"Broadway, UK" a Broadway Travel Page by evaanna

When you hear the name 'Broadway' the first thing that comes to your mind is the street in Manhattan, New York, famous for its theatres and synonymous with show business. The original Broadway in the English Cotswolds is just a village with a row of honey-coloured cottages of local stone, housing elegant and expensive shops, galleries, restaurants. It's a lively place full of tourists strolling along admiring the charming little houses, some thatched, others with slated roofs but all elegant and very well maintained. With all kinds of creepers decorating their facades and the pretty decorative shop signs, they all look so lovely and so quaint.
What Broadway has in common with its American namesake is the meaning of its name - a wide street and Broadway is just that: its High Street is its centre and there is not much more. The spaciousness of the street was essential at the time when Broadway was an important coaching stop on the main route between London and Worcester. The coach journey took 17 hours on the average so a stop for a meal and change of horses was necessary on the way. Just past Broadway there is a steep climb up Fish Hill onto the Cotswold escarpment, which only fully rested horses could negotiate. So at that time the village had 33 pubs and so it thrived until the coming of the railway in 1904. Then, all of a sudden, the coaching business stopped, the village lost its main income and became quiet and deserted. Not for long though. It was soon discovered by William Morris and his artistic friends and this picturesque rural spot became fashionable in their circles. Soon it became so frequented by famous artists that they had to rent space for their easels. We didn't see any artists when we were there, perhaps because of the heat, but the village deserves the name of an artists' Mecca. See for yourselves....