The meandering Thames at Marlow

A stroll through the streets of this charming, well-to-do Thameside town reveals many buildings and places of architectural, historic and literary interest. Jerome K Jerome, T S Eliot, and both Percy and Mary Shelley all took inspiration while staying here. In fact they were all just a few yards away from each other, albeit at different times.

In 1817, what is now Shelley House and Shelley Lodge on West Street was the home of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his novelist wife Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. While Percy was out boating on the river, writing much of The Revolt of Islam (1818), Mary would be at home working on her classic novel Frankenstein (1818). From here the couple moved to Italy.

Later came Jerome K Jerome, who stayed at the Crown Hotel, at the junction of West Street and High Street, while writing Three Men in a Boat (1889). A few paces away, and some 28 years later, No. 31 West Street was the home of T S Eliot between 1917 and 1920. This was the period when his first important poetry, most famously Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), was widely published. Considered shocking and offensive in its own day, Prufrock is now regarded as being one of the first Modernist works of poetry.

Marlow is of course inextricably linked with the Thames, and in Marlow Bridge, linking Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, it boasts one of the most striking crossings on the entire river. This was completed in 1832 by William Tierney Clark, who had previously designed the suspension bridge at Hammersmith (since replaced) and the landmark Széchenyi Chain suspension bridge across the Danube in Budapest. The Marlow and Budapest bridges are now the only surviving examples of his work.

Marlow Bridge makes a wonderful backdrop to the annual Marlow Regatta, which used to finish close to here. In fact, somewhat confusingly, the Marlow Town Regatta still does, but the internationally acclaimed Marlow Regatta event moved in 2001, after 145 years on the Thames, to the multi-lane rowing course at Dorney Lake. Marlow’s most famous current resident, Sir Steven Redgrave, five times Olympic rowing champion, is immortalized in bronze in the riverside park,  looking across the Thames towards the regatta finishing post.

Just across the other side of the bridge is the Compleat Angler, one of the south’s most famous hotels. Omar Sharif, Clint Eastwood and Naomi Campbell are among many celebrities who have stayed at the hotel over the years, and in 1999 it claimed to have become the first public restaurant outside of London to be visited by the Queen for a meal. The hotel takes its title from Izaak Walton’s classic English work on fishing, The Compleat Angler (1653), and was so named, not for any local connection, but to appeal to angling parties.

Make for the junction at the top of the High Street, where an obelisk commemorates the Hatfield–Bath turnpike road. The impressive building now occupied by Steamer Trading Cook Shop was built in 1806 as the town hall. It subsequently served as a covered market, fire station, assembly rooms, and town prison – the cell can still be seen on the ground floor. The building was also part of the Crown Hotel. Facing the shop, turn left into West Street. Go past No. 31, noting the blue plaque to T S Eliot, and pass Ye Olde Tuck Shoppe (right) to see Shelley House and Shelley Lodge. Retrace your steps, almost to the Thai Square restaurant, and turn right along Portlands Alley.

Follow the path, turn right at the next junction, then branch left into Lower Pound Lane, passing tennis courts on the right, and a cricket club, left. Continue ahead past the 'Private Road' sign. The long straight path heads through the trees, crosses a bridge and eventually dwindles to a narrow countryside path via a kissing gate. To your right are expansive views over fields and woods. Turn left at the T-junction (into Harleyford Lane) and this will shortly bring you to the Thames.

The walk heads left, downstream towards Marlow, but you may wish to make the short detour, upstream, to the weir to see the many barges and cruisers which queue up to pass through pretty Temple Lock. Head back towards Marlow on the river bank, and after a few hundred yards look across to the opposite bank to see the various buildings of Bisham Abbey edge into view on the opposite bank. Continue ahead and eventually you will see Marlow’s striking parish church and the suspension bridge. Just before the bridge the riverside path enters Higginson Park, with its playing fields, cafe and statue of Sir Steven Redgrave. Turn left at the bridge, back onto the High Street.

Follow the High Street, with Marlow’s war memorial and the George and Dragon pub seen over on the right. To visit the Two Brewers pub, take the alleyway on the right, just beyond the church and bear right, to St Peter Street. Retrace your steps and turn right along the High Street. Just past Zizzi’s, on the left-hand side, a narrow street leads to the site of the Thomas Wethered Brewery. It closed in 1987 but its old buildings remain, now converted to other uses. Continue along the High Street to return to your car.