Peterborough, England – June 1999

Peterborough is a city in the East Anglia region of England, approximately eighty miles due north of London. Infamous for its position on a main line train route to the Northeast and Scotland, its name is met with the cries of “I changed trains there once”. It is, however, worth hopping off at the station and travelling a little further.

Host to the largest supermarket in Britain (and rumours hold in Europe, the world and maybe even the universe), those seeking a retail therapy heaven need look no further! Although worth going to see for the sake of it, Tesco and the surrounding shops can be a totally depressing experience if you have no money or have been forced by men in suits to cut up your credit cards!!

For the more financially challenged there is still plenty to do. Peterborough is host to the only ice rink in the area and if skating doesn’t suit, you can opt to watch the endeavours of the Peterborough Pirates – the local ice hockey team.

Whilst in the confines of the city you should visit the sprawling expanses of Nene Park. In the summer, the annual kite festival is held and the crowning glory of its calendar is the fireworks fiesta. Nene Park sports a water sports area, a wealth of wildlife, a steam railway, children’s play areas and a miniature train – who could ask for more?!!!!! Okay, so there is also a bar at the water sports lake – now who can ask for more?

Peterborough is based in the fastest growing region of the country and the rapid growth of pubs and bars in the city centre bear witness to this. No one is complaining but with such variety it’s handy to know just what suits your tastes.

My current fave is Break for the Border, situated in the old town library building. Upstairs is a restaurant which serves up the most yummy Mexican food whilst downstairs the party continues with a selection of music from the eighties and nineties. It’s great for a nostalgia trip but not recommended for those seeking a night of hard core dance music.

For those who prefer to stand all night in a crowded bar, struggle through a jungle of drunken townies and have their drinks confiscated when they have finally completed a Lara Croft type quest for the toilets, we have the College Arms.

One of a chain of Wetherspoon pubs, the College Arms has no music in the hope that people will converse. Ironically, if you lose your friends that’s it for the night. On the up side, however, drinks are really cheap, but get more than one round in when you go to the bar.

Great on a Sunday night is the Gaslight Comedy Club, now held at the Tara Suite of the Solstice pub located behind the market. A variety of up and coming comics and popular artists are regularly booked and pull in a good crowd.

For food, there are a number of great restaurants to fit all budgets and for anyone who’s feeling homesick there are a number of McDonalds!

A good time to visit Peterborough is definitely over the August bank holiday when the biggest event in the calendar definitely occurs – the beer festival.

Organised by CAMRA (The Campaign For Real Ale), it is the second largest festival of this kind in the country. With a mouth watering, thirst quenching array of beers and ciders on sale at ridiculously cheap prices, it’s advised to have a good hangover cure at the ready the next morning and the morning after that.

Peterborough is as flat as can be but the surrounding fen land is considered to be extremely dramatic giving rise to incredible sunsets, a must for enthusiastic photographers, painters or just anyone who loves to stare with wonder at the sky.

There are many surrounding villages, which are well worth visiting, and the local walks are to be recommended. In addition to this the lack of hills of any sort other than speed bumps makes it an ideal place for cycling with cycle routes throughout the city forming the “green wheel.”

Getting around isn’t that easy without a car. Buses are fairly frequent during the day but you have to get a bus into the city centre and then out again to go anywhere. Evenings and weekends are even worse with this becoming an hourly service and this can be particularly annoying if you happen to miss one and it’s raining or extremely cold. Again, this is where having a bike comes in handy but a car is really the best way to get around and get to your destination without very much hassle.

My mate Kate would kill me if I wrote an article about Peterborough without mentioning the Cathedral, which dates back to the 800s. It is a remarkable building steeped in history. It was one of the few monasteries not to be shut down by King Henry VIII due to a devious, underhanded Abbot who bribed officials left, right and centre to keep the building in use. Henry put it to great use by burying his late wife Katherine of Aragon there. And his daughter Elizabeth I duly followed in her father’s footsteps by temporarily burying her cousin Mary Queen of Scots in the same place.

All in all, there is something for everyone to do. However, if you can’t find the thing that “suits you, sir” the biggest bonus of the big boomtown is that escape is only a bus, train or car ride away! With Peterborough’s proximity to London, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Stamford, you too may find yourself only passing through and saying… “Peterborough? My train stopped there.”

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