One by one we saw the starsRobyn Hitchcock's Winchester is the best tour guide to a place steeped in history and fine architecture. Best heard from a tape on the Walkman. Perfect to wander around Winchester as "one by one the evening shadows" fall. A song that is rich in both texture and imagery of this ancient capital. If you cannot make the trip just play the song in a darkened room one evening because it is armchair Hitchcock at his best.
One by one they closed the bars
And one by one we all went back to Mars
from WinchesterOne by one the evening shadows fell
One by one by one we heard the bell
And I remember more than I can tell
from WinchesterMaybe there's no one there at all,
maybe there's no one left who cares
Maybe there's no one there but Paul,
living in Shawford after all these yearsStanding in the Talbot in my flares
Far out Phil and Pat were always there
And if you go then, baby, I don't care
WinchesterWater meadows curling round the hill
Bodies in the stream I see them still
I don't want to hurt you but I will
This is WinchesterMaybe there's no one there at all,
maybe there's no one left who cares
Maybe there's no one there but Paul
living in Shawford after all these yearsWalking through the dark towards your door
Listen to the groovers how they snore
And I just didn't know what love was for
In Winchester there's nowhere at all© Robyn Hitchcock
(From his Element of Light album)
I am fortunate to be able to stand in at least two Robyn Hitchcock songs on a regular basis. His song Airscape written about Compton Beach and Winchester which lies about seventy miles south of London. Most of the references in the song Winchester were instantly recognisable to me. The ring of the bell, the 'water meadows curling round the hill' and Shawford a tiny hamlet South of Winchester. Earlier this year I delved into the song.
"Paul still lives in Shawford," laughed the gregarious Oliver Grey who writes a rock column for the Winchester based paper The Hampshire Chronicle. Grey told me he organised a Soft Boys gig in Winchester a couple of years ago. He also knew where the Talbot once stood. It seems it was a bit of 'groovers' hangout in the days after psychedelia pretty much as described in the song.
I found a Hitchcockian twist to the Talbot's history when the trail took me to Winchester library. The Talbot, I discovered, is now an estate agents. It had been a three storey hotel and bar. The address is 83 and 84 High Street up the hill from Winchester's pedestrianised High Street. The ornate Victorian ironwork and brickwork has survived.
Originally the site of the Talbot had been occupied by an old inn called the Star. It stands on the corner of Staple Gardens which used to be called Star Lane. The Star was demolished in 1885 as the older inns were replaced by Victorian pubs. Winchester had over a hundred pubs at this time.
On the site of the Star local builder G. H. Pointer built the Talbot at a cost of £2,448. The building was designed by Thomas Stopher. Stopher was a renowned local architect responsible for many of Winchester's Victorian buildings. When the builders dug out the foundations of the Star they found:
Mike Plumbley