Chichester

Aline writes: we recently spent a few days in Chichester, a classic English market town. It has all you would want: a ruined roman wall, a roman villa outside of town, medieval and Tudor buildings laid out in the classic North, South, East, and West from the original Roman plan (and the streets are conveniently named, yes, you guessed it, North, South, East, and West), a fabulous central market cross from 1501 erected by a local bishop, and a cathedral consecrated in 1108.

We stayed in a charming B&B with 3 rooms, just across the street from the Roman wall.

Here is the fabulous 1501 market cross, a great meeting place as you can see


Here is one of the streets radiating out from it, can’t remember if it is North, South, East, or West.


The Fishbourne Roman villa has many intricate mosaic floors






And a hypocaust (heating system under the floors)



They’ve even found evidence of the garden layout, and recreated this intricate knotted hedge

The cathedral has many charms






Painted Chapel roofs


Medieval sculpture


A Marc Chagall stained glass window


And my favorite, the Arundel tomb, made famous in this Philip Larkin poem.