is a gentle stroll through the streets which Elgarknew from childhood. With brief stops to admireeach of the significant landmarks, it should take youno more than two hours to complete the route. Theapproximate distance is a little over one mile.

Although you can join and leave TThhee WWaallkkat anypoint, it is constructed to begin and end at thejunction of College Street and College Precincts,adjoining the grounds of the Cathedral.

TThhee WWaallkktakes you past a number of houses inwhich Elgar lived and other places with particularElgarian associations. Please remember, however,that hhoouusseess iinnddiiccaatteedd wwiitthh aann aasstteerriisskk ((**)) aarree ssttiillllpprriivvaattee hhoommeess,, ssoo pplleeaassee rreessppeecctt tthhee pprriivvaaccyy ooff tthheeiirrccuurrrreenntt rreessiiddeennttss.

If you have enjoyed this walk, a companion leafletgives directions for a drive around Elgar’sWorcestershire, beginning and ending at the ElgarBirthplace Museum in Lower Broadheath.

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WWoorrcceesstteerrsshhiirree CCoouunnttyy CCoouunncciill,, WWoorrcceesstteerr CCiittyyCCoouunncciill aanndd MMaallvveerrnn HHiillllss DDiissttrriicctt CCoouunncciill..

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ElgarRouteA wA walk aralk around ound

ElgElgarar ’’s s

WWororcescesttererCrown Hotel

¤From the age of 12, Elgarwas a member of the Worcester

Glee Club, which met here in anoval room partly decorated in black,

with twelve panels, each with aninstrumental motif – horn, violin, andtrumpet – in gold in the centre.¤Elgar began by accompanying thesingers, but graduated to playing the violin,arrang-ing and composing, and eventuallyconducting.

St George’sChurch

¤Elgar’s father was organisthere from 1842 until 1883;

¤Elgar succeeded him in November1885. Many of his early anthems forchoir and organ were written for, andfirst performed at, St George’s;¤Elgar supposedly wrote most of hismusic for wind quintet during the sermonsat St George’s although this seems ratherunlikely.

A walk around Elgar’s Worcester

TheCathedral

¤ Although brought up aRoman Catholic, the young

Elgar was often to be seen in theCathedral listening to the music;

¤ Following his death, as well as aplaque on the north wall, Elgar was

commemorated by the creation of thenearby ‘Gerontius Window’;¤ Elgar’s music is still to be heard regularlyin the Cathedral at the Three Choirs Festivaland other local music festivals.

Crown Hotel¤From the age of 12, Elgar

was a member of the WorcesterGlee Club, which met here in an

oval room partly decorated in black,with twelve panels, each with an

instrumental motif in gold in the centre,but now much altered.¤ Elgar began by accompanying thesingers, but graduated to playing theviolin, arranging and composing, andeventually conducting.

St George’sChurch

¤Elgar’s father was organisthere from 1842 until 1883;

¤Elgar eventually succeeded him inNovember1885. Many of his earlyanthems for choir and organ were writtenfor, and first performed at, St George’s;¤ Elgar spent some of the time duringthe lengthy sermons writing his musicfor wind quintet.

The Guildhall¤In 1905, the Freedom of the City ofWorcester was conferred on Elgar at aceremony at the Guildhall;¤On display inside the Guildhall todaycan be found a painting of Elgar by PhilipBurne-Jones (son of the Pre-Raphaelitepainter); a bust of the composer by DonaldGilbert, and a board displaying Elgar’sname among those of other Freemen of the

city.

College Green¤As a boy Elgar used to visit no 6*(Castle House) to play the piano;¤In the early 1900s, Edward and Alicerented no.6*in the years when the ThreeChoirs Festival was held in Worcester;¤At the far end of College Green, a ferrycrossed the river to Payne’s meadow. Elgarand his friend Hubert Leicester oftencaught this ferry to shorten the walk to

Littleton House school.

Britannia Square ...

contains many fine Georgian buildings,unchanged since Elgar’s day, and has anumber of Elgarian connections including:¤no.1*: home of Elgar’s Uncle Henry,who ran his piano tuning business fromthe house;¤no.11*: the Elgar children attended aschool here, run by a Miss Walsh;¤no.51*:, home of Richard Arnold, the

fifth ‘Enigma’ Variation.

A Visit to Elgar’s Birthplace

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The Elgar Birthplace Museum is situated in the village ofLower Broadheath, three miles west of the City of Worcester. It is the only museum entirely devoted to the life and work of SirEdward Elgar. He was born here in 1857, in the small cottage which is set in the heart of the countryside he loved. Although thefamily returned to live in the centre of Worcester when Elgar was only two years old, he retained a life-long affection for hisbirthplace and asked his daughter Carice shortly before his death to ensure that his life and music were remembered through themodest cottage in which he had been born rather than the many grander houses in which he lived during his long and active life.

The Birthplace itself was first opened to the public during the 1930s, initially on an occasional basis. Today, together with theadjacent Visitor Centre, the Museum is open seven days a week throughout the year except for January. Visitors enter through theCentre where they can watch an introductory video; follow, with the aid of a free audio guide, the fascinating story of Elgar’smusical development and inspiration through a series of permanent and changing displays; or pursue their particular intereststhrough the Timeline terminal. A path from the centre leads to the Birthplace garden and the cottage itself where, a selection ofpersonal memorabilia are displayed in the surroundings in which Elgar spent his earliest years. Before leaving, visitors can browsethe unrivalled range of Elgar CDs, music, cards and gifts, and take away a souvenir of their visit.

THE ELGAR BIRTHPLACE MUSEUMCROWN EAST LANE, LOWER BROADHEATH,

WORCESTER WR2 6RH(signposted off A44 Worcester-Leominster Road)

Tel: 01905 333224 Fax: 01905 333426e-mail: birthplace@elgarmuseum.org

Website: www.elgarmuseum.org

OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, 11AM TO 5PM(last admission 4.15pm;

Closed Christmas–31 January inclusive)

ADMISSION CHARGE

FREE CAR PARKING

elgworc.qxd 17/07/07 23:30 Page 1

After exploring Britannia Square, leave at the same corner asyou entered but by a short stretch of road leading to The

Tything, the busy main road out of the city. Across The Tything tothe left, in the grounds of Alice Otley school, is The Whitstones, HubertLeicester’s old house. But you should turn right, passing the front of StOswald’s Hospital, then left into St Oswald’s Road, and left again at theend to reach no 12 Chestnut Walk* on the right, the last house in theterrace before the junction with Chestnut Street. Formerly numbered35 and named Loretto Villa, Elgar lodged here from 1879 to 1884when it was the home of Elgar’s sister Pollie and her husband Will.

As you emerge from College Precincts, facing you to the leftis the site of 1 Edgar Street, which was the Elgar family

home from 1859 to 1861. But you should turn right to passthrough the Edgar Tower to enter the quiet haven of College Green,where there are several sites of Elgarian interest (see over).

Leave College Green through the Cathedral Cloisters toenter the Cathedral itself by the south door (also see over).

Leave the Cathedral by the north door. You are nowfacing College Yard, where there are further buildings

with Elgar connections, notably no.8, the home of Elgar’sgreat friend the cathedral organist Sir Ivor Atkins from 1897until his death in 1953; and no.2, at one time home to members ofthe Grafton family, in-laws of his sister Pollie.

At the end of College Yard, cross Deansway and enter the pedestrianised HighStreet past the statue of Elgar by Kenneth Potts, funded by public subscription

and unveiled in 1981. The figure looks appropriately towards the Cathedral.

To the right of the High Street at this point stood no.6, the homeof the Leicesters whose son Hubert was Elgar’s life-long friend.

A little further on stood no 10, the Elgar Brothers’ music shop.Demolished during the 1960s, its former location is marked by a plaqueon a shop frontage, unveiled in 2003. Further along the High Street onthe left is St Helen’s Church, until recently the County Record Office butstill in use as a church in Elgar’s youth. The next significant building onthe left is the impressive Guildhall, rebuilt in 1721-24 to a design by apupil of Wren. Much of the Guildhall is open to the public (see over).

Continuing up the High Street, there are two further buildingswith specific Elgar connections: no.90, on which now stands the

north wing of the Guildhall, and no 84, now immediately beyondthe entrance to the Crowngate shopping centre. In Elgar’s day, no 90was the music salon of Thomas Stratford, who brought Elgar’s fatherto Worcester to work as a piano-tuner, while no 84 was the shop of boot-and-shoe maker William Weaver, the father of Helen Weaver, to whomElgar was engaged in 1883. Helen broke off the engagement thefollowing year and emigrated to New Zealand but there are indicationsthat Elgar always remembered her fondly.

On reaching the junction with Broad Street, turn left to reach theCrown Hotel (see over). Turn right down Crown Passage and at the end,

right again up Angel Street to reach Foregate Street, where we turn left.

Pass under the railway arch of Foregate St Station and past theend of Pierpoint Street to reach the red-brick building on the

right, opened as the Victoria Institute but now the City Museum,Art Gallery and Library. A large stone plaque on the corner of Taylor’sLane commemorates the opening of the building in 1896 by Lady MaryLygon, dedicatee of Elgar’s Three Characteristic Pieces and for longthought to be the subject of Elgar’s thirteenth ‘Enigma’ Variation.

Beyond the Victoria Institute isShire Hall. It was at a concert

here in 1882 that Elgar first metCharles Buck, who was to become along-standing friend and confidante.From Shire Hall, take the first turningon the left - Castle Street - and,immediately before the newMagistrates’ Court, turn right along ashort pedestrianised stretch to reachBritannia Road and, after a further 200metres, Britannia Square (see over).

Starting from its junction with College Street inthe shadow of the Cathedral, head down College

Precincts toward the Edgar Tower. Almostimmediately you reach 2 College Precincts, Elgar’sparents’ home from 1848 to 1856 and of Elgar himselffrom 1861 to 1863, and then 9 College Precincts, homefor a while of Elgar’s Uncle Henry Elgar and which

Elgar rented for the 1920s Three Choirs Festival.

Return along Chestnut Walk and into Sansome Walk. From the1890s until at least the 1920s, the building called The Lodge on

the nearer corner of Arboretum Street housed a Catholic schoolfor girls and young boys, run by three spinster members of the Graftonfamily and attended by the children of a number of Elgar’s friendsand relatives. Continue under the railway viaduct to the junction withSansome Place, on the corner of which is a tall red-brick building,number 7. This was Elgar’s first place of employment during the years1872-3 when Elgar was apprenticed to William Allen, a solicitor.

On the left at the end of Sansome Walk, at the junctionwith Sansome Street and the city’s inner ring road is St

George’s Roman Catholic Church, a place of notableimportance in Elgar’s early musical development (see over).

From St George’s, cross the ringroad to reach Corn Market, now

largely given over to car parkingbut where, to the right, once stood theold Public Hall. Built in 1848-49 as acorn exchange, it was not a commercialsuccess and was converted into a concerthall where Elgar himself conducted thepremières of Froissart and The BlackKnight, his first two substantial workscomposed during the early 1890s. Thehall was demolished in the 1960s.

At the far end of CornMarket is Mealcheapen

Street. Facing the entrance toReindeer Court is a rather grandbuilding, originally the principalbank in the city but later acommercial inn and eating houseknown as The Shades. This is whereElgar’s father first lodged when hearrived in Worcester from Dover.

But the route back is alongNew Street and then Friar

Street, roads lined withinteresting historic buildings,notably a half-timbered buildingwhere Charles II is reputed to havehidden in 1651 after defeat at theBattle of Worcester; the Greyfriarsbuilding, formerly a hostel fortrave l lers on the s i te of aFranciscan friary; and TudorHouse, another 500-year-old timber-framed building. None, however,have specific Elgarian connectionsuntil Ye Olde Talbot Hotel, on theright at the end of Friar Street,where Sir Adrian Boult usuallystayed after conducting ThreeChoirs concerts in the Cathedral.Beyond is College Street, close tothe junction with College Precincts

and the start of the walk.

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21

LEGEND

Outward route :Sidbury to Britannia

Square

Return route :Britannia Square

to Sidbury&N

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