Southampton to Brighton

I'd forgotten that Drew and Keith had told us that the drive from Southampton to Brighton is just a chain of roundabouts. One of the most boring and trying drives in the UK.

Wasn't I clever then in deciding to choose a route that would take us up the M3 to the outskirts of London and then across to Dorking. This is how Dorking bills itself: "The historic market town of Dorking is surrounded by the picturesque wooded Surrey Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The spire of the parish church of St Martins, one of the tallest in the country, acts as a landmark for visitors and local people alike.

Heritage, music and the arts are celebrated in Dorking, dominated by Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of England's most famous composers, who lived in the town for many years. Music, bands and live entertainment can be enjoyed in pubs, at town centre events and in the Dorking Halls. The Leith Hill Music Festival has continued for over 100 years in Dorking."

Dorking is a small town in north-eastern Surrey. It sits on the greensand between the chalk of the North Downs and the clay of the Weald in a key position where east-west routes intersect with the passage of the River Mole through the chalk hills.

The earliest settlement was probably Roman: Stane Street passed through the town. The name Dorking, however, comes from the Saxon 'Dorchingas'. By Domesday the Manor of Dorking covered the modern parishes of Dorking, Capel and the Holmwoods. Later the settlement became a market centre for the surrounding villages and the town's symbol is the five-clawed Dorking fowl for which the market was famous.

The town became known for sporting pursuits: Cotmandene was famous for cricket during the eighteenth century and a riotous all-day, street-wide football game was played on Shrove Tuesday until the early twentieth century.

For us, it was more about somewhere to take a break from driving and to visit "Box Hill".

We shouldn't have been surprised to be captivated by the main streets in the centre of town. Lined with interesting historic buildings. We also needed to find a Waitrose to stock up before driving on to Brighton.

We also visited a café for sustenance. It was empty when we entered and as they had a courtyard out back, decided that morning tea in the sun would be pleasant. No sun. The owner had issues with us sitting at a table designed for four when there was only two of us. The fact that the chairs at other tables were wet didn't concern her; just that we promised to move if a group of four entered the courtyard. By the time we left there was only one other lady in the courtyard and the inside was now full.

This café was opposite the King's Arms pub, I'd tried to photograph it earlier, however it had trucks parked out front. As we left the café, the trucks left, and I was able to photograph it between the constant stream of traffic. Built in 1405, it's believed Charles II once stayed at the pub during its days as a coaching inn, while another famous Charles - Mr Dickens, no less - wrote about the place in his novel Little Dorrit. It started off as three farm workers' cottages and became a coaching inn during the 16th century.

I'd fluked a free one-hour parking spot, so that was our time limit. Then it was up the hairpin road through a forest to the top of Box Hill. Here we parked and joined dozens of people sitting on the grassed summit, looking south over the "South Downs" for 26 miles. Just stunning and rightfully designated an "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". It was difficult for us to pull ourselves away.

Our next destination was Standen House. We'd seen a programme on TV about this Arts and Crafts house and as it's a National Trust property, and we are members, why not visit?

Standen was designed to look as though it had always been there, almost as if it has 'grown' out of the rock face and is a part of the landscape. However, the land that Standen now stands upon was originally made up of three farms: Stone, Hollybush and Standen. Isolated, like many places we visit, it was down narrow hedge lined lanes avoiding oncoming traffic by pulling into passing gaps and acknowledging the courtesy of other drivers with a lifted hand from the steering wheel.

"Art historian Abigail Harrison-Moore recently called Standen one of the most charming examples of Arts and Crafts workmanship in the UK.

The location commands fine views of the Medway Valley and Ashdown Forest, so it's no surprise that James and Margaret Beale chose this as the site of their planned country house. In spring 1891, they enlisted the architect Philip Webb to lead the project.

Work began on Standen at the end of 1891. The plans for the house had been revised many times until all parties agreed on the design. Webb often drew inspiration from landscapes and historic buildings and decided to preserve and incorporate some of the medieval farm buildings on the site into his design.

Despite these historic influences, Standen was built as a thoroughly modern home, complete with central heating and electricity.

The Beales were a family without pretension, and they wanted their house to reflect that - a comfortable house in the country, rather than a lavish stately home.

Standen was constructed using local materials and traditional construction methods: only 'the best materials and workmanship' would do - a practice in line with the ideals of Arts and Crafts.

'A house should be clothed by its garden'- William Morris

The house and garden were intended to be seen as a whole and were designed to complement each other. This followed William Morris's theory that gardens were a continuation of a house and should be used as such. Margaret Beale was fascinated by plants and had a strong influence over how the garden was laid out.

Work finished at Standen in 1894, at a cost of £18,065, and the Beales moved in shortly afterwards. The family and Webb had developed a close working relationship, frequently communicating by letter. When work on the house finished the Beales gave Webb a silver snuff box, engraved with 'When clients talk irritating nonsense, I take a pinch of snuff', which hints at the kind of working relationship the two parties had enjoyed.

The family loved Standen and found it met their needs so well that they scarcely made any changes to it over the following years. It became the centre of Beale family life and a favourite place of the grandchildren, who spent fine days exploring the vast garden, and wet afternoons playing in the 'Little Room' at the end of the conservatory."

What made our visit special was the fact that they have taken many of the drawings made by the Beale's daughter and enlarged them to life size and printed on gauze. These have been placed so that for example, a drawing of her father asleep in his chair is placed in front of the chair and you can see through the drawing to the chair behind. I'll post photos in the album to illustrate. Is this a pun or tautology or …. ?

We relented and went into the tearoom for a late lunch. Big mistake. When will we learn. Apart form anything else, the food is bloody expensive and very ordinary. Luke warm tasteless soup for Ches, and chili for me with a massive slab of bread and butter patts- $16.00 each.

We finally made it to Brighton. Late afternoon traffic was a little troublesome and road works on the main drag at the top of our street meant Sheila missed her way a couple of time. I pulled over in back streets long enough for her to catch her breath, calm down and regroup. She finally found our accommodation … just in time for us to have to pull up onto the footpath over double yellow lines in a narrow street flanked by four story terrace houses (one of which was the home of Constable … you know? That artist fellow). Oh yes, just as a traffic cop begins to book an illegally parked car opposite. I pleaded our case. He agreed that we could stop long enough for me to throw a few of our bags inside the gate before I left in search of our booked parking space.

Here's the thing, parking is in such short supply that you either pay around $80.00 a day or go in search of a privately owned parking spot and pay by the hour. I'd found a website that listed parking spots in Brighton and there was one only 5 minutes or so walk away from our apartment. I'd asked for parking from 6.00pm Monday till 9:00am Wednesday. Whodathought they'd have an app that would take my booking for those times and then convert them into Sydney time. I was now the proud hirer of a parking spot from 9:00am Monday to midnight Tuesday. Texts over the next 24 hours resolved the issue.

That wasn't the end of the story. Sheila kept taking me to the same address and no sign of off street parking. I parked illegally, walked back to our apartment, consulted our hostess, received new advice, returned to the car and found that another 50m down the street, there was a carriage entrance under a building, barely wide enough for the car. Out back were the parking spaces.

By this time, it was 7:00pm, the sun was still high in the sky and the temperature in the mid-20s. We decided that a stroll on the beachfront was in order. We've both read lots of novels set in Brighton and watched TV shows, so Brighton was very familiar. The streets all run down the hill and are lined with terrace houses, that's terrace houses on steroids. All either white or cream. Grand but tatty and scaffolding everywhere as buildings are being renovated or painted. A block of four apartments is likely to cost L160.00 to re-render and paint.

We didn't walk that far. Our street has a dogleg and emerges onto the waterfront almost opposite the wreckage of the West Pier. It was deliberately set on fire around 20 years ago and they've removed all but the first section. More about the pier in the next blog.

We retuned to our basement flat around 9:00, still warm and very light.