48 Hours in Chichester, West Sussex, Chichester, England

There’s been a plan in my head to go to Chichester since June last year. So the trip has been a year in the making, and I finally made it there this week for a two nights’ stay. It’s not so far away from me – merely an hour and half’s drive (if traffic is good) – but I’ve never had reason to go before and hadn’t thought of it as ‘short break’ destination. But then while I was in Aldeburgh last June, a volunteer in Benjamin Britten’s house who saw me admiring a John Piper painting (the artist was a friend of Britten’s) told me I must go to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester as they had one of the best collections of Piper paintings. I’ve long admired Piper’s work and saw that the gallery also had some works of Eric Ravilious, another favourite artist, so this was a reason in itself to go sometime. And when I found myself with a bit of a break between my freelance book editing jobs, I decided to treat myself to a little trip.

Well, as I said above, the Pallant House Gallery is a good reason to head to Chichester if you enjoy fine art, but there’s plenty more to see and do. Chichester is one of the best preserved Georgian cities in the UK. It’s one of my favourite architectural periods and I loved walking down roads full of beautiful Georgian houses and cottages. There’s good evidence of the Romans in the city too. The pedestrianised city centre is enclosed within ancient Roman walls; many of the roads in this part of the city bear the word ‘wall’ within their name, and there are ‘wall walks’ with steps leading up onto the walls where you get a good view across parts of the city. It was when walking down Lower Walls Walk that I saw a road sign indicating that it led to Keats Way. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).