Boston, Lincolnshire, didn’t just give its name to Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA. Many of its most prominent citizens left to become leaders in the new settlement.
It was one of England’s most significant ports in the Middle Ages, and there are still many echoes of that seafaring past.
Today, because it’s a bit off the beaten track, few people realise what a fascinating town it is, with its two marketplaces, ancient warehouses and the great tower of St Botolph’s church standing guard over it all.
Here are 11 of Boston’s architectural highlights:
1. A swan sculpture
One of the first things you see in Boston if you arrive by train is this splendid swan crowning a former feather factory on Trinity Street near the railway station.
It reminds us that processing feathers for upholstery was once an important industry in the town.
2. The market place
Boston’s Market Place is one of the largest in England, and its market is one of the busiest. It’s worth looking up at the beautiful variety of buildings surrounding the Market Place, some over 400 years old.
3. An early example of a purpose-built shopping parade
One of England’s earliest purpose-built shopping parades is in the Market Place, built by Boston Corporation in 1820.
It’s bow-fronted, a bit like a Regency chest of drawers, and there are separate entrances to the flats above the shops by way of stairs at the back.
4. St Botolph’s Church
Boston’s parish church, St Botolph’s, is one of the finest in all England and has the tallest tower, the famous ‘Stump’.
It dominates the town and the surrounding fens for miles.
5. The Freemason’s Hall
Egyptian-style buildings are rare in England, and Boston’s Freemason’s Hall, built between 1860 and 1863, is one of the finest.
It’s not very large, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in character with its two great palm columns and hieroglyphic inscriptions. It was based on an Egyptian original, the Temple of Dendur, in Nubia.
6. Dutch-inspired architecture
Many people in the past have thought Boston looked Dutch, and it stood in for the Netherlands in Powell & Pressburger’s film ‘One of our Aircraft is missing’, made in 1942, when it wasn’t possible to do location filming there for obvious reasons.
The water, the red brick gables and the pantiles all helped to create the illusion. The Church House in Wormgate and a tall gabled building at 10 South Street are featured in the film.
7. Shodfriars Hall
Caroline Oldrid, the wife of the great Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, came from Boston, where the town’s leading department store still belongs to the Oldrid family.
Scott’s sons George Gilbert Junior and John Oldrid restored the medieval Shodfriars Hall and, behind it, built the amazing Conservative Club, later used as a theatre that looks as though it belongs in Antwerp or Gdansk.
8. Medieval Boston
Just off the Market Place are a series of narrow lanes, the broadest being Dolphin Lane, lined with shops and cafes. The street layout of this part of Boston has hardly changed since medieval times.
9. Wormgate
Wormgate is the ancient entrance into Boston from the northwest and is still a narrow street lined with ancient houses, some of which have handsome Regency-bowed shopfronts.
10. St Mary’s Guildhall
St Mary’s Guildhall is one of Boston’s most ancient buildings. One of the first structures to be built of brick in Lincolnshire, it was constructed about 1390.
It later became Boston’s town hall, and two of the Pilgrim Fathers, William Brewster and William Bradford, who sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620, are believed to have been briefly held in its cells in 1607 when they made an earlier attempt to flee the country.
11. The old port
Boston is still an active port, but the docks are further downstream. The old port was in the heart of the town along the river Witham, called the Haven.
It still has a maritime feel, with 18th and 19th-century warehouses lining the quays.
Further reading
I am not sure that the purpose-built 1820 shopping parade in the Market Place was one of the first in the UK, but I must say the Boston Corporation did a great job. I wonder if it has been changed at all since 1820, given that Market Place still looks terrific now. Mind you, so do the narrow lanes off the Market Place! Your photo of Dolphin Lane shops is very cool.
Reblogged this on charming places and commented:
Excellent blog about features of historic market town
Excellent blog about features of historic market town
In 1901 my maternal Great Grandfather, William Sleaford, had a grocer’s shop at 47 Market Place (now Holland and Barrett), living above the shop. Family gossip is that he lost the business through drink, the 1911 census shows him at a different address in Boston shown as a worker, whilst his wife was living in Doncaster. His son, my Grandfather, assisted in the shop but by 1911 he was managing a grocer’s shop in York. I cam remember visiting the shop in York in the early 1950’s. William Sleaford was never spoken about!