This is the final article about popular UK cities that you want to visit. From historical sites to exciting destinations, parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 reveal why these United Kingdom cities are often visited. The article about the best times to visit the UK will assist you with months and locations to explore. The United Kingdom awaits your visit!
Chester
Chester has streets of wonderfully preserved half-timbered houses that couldn’t be real. The area resembled a modern theme park.
Chester’s iconic “Rows” are partly Victorian replicas of previous structures. However, some of the best are truly Medieval. The rows are continuous rows of galleries accessible via steps from the street level and constituting the second level of stores. Nobody knows why they were built this way, although some of them, such as the Three Arches on Bridge Street, have remained galleried stores since the 1200s, surviving the 13th century Black Death and the English Civil War.
The four ancient streets that make up Chester’s High Cross section, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate, and Bridge, are more than a thousand years older than the city’s Medieval Rows. The walled city was initially founded as a Roman fort in 79 A.D., during Emperor Vespasian’s rule. It is one of England’s best-preserved walled cities, with certain sections of the ramparts dating back 2000 years to the original Romans. The city had an important role in the Roman province of Britannia. Recent excavations, the largest in British history, have revealed a Roman amphitheater where fighting methods were demonstrated.
Even if you’re not a history buff, Chester, in the heart of prosperous Cheshire, is worth a visit. It is noted for its best restaurants, luxury hotels, and spas, as well as its independent boutiques and museums, and art galleries.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Gateshead
Newcastle-upon-Tyne originated as an important Roman fortress guarding the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. The evidence may still be found at the Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum, which includes a replica of the fort that defended Tyne’s mouth and exhibitions containing archeological discoveries from the site.
After the Romans left, the Venerable Bede, an Anglo-Saxon monk, lived and wrote his history of early Britain at Jarrow, close downriver from Newcastle on the south bank of the Tyne. Jarrow Hall (previously Bedes World) is a new museum and World Heritage Site candidate in Jarrow, located near the ruins of Bede’s Anglo-Saxon abbey.
Current Times
Newcastle is an excellent starting point for touring the northeast of England, but don’t be shocked if the people couldn’t care less about all that magnificent history. They are completely focused on today and tomorrow.
Newcastle’s nightlife is famed, producing a plethora of bands, performing acts, and good times. Jimi Hendrix resided and busked in Newcastle in the 1960s. Chas Chandler, a musician with the Newcastle band The Animals, discovered and handled him. Dire Straits is a Newcastle band, and Sting is also a Geordie. (Geordies are Newcastle residents.) Students in Newcastle, one of England’s major university cities, keep the city’s music scene alive and well.
The Newcastle/Gateshead Quays have been turned into a futuristic and artistic landscape since the millennium. The Millennium Bridge in Newcastle/Gateshead is a one-of-a-kind pedestrian drawbridge. Instead of splitting and opening to enable tall boat traffic through, the bridge’s lowest pedestrian deck tips up to meet the support arch, opening and shutting like an eyelid.
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on the quayside is a massive contemporary art facility and the world’s largest exhibition space of its kind. It was once a massive and abandoned flour and animal feed mill before being transformed into a cutting-edge visual arts exhibition facility. The Sage Gateshead is a cutting-edge music performance and study facility not far away. Inside Sage’s dazzling stainless steel and glass bubbles, rock, pop, classical, acoustic, indie, country, folk, electronic, dance, and world music are all performed. The Sage is home to the Northern Sinfonia.
Geordies Newcastle’s native dialect, Geordie, is distinct and one of the oldest in England. You’ve probably heard this inimitable accent if you’ve ever seen actor Jimmy Nail or Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.
Nottingham
Visitors to Nottingham will be disappointed if they try to find the origins of the Robin Hood stories in Nottingham Castle, which was formerly a base for the evil usurper King John and his henchman, the Sheriff of legend. It is presently a ducal mansion from the 17th century. However, Castle Rock and the cave system beneath it, which is a designated ancient monument, suggest a medieval setting (and earlier past).
The ruins of Sherwood Forest, 450 acres of Britain’s oldest ancient oak trees, may still be explored north of the city.
Perhaps it was legends about the legendary Robin of Sherwood that drew so many literary luminaries to Nottingham. Lord Byron’s title was derived from the Nottinghamshire estate he received at the age of eleven. He is also buried in a churchyard in Nottinghamshire. D.H. Lawrence grew up in the area as the son of a Nottinghamshire miner. J.M. Barrie, the writer of Peter Pan, and novelist Graham Greene both got their start in the Nottingham Daily Journal.
The Mayflower Route
Visitors interested in the Pilgrim Fathers’ history can find much to interest in the Nottingham region, the center of Pilgrim Country. In 1607, William Brewster, the postmaster of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, led a group of Separatists to Holland. The crew eventually arrived on the shores of Massachusetts and established the Plymouth Colony in 1620. The Mayflower Trail is a self-guided tour of the tranquil communities of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire that gave birth to the Separatist movement.
Students on the Move
But it’s not just about history and literature. Nottingham boasts the third-largest student population in the UK, with two universities and 370 schools, with a busy nightlife to match. Nottingham has at least 300 bars, clubs, and restaurants, as well as several significant music and dance venues to keep night owls entertained.
York
York, a tiny northern English city, has been a significant population center for at least 2,000 years. Its relics, monuments, and architectural marvels are intertwined into the fabric of ordinary modern life as a Roman, Viking, and Medieval Anglo-Saxon city.
It’s a delightful walking city, with hundreds of half-timbered buildings and other wonders to see and discover at every turn. Its markets, which have been operating in the same squares and booths for hundreds of years, sell everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to designer cooking gadgets and DVDs. The boutique boutiques that line York’s meandering alleyways are a fashion hunter’s dream. Some of the best retail streets have been commercial centers for almost 900 years and are referenced in the Domesday Book.
York Minster, one of Europe’s greatest gothic churches, towers over the city and can be seen from anywhere within the city walls. It boasts a stained glass window the size of a tennis court and a crypt where visitors may investigate the Roman foundations of the Minster.
Reading
Reading, once an important town in the Middle Ages, is now mostly a commercial city vital in the IT and insurance industries.
True, it is close to some of England’s most iconic sites, including Windsor Castle and Eton, as well as a slew of stately homes worth visiting in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. It’s not distant from the Henley Regatta, and it has a sizable university population.
But it’s two very successful events that have helped Reading become a top UK destination.
The Reading Comedy Festival, which is held every autumn, includes three weeks of stand-up comedy artists. It draws British and Irish comedians and their admirers, as well as dozens of daring open mic aspirants.
The Reading Festival is a very large music festival in the UK. It is set over the August Bank Holiday weekend and has an unexpected twist. The festival is held in conjunction with the Leeds Festival, which takes place on the same weekend and features the same lineup. Artists perform at one festival before rushing across the nation to the other.
When it comes to lodging in Reading, you may want to look outside the city’s hotel alternatives. You are more likely to camp if you are attending one of the many events. If you’re seeking genuine charm, the surrounding countryside has a bit more to offer in terms of a unique landscape. However, Reading is an important business center, and business travelers are adequately supplied.
Leeds
Leeds is known as the Knightsbridge of the North because it is one of the UK’s major retail and fashion cities and is built on a legacy of wool, textile, and apparel manufacturing. Glamorous businesses are housed in some of Europe’s most magnificent Victorian arcades. Here, the well-known Harvey Nichols opened its first store outside of London. Marks & Spencer, one of Britain’s most recognized companies, began as a small market booth in Leeds Kirkgate Market.
Leeds in the Twenty-First Century
Leeds IT companies host more than a third of all UK Internet traffic, and there are more ISDN lines per head of population than in any other major city in the globe. A new Internet Quarter, complete with call centers and server farms, is under construction.
Leeds, the UK’s third-largest city, is also the country’s fastest expanding. Its three-quarters-million-strong population includes more than 100,000 university and college students who fuel a thriving music scene. Leeds now has over 1,500 active bands. The Kaiser Chiefs and Corinne Bailey Rae are two recent success stories from this Yorkshire city.
More about Leeds and Yorkshire
As part of a tour of the stunning Yorkshire countryside, Leeds is well located for some nightlife and shopping therapy. It’s also less than a half-hour rail or vehicle ride from York’s medieval, walled city.
Articles 1, 2, 3, and 4 gave you a tour of the unique and beneficial traits and the history of several popular UK cities. including London, Liverpool, Cambridge, and York. Before you visit these cities, remember to read the article about the best times of year to explore the UK.