Stratford-upon-Avon

Worth seeing in and around Stratford-upon-Avon

10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.

1. 01
   Royal Shakespeare Theatre

   The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is a Grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is located beside the River Avon in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon – Shakespeare's birthplace – in the English Midlands.

   300 m · theatre building in Stratford-upon-Avon, England · Wikipedia
2. 02
   Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon

   The Collegiate Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shakespeare's Church, due to its fame as the place of baptism and burial of William Shakespeare.

   700 m · church of England parish church in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, UK · Wikipedia
3. 03
   Shakespeare's Birthplace

   Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th-century half-timbered house situated on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years. It is now a small museum open to the public and a popular visitor attraction, owned and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

   200 m · Grade I listed birth house in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom · Wikipedia
4. 04
   Shakespeare's funerary monument

   The Shakespeare funerary monument is a memorial to William Shakespeare located inside Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the church in which Shakespeare was baptised and where he was buried in the chancel two days after his death. The monument, carved in pale blue limestone, is mounted on the north wall of the chancel.

   700 m · monument in Stratford-upon-Avon · Wikipedia
5. 05
   Swan Theatre

   The Swan Theatre is a theatre belonging to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is built on to the side of the larger Royal Shakespeare Theatre, occupying the Victorian Gothic structure that formerly housed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that preceded the RST but was destroyed by fire in 1926.

   300 m · theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England · Wikipedia
6. 06
   Anne Hathaway's Cottage

   Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a twelve-roomed former farmhouse where Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, lived as a child. It is situated in Shottery about 1 mile west of Stratford-upon-Avon town centre.

   1.7 km · house museum, associated with William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, UK · Wikipedia
7. 07
   Harvard House

   Harvard House stands at what is now 26 High Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. Once known as the Ancient House, It was built in 1596, by Thomas Rogers, grandfather of the benefactor of Harvard University, John Harvard, following the disastrous fires in 1594 and 1595 which destroyed much of the town centre.

   100 m · Grade I listed building in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom · Wikipedia
8. 08
   Clopton Bridge

   The Clopton Bridge is a Late Medieval masonry arch bridge with 14 pointed arches, located in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, which spans the River Avon, crossing at the place where the river was forded in Saxon times, and which gave the town its name. The bridge is still in use carrying the A3400 road over the river, and is grade I listed.

   400 m · bridge in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England · Wikipedia
9. 09
   Mary Arden's Farm

   Mary Arden's Farm, also known as Mary Arden's House or Glebe Farm, is the farmhouse of Mary Shakespeare, the mother of Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Because of confusion about the actual house inhabited by Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, a nearby farm was conserved in the 20th century as "Mary Arden's Farm", but has been subsequently renamed Palmer's Farm.

   4.9 km · farmhouse and museum in Wilmcote, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, associated with William Shakespeare · Wikipedia
10. 10
    Clopton House

    Clopton House is a 17th-century country mansion near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, now converted into residential apartments. It is a Grade II* listed building.

    1.8 km · country house in Warwickshire, England, UK · Wikipedia

Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What Wikivoyage says to see

There are five sites closely associated with Shakespeare, and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. A combi-ticket (called "The Full Story") is best value and they can all be seen in the course of an afternoon. Three are central: Shakespeare's birthplace on Henley Street is the obvious starting point.

1. 01
   Shakespeare's Birthplace

   Probably the location of Shakespeare's birth, and definitely the home of his early years.

2. 02
   New Place
3. 03
   Hall's Croft

   Home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband Dr John Hall.

4. 04
   Holy Trinity Church

   Old Town, CV37 6BG, office@stratford-upon-avon.org.

5. 05
   Tudor World

   Independent museum re-enacting life in Tudor England, set in an authentic Tudor building.

6. 06
   Butterfly Farm

   Daily from 10AM; Oct-Mar till 5PM, Apr-Sep till 6PM.

From Wikivoyage: Stratford-upon-Avon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Things to do

1. 01
   Royal Shakespeare Theatre

   Do see a production of Shakespeare, if you possibly can.

2. 02
   Magic Alley

   Hoaky re-imagining of the "lost years of William Shakespeare" - he was a wizard, apparently - plus lots and lots of merchandising (but thankfully no Harry Potter).

3. 03
   Bannatyne Health Club & Spa

   Alcester Rd, Wildmoor CV37 9RJ (3 km west of centre on A46),.

From Wikivoyage: Stratford-upon-Avon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Where to eat

Stratford eating places are well geared to theatre-goers. Usually there's a pre-theatre rush at 5PM, then it all goes quiet between 6PM and 7PM before the evening crowd starts coming in. But there's not much of a late night scene, as you'd find in London's West End or in Edinburgh. Kingfisher, 13 Ely St CV37 6LW. Mon-Sat 11:30AM-1:45PM & 5-10PM. Delicious fish and chips, take-away, cash only. The One Elm

1. 01
   Guild St CV37

   Great food all day and lovely back courtyard.

2. 02
   Sheep St CV37

From Wikivoyage: Stratford-upon-Avon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Getting to Stratford-upon-Avon

Airports

Birmingham (BHX), 29 km · East Midlands (EMA), 75 km · London Luton (LTN), 98 km

Stations

Stratford-upon-Avon railway station, 700 m · Wilmcote railway station, 4.7 km · Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway railway station, 2.3 km · RAF Snitterfield, 5 km · Milcote railway station, 4.6 km

• Nottingham, Leicestershire → Stratford-upon-Avon

  93 km · quickest by road, 2h 3m · £10–13
  GuideToday
• London → Stratford-upon-Avon

  133 km · quickest by road, 2h 45m · £15–20
  GuideToday
• Luton, Luton → Stratford-upon-Avon

  95 km · quickest by road, 2h 18m · £11–15
  GuideToday
• From anywhere

  The planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
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Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.

No local-transport research exists yet for Stratford-upon-Avon

Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Stratford-upon-Avon. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.

If you know how people move in Stratford-upon-Avon – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.