Chichester - Glad to be grey?

[garth cartwright]

I visited yesterday (Sunday). The Frida & Diego exhibition is great - outstanding work from both (considering Diego was for the most part a muralist this is quite an achievement: they have several of his best oils) - and the rest of the museum is engaging with St Ives naive painters and all kinds of oddities including a tiny Francis Hodgkins (the first Kiwi modernist who had to come to the UK due to the colonies being too provincial for the likes of her).

Also walked to the Roman Palace just outside of town and they have great mosaics there. The only buskers on display were a bunch of young men in candy striped jackets and boaters doing standards like Walk Right In - very slick but not really what interests me. The Cathedral is very beautiful and altho i did not know it at the time apparently Chagall designed one set of the stained glass windows. As for the rest of Chi - well, it felt prosperous and rather dull. Being an idiot I thought it was like Brighton and on the sea. After enquiring where the coast was I realised there was a harbour out of town but no beaches (apparently). And we had a 4 year old who we had promised we would go to the beach...

I spent a weekend on the Isle Of Wight this summer and Chi' reminded me of that - very white and English and rather old fashioned. The IOW does have the sea tho'. Oh, the cathedral cafe serves a hearty Sunday lunch for £6.95 - very filling.

[Rob Hall]

There are beaches down there (the Witterings) but they're mostly pebble in my experience - which was when we took out kids down there years ago - and they're some way down the road from Chichester itself.

As for the Isle of Wight being English and old fashioned: I used to work alongside a rather posh lady fallen on hard times, who commuted up from there for 3 days per week to pay the rent, and even she used to complain about how stuffy it was. Apparently, you're still considered to be an outsider until your family has been there for 3 generations. It's the insular/island mentality writ large.

[Jonathan E.]

West Wittering was my childhood beach when we lived at Petersfield.