culture
CAPITAL ESCAPES Within a short radius of the capital lie bustling market towns and grand cathedral cities, home to a treasure trove of royal palaces, Roman ruins, cobbled backstreets and peaceful water meadows WORDS KEITH DREW
PHOTOS: © GARETH GARDNER /ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/HER MAJEST Y QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2019
RYE The East Sussex honeypot of Rye, a little over an hour on the train from London St Pancras, is impossibly picturesque. Start your wanderings around town with an amble down Mermaid Street, whose wonky timber-framed homes are clad in ivy and wisteria and sport names such as “The House with Two Front Doors” and “The House with the Seat”, before browsing the town’s wealth of contemporary art galleries. You can brush up on Rye’s former role as a Cinque Port, the confederation of English Channel harbours that protected England against invasion from France, at the 14th-century Ypres Tower, which formed part of the town’s defences. Rye now lies two miles from the sea – end your day among the saltmarsh and shingle ridges of hauntingly beautiful Rye Harbour Nature Reserve or on the rolling dunes of Camber Sands, one of the best beaches in East Sussex.
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