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 | Guildford Downtown car rental - Travel Guide |  |
Thirty-five miles southwest of London, GUILDFORD, the county capital, is a moderately interesting town, whose cobbled High Street retains a great deal of architectural interest. Several picturesque narrow lanes and courts lead off to the adjoining North Street. As you look up the High Street, you can't fail to notice the wonderful gilded clock projecting over the street that has marked the town's time for more than three hundred years. The clock belongs to the Guildhall (guided tours Tues & Thurs 2pm & 3pm; free; ) with its elaborate Restoration facade disguising Tudor foundations. A little further up the High Street is the Archbishop Abbot's Hospital, a hospice built for the elderly in 1619 fronted by a palatial red-brick Tudor gateway. You can take a peek at the pretty courtyard, but if you want to inspect the Flemish stained glass and oak beams that characterize the interior you must sign up for a guided tour (by appointment; contact the tourist office for details). Back down towards the river on the left, at no. 72, is the Undercroft (Easter-Sept Tues & Thurs 2-4pm, Sat noon-4pm; free), a well-preserved thirteenth-century basement of vaulted arches.
Guildford's ruined Norman Castle keep (closed for renovation until 2003; check opening times and dates with the tourist office) sits on its motte behind the High Street, surrounded by flower-filled gardens. Beneath the castle, the town museum (Mon-Sat 11am-5pm; free) houses mementoes of writer Lewis Carroll (aka Rev Charles Dodgson), author of the children's classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass . An imaginative sculpture of Alice passing through the looking glass is a recent addition to the Castle Gardens and Dodgson's grave can be visited in the cemetery off The Mount, on the other side of the river. At the bottom of the High Street runs the River Wey , a rather neglected feature of the town, although the once crucial River Wey and Godalming Navigation Canal has been restored into a picturesque waterway. From Easter to October, you can rent canoes (swimmers only) and rowing boats (Mon-Sat 9am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-6pm; canoes £4/hour; rowing boats £6/hour; £20 deposit) from Guildford Boat House, based in the Millbrook car park and take the same company's pleasure cruises up the river from the town wharf, at the bottom of the High Street (mid-April to mid-July & last 2 weeks Sept Sun & Wed 1.45pm & 3.30pm; mid-July to mid-Sept Tues-Thurs, Sat & Sun noon, 1.45pm & 3.30pm; £4.25; ). Half a mile further north up the river is Dapdune Wharf (April-Oct Thurs-Sun 11am-5pm; £2.50; NT) whose buildings house an interactive museum recounting the story of what is claimed to be Britain's oldest working waterway, while outside you can visit the restored barge Reliance .
Finally, it's difficult to miss Guildford's monumentally unremarkable modern Gothic Cathedral (daily 8am-5.30pm; ), ostentatiously perched on Stag Hill, a mile northwest of the centre. Resembling an outsized crematorium and consecrated in 1961, the cathedral's plain, bright interior has all the spirituality of a concert hall, but without the acoustics. Its most notable claim to fame is having been a location in the film The Omen .
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