Guildford

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Guildford is a town and borough in Surrey in the south of England. Its main attractions are the mediaeval castle, the cobbled high steet, the modern cathedral, the surrounding countryside, a major shopping centre, restaurant and pubs.

guildford Travel Guide : 1 Understand 2 Get in 2.1 By plane 2.2 By train 2.3 By bus 2.4 By car 3 Get around 3.1 By foot 3.2 By bus 3.3 By taxi 3.4 By car 3.5 By map 4 See 4.1 Central Guildford 4.2 Surrounding Area 5 Do 5.1 River trips 5.2 Walks 5.3 Festivals 6 Learn 7 Work 8 Buy 8.1 Shopping 8.2 Money 9 Eat 9.1 Central Guildford 9.2 Surrounding Villages 10 Drink 11 Sleep 12 Contact 12.1 Phone 12.2 Internet 13 Get out 14 External links

Understand

Guildford is the county town of Surrey, but not the administrative centre (that is Kingston-upon-Thames, which is actually in a London borough).

Guildford is the economic and cultural centre of the whole of West Surrey, traditionally not so much of a commuter town as Woking, Weybridge and other Surrey towns.

Get in

By plane

Guildford is well served by London's collection of airports. For travellers coming directly to Guildford, the most convenient (in reducing order of convenience) are:

• Heathrow Airport (http://www.baa.co.uk/main/airports/heathrow/) is about 40 minutes drive along the M25 motorway and the A3 trunk road. Alternatively it is linked directly to Woking rail station by the RailAir (http://www.railair.com/) express bus service.
• Gatwick Airport (http://www.baa.co.uk/main/airports/gatwick/) is about a hour's drive away via the M23 (northbound), M25 (clockwise) and A3 (southtbound) roads. There is a through train service to Guildford from a rail station in the airport terminal complex, running twice an hour and taking less than an hour.

By train

Guildford main line station is served by commuter and regional train services from many different directions, including two routes to London (one fast via Woking, the other slow via Cobham). The fast services continue southwards to Portsmouth. Guildford also lies on the the line from Reading to Gatwick Airport; beyond Reading, services to Oxford and Birmingham may be accessed, and via Gatwick, connections to Brighton and Kent.

From London, you should travel from London Waterloo station and catch a train whose first stop after Woking is Guildford (there are several of these an hour), the travel time will be about 35 minutes. There are other stopping services from Waterloo via Cobham, but these take so much longer it isn't normally worth considering them.

There is a smaller station called London Road (Guildford), which is the penultimate stop on the line from London via Cobham.

Train times can be found on the National Rail Planner (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/) or by calling 0845-748-4950 from anywhere in the UK.

By bus

National Express (http://www.nationalexpress.com/) serve Guildford with express bus (UK English:coach) services from around the country; advanced ticketing is necessary. Note that they serve a stop called Guildford Park Barn, which is a slightly out-of-town location near a Tesco supermarket. You will need to catch a local bus or taxi (if you can find one) to take you into Guildford.

By car

Guildford is served by the A3 trunk road which runs from London to Portsmouth. It is about an hour's drive from central London.

If you are visiting for the day by car, consider using the Park & Ride site at the Spectrum leisure complex just off the A3 southbound, or the site on the Old Portsmouth Road at Artington (on the way to Godalming) and catching the dedicated express bus from these locations.

Get around

By foot

The central area of Guildford is easily walkable, but hilly. From the railway station you must cross the river Wey in order to reach the town centre and the bus station.

By bus

Buses no not provide a good way of getting around the central district of Guildford itself, but are adequate for the local community. Although there is a free bus which circles the town centre three times an hour, it is often snarled in the traffic and usually, if you are able, quicker to walk.

• Traveline (http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/), telephone 087-608-2-608 from within the UK, provide an impartial online travel planner and telephone query service for local bus services.

By taxi

By car

Whilst not as bad as either London or Oxford, Guildford's roads can get very congested at peak periods. Especially if you aren't used to driving on the left, central Guildford is probably best avoided.

On the other hand, a car is the one (possibly along with cycling) of the only really practical ways of seeing a lot of the local countryside and villages. Here the roads are quieter too.

By map

If you are planning to do any visiting or exploring beyond central Guildford, you will probably want to obtain a decent map of the area. You should ensure that any map you buy clearly shows the national grid reference lines, and explains how to use them, as grid references are frequently used to indicate out of town locations. The best maps for this purpose are those published by the Ordnance Survey (Britain's national mapping agency) and the following maps cover all the locations mentioned below:

• Ordnance Survey Landranger 186. This map covers the area around and between Guildford and Aldershot at a scale of 1:50000 and is best for exploration by car or cycle.
• Ordnance Survey Explorer 145. This map covers the area around Guildford at a scale of 1:25000 and is best for walking.

These maps can be found in any good bookshop in Guildford (see 'Buy' section below), or can be bought online from the Ordnance Survey's web site (http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/).

See

Central Guildford

The cobbled High Street, with buildings from a variety of different epochs, including:

• The Guildhall (Tudor/Stuart) with its overhanging 1683 clock;
• Abbot's Hospital (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/7340/abbot.htm) Built in 1619 by Guildfordian Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot as a retirement home for the local elderly;

To the south of the High Street:

• Guildford Castle (http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/3455.html)

On Stag Hill, site of the University of Surrey and the modern (1930s) cathedral:

• The Cathedral (http://www.guildford-cathedral.org/)

Running through the town, with its HQ at Dapdune Wharf:

• The Wey Navigation (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=239)

Surrounding Area

There are also many interesting things to see around Guildford:

• Newlands Corner (http://www.nationaltrails.gov.uk/northdowns/northdownsattraction.asp?section=s1&attractionID=114)
• Loseley House (http://www.aboutbritain.com/LoseleyPark.htm)
• Painshill Landscape Gardens
• Hatchlands House (national trust)
• Waverley Abbey
• Denbies Vineyard
• Clandon Park (national trust)
• Surrey Hills
• Leith Hill and its folly (national trust)
• RHS Wisley gardens

Do

River trips

See http://www.riverweytrips.co.uk/ and http://www.guildfordboats.co.uk/

Walks

Festivals

Guilfest - a summer 3-day rock and pop festival taking place annually in mid July at Stoke Park

Guildford Book Festival - annual festival of literature held in October and featuring signings, readings, plays etc.

Guildford International Music Festival - A biennial festival (2005, 2007, 2009 etc.) featuring many concerts across 2-3 weeks. Genres are mixed, and the festival brings high quality professional acts to the town.

Ambient Green Picnic - Annual free festival at Shalford Park, featuring local bands, children's activities, environmental and artistic displays

Learn

Adult learning providers include

• University of Surrey
• Guildford College
• Guildford adult education centre, Sydenham Road (run by the county council)

There are also various private education providers including a Pitman Centre

Work

Buy

Shopping

Guildford is the major shopping centre of West Surrey, with most of its shops clustered in a fairly compact area on and around the High Street.

There are two major department stores,

• House of Fraser (A&N) (http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/stores/store.asp?id=803)
• Debenhams (http://www.debenhams.com/site_services/store_details.jsp?StoreID=164&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=130533&bmUID=1103839927200)

There is also several shopping centres,

• The Friary Centre
• White Lion Walk
• The Tunsgate Centre

In general stores open M-Sa 9:30am-5:30pm and Su 10am-4pm although many stay open longer on some days and some do not open on a Sunday. .

Money

Most British banks and building societies have branches in Guildford, and most of them are situated around the eastern end of the High Street. These branches normally open 9am-4pm M-Fr and 9am-noon Sa.

Most bank and building society branches have 'through the wall' type ATMs that are open 24x7.

Eat

Central Guildford

Many interesting town centre restaurants are located in Chapel Street, off the lower High Street, with a smaller cluster on the Upper High Street.

Surrounding Villages

Drink

Like most English towns and cities of this size, Guildford has many pubs and bars.

In the downtown area, there is a large concentration of formulaic wine bars and cafe bars around area between the bus station and the railway station.

Sleep

For mid or up market hotels, your best bet is to use one of the online booking services, such as Expedia (http://www.expedia.co.uk/).

Contact

Phone

Guildford's area code (for landline numbers) is 01483 when dialed from within the UK or +441483 from outside the UK.

Cellphone coverage is generally good within the city and surrounding area.

Internet

If you are travelling with a laptop then you will find broad-band internet access in the rooms of most, but not all, medium to high end hotels. If this is important to you check before booking. Alternatively there are many WiFi hot spots in and around Guildford and WiFinder (http://www.wifinder.com/) provides a register.

There are also several places that offer web and other internet access if you are travelling without a laptop. These include: * Guildford library (free access)

• Quarks Internet Cafe, Jeffries Passage

Get out

• World War I Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial (http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php) - Southwest of the town of Brookwood, about 9.5 kilometers (six miles) north of Guildford. Open daily except for December 25 and January 1; 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The final resting place for 468 American military dead from World War I. There is a small chapel inscribed with the names of 563 Missing in Action persons. Free

External links

• Wikipedia:Guildford

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