Leamington Spa

No boat movement today.

Christine had a Zoom meeting this afternoon, starting at 1.30 but she wanted to take advantage of being near a good shopping town centre whilst still being in a place with a reasonable mobile signal. The only option was to go in this morning - we aimed to catch a bus on the nearby main road into town, just about 7 minutes away.

We had yesterday studied the bus possibilities on Google maps - the main route is 63 which is an hourly service but an extra service on a different route was available at 9:46. What we should have done is to realise that this is the only service on this route each day! As we neared the stop, a very late 63 (should have been 9:30) went by and in the past we might have tried running for it but not now! 

When we reached the stop and checked on the timetable there was no mention of the other service. After a short dither we opted to walk to the next stop where we had been told there were other buses on a different route. Turned out to be a false hope and with yet another dither we decided to walk into town as we were by now almost half way there!

Overall, it was around an hour from leaving the boat that we reached the shopping district. On the way however, we did see some of the development that made this a very sought after place in the past, First we crossed over the River Leam. Before that bridge many of the houses were quite substantial but quite a lot have, inevitably, been subdivided into either offices or flats.

Once over the river, the buildings became ever more imposing. Victoria House was said at the time it was built around 1841 to be the most impressive in Leamington. It was, however, a speculative project and went through a cumbersome process to get from the initial purchase of a plot of land 21C to having a real building (almost as long as modern planning approvals!) Even then it was held on the market waiting for a buyer as the developer did not want it for himself (and in any case probably ran into his own financial troubles) It went through a lot of short term uses, often standing empty until in 1889 it was bought by a syndicate of local freemasons who converted into a masonic lodge. 

They soon formed a limited company and donated the property to it so that it could be rented out as meeting rooms for all sorts of purposes. It is that company that still operates it today, proud to being able to market it as offering some of the finest regency rooms in the area. Weddings, wakes, Christenings, conferences and many and varied celebrations take place here. (The web site has a lengthy history of the building)

Next along the road is Lansdown Crescent, an impressive row of town houses built in the very middle of the 19C. It seems that the original intent was to rent them out to wealthy visitors to the spa but gradually they became permanent residences, gradually being turned into flats.

The main shopping street, The Parade, (after about 1.75 mile walk) is also full of imposing buildings, many seeming to be too large for the ground floor shop that they house.

We found Trespass, The Body Shop, Mountain Warehouse as planned, all very close to each other, Christine found what she was seeking! (and Mike was persuaded to buy a couple pairs of gloves that he needed)

With the better part of an hour before our planned return bus (we did check out the stop and time!) we adjourned for a coffee and pastry. We might, if we missed out the coffee, have been in time for the hour earlier service but . . .  and here lay our big mistake. 

Other people waiting told us that this service is notoriously very late and so it proved, not helped by having to stop shortly after we eventually boarded in order to change driver. In the end we were almost half an hour later back at the boat than we planned. Still enough time for Christine to log in to her Zoom meeting.

As Mike began to unlock the rear doors he found that the lock would not turn. Eventually we gave up and used the front doors only to find that the mobile signal was having one of its hissy fits and so, annoyingly, Christine's meeting had already started without her when she logged on.

Mike then set about trying to found a locksmith as his further attempts at opening the rear doors only resulted in making the problem worse (the turn knob came apart!) The first three numbers from Google that he tried all had numbers invalid! He then made contact with another two who promised to come back to him in a couple of minutes - total silence! Eventually he tried a nationwide company (presumably an agency of some sort) but at least within a few minutes we had an email conforming that a locksmith would attend before the end of the afternoon. Phew!Relief.

Alas the relief lasted only an hour when a call came to say that the allocated locksmith had gone down with a tummy bug and it would be first thing tomorrow morning before anther one could come to us . . .

At least, tomorrow Andrew is joining us around midday, driving up by car so that if we eventually have to track down a new lock and see if we can fit it ourselves, we can do that more readily. So, not the best of days - shame we could not be cruising in a day of warm sunshine, but that's canal life.

0 Miles - 0 Locks