Winchester

Ancient Anglo-Saxon capital, home to Winchester Cathedral and King Arthur’s Round Table, with Jane Austen’s House and Downton Abbey nearby.

Winchester lies in the Itchen Valley in Hampshire, southern England, about 100 km southwest of London. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex and of Anglo-Saxon England — Alfred the Great ruled from here — and after the Norman Conquest it long remained one of the kingdom’s leading cities alongside London. The old town is small, and half a day on foot links the main sights: starting in the east at the statue of King Alfred, past the City Mill, the High Street and the Buttercross, to Winchester Cathedral, one of the longest medieval cathedrals in Europe (where Jane Austen is buried), then west to the Great Hall, where King Arthur’s Round Table hangs, and the Westgate; south of the cathedral are the ruins of Wolvesey Castle and Winchester College, founded in 1382, and following the Keats Walk south through the Itchen water meadows brings you to the ancient Hospital of St Cross and St Catherine’s Hill, which overlooks the city. With Winchester as a base, within half an hour’s drive are Jane Austen’s House and Chawton House, Highclere Castle (the filming location of Downton Abbey), the Watercress Line steam railway and the town of Alresford, as well as Hinton Ampner, the Mottisfont rose garden, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Marwell Zoo. The climate is mild; Apr–Oct is best for city walks and gardens, with roses in full bloom in Jun, and from late Nov to mid-Dec the Cathedral Christmas Market is one of the most popular in Britain. Getting there: trains from London Waterloo take about 1 hour, and Southampton Airport is about 20 minutes by car; the old town is walkable, while nearby estates require a car or bus. Plan to stay 2 days: one in the old town and one on an Austen or Downton Abbey trip. Highclere Castle opens only on a limited number of dates, so book tickets in advance.

Top sights

• Winchester Cathedral – One of Europe's longest Gothic cathedrals, blending Norman and Gothic styles; Jane Austen rests here, and the crypt holds Antony Gormley's…
• The Great Hall & Round Table – The only surviving 13th-century hall of Winchester Castle, with a 5.5 m diameter 'King Arthur's Round Table' hanging on the wall, one of En…
• Jane Austen's House – The country cottage where Austen spent her final eight years revising and writing Pride and Prejudice and Emma; her writing desk and origin…
• Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) – The filming location of the British drama Downton Abbey, a Victorian residence of the Earls of Carnarvon, with an Egyptian collection in it…
• Wolvesey Castle (Old Bishop's Palace) – The 12th-century palace ruins of Winchester's bishops, once the residence of England's wealthiest bishop, where Mary I and Philip II of Spa…
• Hospital of St Cross – One of England's oldest charitable almshouses, founded in the 12th century and still home to elderly residents, where visitors can ask the…
• Winchester College – One of England's oldest public schools, founded in 1382, where you can join a guided tour of its medieval courtyards, chapel and the 'Schoo…
• Winchester City Mill – A working medieval watermill on the River Itchen, where you can watch the wheel grind flour and buy freshly milled flour; otters are often…
• Statue of Alfred the Great – A bronze statue of King Alfred raising his sword at the eastern end of Broadway, commemorating the Wessex king who made Winchester his capi…
• Buttercross & High Street – Winchester's pedestrian main street, where the 15th-century Gothic Buttercross, Tudor houses and Saxon-era street pattern survive.
• Westgate Museum – One of only two surviving medieval city gates in Winchester; its upper floor once served as a prison, with prisoners' carvings on the walls…
• St Catherine's Hill – A chalk hill south of the city, with the remains of an Iron Age hill fort and a turf maze on top, overlooking all of Winchester and the Itc…
• Winchester Military Museums – Five regimental museums inside Peninsula Barracks, including the Gurkha Museum and the Royal Green Jackets Museum, with a large Waterloo ba…
• Winchester Science Centre & Planetarium – A pyramid-shaped interactive science centre on a hill east of the city, with more than a hundred hands-on exhibits and one of Britain's lar…
• Chawton House – An Elizabethan estate inherited by Jane Austen's brother Edward, which Austen often visited; it is now a research centre for early women's…
• Watercress Line (Mid Hants Railway) – A 16 km heritage steam railway from Alresford to Alton, where you ride a well-preserved steam locomotive through the Hampshire countryside.
• New Alresford – A pretty Georgian market town with a wide Broad Street lined with coloured terraced houses and independent shops, and riverside paths past…
• Hinton Ampner – A National Trust country house with a classic 20th-century English garden, where neatly clipped hedges and flower borders complement views…
• Marwell Zoo – A conservation-focused zoo covering about 57 hectares, home to around 140 species including snow leopards, tigers, giraffes and rhinos, kno…
• Sir Harold Hillier Gardens – A large arboretum with around 12,000 plant varieties, whose autumn foliage and winter garden rank among the finest in southern England.
• Mottisfont – A country house converted from a 12th-century Augustinian abbey, with a walled garden holding a national collection of old garden roses tha…
• Romsey Abbey – One of England's best-preserved large Norman churches, originally a 10th-century nunnery, with Saxon stone crucifixes inside.
• Fort Nelson (Royal Armouries) – A Victorian fort on Portsdown Hill housing the Royal Armouries' collection of hundreds of guns, with free entry.
• Hayling Island Beach – A beach island east of Portsmouth, with a long pebble-and-sand shore, a seaside miniature railway and kitesurfing, ideal for summer leisure.
• Queen Elizabeth Country Park – Forest and chalk hills at the western end of the South Downs National Park, with a climb to Butser Hill for views over Hampshire countrysid…

Where to eat

• The Chesil Rectory – A British restaurant in Winchester's oldest 15th-century timber-framed house, listed in the Michelin Guide, known for c…
• The Wykeham Arms – An old pub open since 1755, tucked between the cathedral and Winchester College, serving meals made with Hampshire prod…
• Kyoto Kitchen – A Japanese restaurant loved by locals, known for creative sushi rolls and local ingredients, ranked in the top ten in W…
• Rick Stein Winchester Seafood Restaurant – Celebrity chef Rick Stein's first restaurant outside Cornwall, serving fresh Cornish fish delivered daily.
• The Black Boy Pub – A characterful old pub filled with taxidermy and curiosities, famous for its Sunday roast and local craft ales.

Itineraries

• Hampshire to Dorset South Coast – Head west along the south coast: historic capital, naval dockyard, Isle of Wight, New Forest, and the Jurassic Coast.