Of course, if anyone ever manages to prove that Shakespeare didn't write any of those plays, then Stratford can slip back into being a nice, unassuming market town - and all the Japanese tourists, Costa Coffees, Starbucks, etc, will all close down...
I do agree. Stratford 10-15 years ago had some character - all those little cut throughs filled with 2nd hand book stores. Last time I went was the last - overrun by tourists & chains & hordes of tourists buying Oxford University T-Shirts. Horrible.
Places like Stratford baffle me - yes, it's a nice little town that's been ruined by planners in some places, with a river and a nice theatre, but historically, it's of no importance whatsoever and is famous primarily due to the being the place where Shakespeare's Mum's egg was fertilized by his Dad's sperm. There's nothing of great interest or importance in the town, apart from some nice old timber buildings and a medieval streetplan, and nothing really ever happened there. And I wonder just how many of the tourists who go there have read Shakepeare (Not many, I bet is the answer.)
Even more baffling are places like "Bourton on the water", which not only stinks of chip fat, is one of the most dull villages I've ever visited - yet it was swarming with coachloads of tourists.
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