On the way back home from Northumberland we stopped off at Berwick upon Tweed. It’s a border town which is famous for being fought over by the English and Scottish. It has been in English hands for quite some time now but it continues to have the feel of a Scottish place. Architecturally it’s completely Scottish.

I don’t know if that’s a good thing because there’s nothing worse than grey stone for making a place look and feel really depressing. It was especially noticeable after visiting Newcastle and Durham which are both really vibrant towns and seem to be thriving despite the horrendous recession. I think possibly Berwick is just too close to those cities and everybody high tails it to the brighter lights for their shopping. There were lots of empty and very dilapidated looking shops.

But, in its glory days Charles Dickens did a reading at a hotel there. I’m wondering if there is a large town anywhere which he missed out!

The hotel looks very run down now. Painting grey stonework cream doesn’t really help, especially if it’s flaking off, but I’m sure it was a different matter in 1861.