A Travel Guide to England & Wales with Mark Rowlinson is now posted

[Ran Morrissett]

We start a jolly good  new series today with Mark Rowlinson. It is found under Best of Golf under the section Best of Non-Golf and it is non-golf travel suggestions for England and Wales.
 
The first entry is of London, because as Mark says, ‘all things start there!’ We will post a new region each month with regions being covered as below:
 
1. London
2. South East
3. South West
4. Central England
5. Eastern England
6. North West
7. North East
8. Wales
 
The genesis of this new series according to Mark is, ‘I seem to have acquired a small number of American golfing friends who come over here to play seriously good golf courses. They consult me for extra-golfing activities - castles, orchestras, ecology, art galleries, industrial archeology, and so on. I'd love to share that with GCA enthusiasts who might enjoy combining a golfing visit to Woodhall Spa with the experience of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby or a round at Royal Worlington combined with Payne's Rights of Man at Thetford (not to mention a few US military aircraft at Mildenhall and Lakenheath, or Evensong at King's. Cambridge).’
 
One of the original originals of GolfClubAtlas.com, his posts, articles and books are always spot on and whenever I travel to the UK, I take one of his region specific books with me. Whatever he says, goes: his eye for golf is unmatched. Yet, we all have come to know this classical singer as the epitome of a Renaissance man. His tastes and interests in culture are far flung, which is why his writing is always so engaging. No other GCAer (including the ever dapper Tom Paul) has donned a tuxedo more than this Brit based outside of Manchester since GolfClubAtlas.com started. Never flustered, he is our version of James Bond playing chemin de fer!
 
Since Mark made his first post fifteen years ago, one thing is certain: we are all fifteen years older. Compressed discs, swollen knees, tight lower backs: these new realities make this series timely. The days of 15 courses in 10 days are over, at least for me. To wit, my girlfriend and I leave shortly for Scotland and we are there for eight days and just four rounds of golf. Hiking and Edinburgh are center stage. I only wish Mark was doing one on Scotland but he – ever modest - says he is most comfortable confining his guides to England and Wales.
 
So away we go with London: enjoy installment 1 of this 8 part series! North-West England is next up, sometime in November.

Best,

[Bill_McBride]

You're right, Ran.  I've been to Scotland half a dozen times and never been inside the city of Edinburgh!   Will have to rectify that in May. 

Mark always has great advice, including steering a few of us to Delamere Forest after the Hoylake Buda Cup.  Look forward to this series. 

[David_Tepper]

Many thanks for Mark for his comprehensive guide to London. My wife and I took the cruise down the Thames from the Westminster Pier to Greenwich in early June and enjoyed our day touring the sites in Greenwich very much. Highly recommended.

I would suggest adding this link for the TKTS/discount theater tickets booth in London's Leicester Square:

www.tkts.co.uk  

[Thomas Dai]

I was pondering golf trips and possible adverse weather recently, along the lines "if I'm on a golf trip to XXX and the weather is too bad to play golf what shall I do instead?" and now as if by magic this guide appears!

Many thanks Mark and well done.

atb

[Tommy Williamsen]

I used Mark's great Book about golf in England a Wales ten years ago and got hooked on English golf.  He is a great resource and guy, though not a great golfer. I look forward to reading his suggestions for après golf.

[John Mayhugh]

A lot of work went into that.  Thanks for sharing this.

I would trust Mark for both golf and culture recommendations.  If I could make one suggestion for improvement of the guide, it would be for Mark to highlight one or two "musts" or favorites of his.  Other areas will be simpler than London, for sure.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Fabulous work Mark, thank you.

Once you have visited all of Marks suggestions I have a few more...but they can wait.

London is my adopted home and I've been lucky to live both west and east.   Historians will point to the various villages that have been absorbed and Londoners will tell you there are still differences from area to area.  Spend some time living here and you will discover Chelsea is not the same as its neighbour Fulham, in the same way that Hackney and Islington have very much thier own identitities. So if you have a week in an area I urge you to walk around local streets and find places to eat and drink. Culturally and demographically Hoxton is a world away from New Malden but in the former you are right by the Kingsland Rd home of the best of London's Vietnamese restaurants and in the later you can choose from a no of Korean ones.    Enjoy the differences.


Ran after Mark has completed his tour you need to press gang one our Scottish contingent to give us the lowdonw on the East and the West.  If Ally is up for Southern Ireland I'm happy to do the same for the North (with the help of my cousings - I haven't lived there for 50 years!). 

[Jim Eder]

Mark,

Thank you very much for all this great information. It is truly astonishing how much information is in that piece.

I need to add a little culture to my golf and this is a great way to start. Thank goodness the summer days are long in your part of the world. I may be able to pull of both for a while.

I recently purchased your book "The Greatest Golf Courses and How they are Played - North America". Very enjoyable.

Thanks once again for adding to my enjoyment whether it is finding the next golf course or now finding an interesting non-golfing experience. I appreciate all your efforts. Thank you for everything.

Jim

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I've been told off by my younger son, Giles, for failing to mention one of his local pubs in Ravenscourt Park, the Dove pub, frequented by Ernest Hemmingway, next door to William Morris Society, has the smallest pub room in UK, and is where they wrote the words to Rule Britannia.

He also points out that they park their car in a lovely square with popular music connections:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_St_Peter%27s_Square

[BCrosby]

Mark is a superb writer now focusing on something that has needed focus for a long time. It's overdue and not to be missed.

As we all get older, as we travel more with wives and children, non-golf attractions in the UK will be given more time on our agendas.

Mark offers a road map for that.

Well done.

Bob