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Friday, 25th July 2003

Knutsford

Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life and every setting sun be to you as its close. Text from the Ruskin Reading Room, Drury Lane, Knutsford.

Tourist Information Centre: 01565 632611

16 miles (25 km) south-west of the city on the A50. Direct train connections from Piccadilly Railway Station, or take Metrolink to Altrincham station and change to the train.

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This prosperous town in north Cheshire is a gem. It is the embodiment of the lowland English market town with the added bonus of containing some of the most eccentric buildings in Britain. The town is grouped around King Street and Princess Street. On one side is the mere with a public area and children's playground, on the other is Knutsford Heath, a large semi-natural common where famously in the 1997 General Election, Christine and Neil Hamilton confronted anti-sleaze candidate Martin Bell.

The Belle Epoque, Knutsford - Harding Watts eccentric architecture

King Street is a thoroughfare which has one of those splendid English hap-hazard harmonies of buildings from throughout the last 250 years. It also has a range of shops and eateries and a very good antique shop for knick-knacks. The north end of the street leads into Tatton Park. Halfway along King Street is the swanky Belle Epoque Restaurant under the Gaskell Memorial Tower. This building introduces the visitor to Richard Harding Watt's weird and wonderful buildings. Watt (1842 - 1913) a millionaire Manchester glove manufacturer, had a very personal vision of Mediterranean architecture which he imposed on lucky Knutsford. He also adored birds, all his buildings are covered with projecting stones and bricks to allow them to perch. Sadly the restaurant has covered these with spikes to stop the birds alighting. Other examples of Watt's architecture include the Ruskin Reading Room in Drury Lane and the fantastic houses on Legh Road which have been called 'the maddest sequence of villas in all England'. This became suburban Shanghai for the Spielberg film Empire of the Sun.

Knutsford is famous as Cranford, the town in the novel of the same name by C19 novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell was brought up in the town and her grave lies in the cemetery of the simple but sweet Unitarian Brook Street Chapel. Every first Saturday in May, the May Day celebrations are held, the most genuine and charming carnival procession in the north west. There is a good heritage centre, just off King Street.

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