is not a tourist town in the sense of having one massively famous attraction--a lack that has enabled it to retain much of its old-world character as well as the feel of a place where real people live, work and play.

On the historic High Street, there is a McDonald’s, as well as a Burger King and a Baskin-Robbins. We opted instead for local cafes such as Puccino’s, where Paul’s coffee came with “latte” written in nutmeg on the foam. Our waitress was French, and the menu so continental--interesting sandwiches, salads and pastas--that Gerry remarked how things had changed from the England of his youth, when such a cafe would likely have served nothing more exotic than pork pie and bangers and mash.

While my husband enjoyed a second coffee, I poked around in Monsoon--a woman’s shop--and other chic little shops nearby, and in the department store Marks & Spencer, where the lower floor is all food.

During my walk I inquired about the location of the pubs where five people died in the 1974 bombings, and I later learned that the establishments--the Seven Stars on Swan Lane and the Horse and Groom on North Street--are now closed. There is a memorial to the victims in Quakers’ Acre, a public garden on North Street, which parallels High Street.

When Guildfordians agree to meet at the “arch,” it’s Tunsgate Arch, the rather imposing temple-like structure that connects High Street to Tunsgate street. The arch, named for the Tun Inn, which formerly occupied the site, is an architectural oddity. When built in 1818, it had four symmetrical columns; but in the 1930s the middle two were moved apart to accommodate a road. In 1992, wiser heads prevailed, and the road was filled in.

We stopped at the tourist information center on Tunsgate to learn which attractions were open. Across the street at Heal’s, an outpost of the upscale home store in London, the Christmas decorations were up, and I bought a few ornaments to tuck into my suitcase.

I also took a peek into the Guildford House Gallery, a jewel of a townhouse dating from 1660 with an ornately carved staircase. Once a private residence, it is now an art gallery with a nice collection of contemporary crafts and glass. Admission is free, and there is a pleasant tearoom and courtyard garden.

On our second day Paul suggested we skip Guildford’s cathedral, which, although it dominates the town from its hilltop site, is of marginal historic interest, dating only back to 1961. He thought our time would be better spent exploring surrounding towns and taking leisurely drives through rolling downlands.

The English love their parks and gardens, and these abound in the borough, which is a haven for walkers and bird-watchers. Three National Trust properties are in or near Guildford. We drove 15 minutes east to Shere, one of the sweetest of the old Surrey villages with its timbered houses and duck pond. There are several historic pubs in Shere, and we chose the White Horse for lunch. Constructed from ship timbers dating from the 1500s, the White Horse has been a public house since the 17th century. The menu was written on a blackboard, and it included Thai and Cajun as well as sausages with bubble and squeak (leftover boiled potatoes and cabbage) and fish and chips. It’s semi-self service: You find a table in one of the dark, cozy little rooms, make a note of the number on your table candle, then place your order at the bar; in due time, a waitress appears with your food. I can’t explain why, but I ordered Cajun shrimp, while Gerry went for the shepherd’s pie.

Then it was on east to Dorking, another of the attractive towns 30 minutes or less by car from Guildford and a mecca for antiquers. The Dorking Museum will arrange a tour of the network of caves and passages beneath the town that are thought to have been meeting places for outlawed religious groups or smugglers’ haunts, and we’ll do that next time.

But, with limited time, we opted for the short drive to Polesden Lacey, one of the National Trust properties. It wasn’t the ideal day--cold and windy--and the house, built in 1824, was closed for the season, but the formal grounds were lovely and the view over the North Downs, a patchwork quilt in shades of green, was breathtaking. The villa, given to the trust by an Edwardian hostess, was a honeymoon stop for King George VI and his bride, now the Queen Mother. There was a nice gift shop where, by buying a T-shirt--a truly tasteful T-shirt--I contributed in a tiny way to the ongoing restoration.

The next day was sunny and crisp, perfect for visiting Winchester, about an hour’s drive west from Guildford. Not so easy was finding a parking place in this medieval town. Circling and circling, it seemed to take us almost as long to find a spot as it must have taken to build the city’s magnificent 11th century cathedral. The cathedral is overwhelming in size, 556 feet long, but in an hour--with the help of the free printed guide--we saw many of its highlights, such as Jane Austen’s grave in the floor.

But Winchester was so clogged with tourists that we abandoned our plan to lunch in town and drove on, past fields of sheep, eventually finding a country pub with one great virtue: plentiful parking.

On our last night in Guildford we engaged in a favorite English pastime, sharing an Indian meal at one of several good such restaurants in the city, the Merrow Dynasty. The four of us shared four dishes with all the trimmings and a starter of samosas. Over schooners of Indian beer, we toasted our hosts and promised to come back soon.

GUIDEBOOK

Surveying Surrey

Getting there: There are nonstop flights from LAX to London on British Airways, American, United, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand. Round-trip fares for the 10 1/2-hour flight start at $668. A train runs frequently from London’s Waterloo Station to Guildford about 35 miles away. Cabs are also available, but are costly to Guildford. In non-peak hours, Guildford is an hour’s drive from London on the A3.

Where to stay: The Angel Posting House and Livery, 91 High St., Guildford; telephone 011-44-1483-564-555, fax 011- 44-1483-533-770. Superbly located with 21 rooms, starting at $200 a night; it also has a fine restaurant.

The Hautboy, Ockham Lane, Ockham (seven miles from Guildford); tel. 011-44-1483-225-355, fax 011-44-1483-211-176. A country hotel with five rooms, $150 nightly.

The Harrow Inn, The Street, Compton; tel. 011-44-1483-810-379. A cozy pub three miles from Guildford, with five rooms, $120.

Where to eat: The Gate, 3 Milkhouse Gate, Guildford; local tel. 576-300. European cuisine; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $100.

Merrow Dynasty, 261 Epsom Road, Guildford; tel. 562-190. Indian food; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $50.

Cambio, 10 Chapel St., Guildford; tel. 577-702. Italian food; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $100.

Bar Centro, 1C Sydenham Road, Guildford; tel. 302-888. Pizza and pasta; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $50.

Cafe-de-Paris, 35 Castle St., Guildford; tel. 534-896. Traditional French food; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $100. At the informal brasserie in front, two can eat for about $60.

The White Horse, Shere; tel. 202-518. Traditional English pub; dinner for two, without alcohol, about $50.

For more information: Guildford Tourist Information Centre, 14 Tunsgate, Guildford GU1 3QT, England; tel. 011-44-1483-444-333, fax 011-44-1483-302-046.