Through the looking glass: find the real Alice in Wonderland
21.07.2023 - 08:33
/ roughguides.com
/ Lewis Carroll
/ James Joyce
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. That means Mad Hatters and Cheshire Cats will be everywhere from London to Manchester this spring. But Alice's story finds its heartland in the villages of Cheshire, where the author was born, and in a seaside resort in North Wales, where he often visited and saw the real-life inspiration for Alice at play. Here, David Atkinson takes us through the looking glass with a guide to following the Alice trail across England and Wales.
The Alice Trail starts in rural Cheshire. Lewis Carroll was born as Charlie Dodgson in the village of Daresbury in 1837 and his father was vicar at All Saints Church. Today there’s a little visitor centre at the church, the Lewis Carroll Centre, and a stained-glass window in his memory. The Tea Rooms at the nearby Davenport's Farm Shop, located outside Northwich, host regular Mad Hatter afternoon tea parties.
You can also admire the carving of a grinning cat at St Wilfred’s Church in the Cheshire village of Grappenhall, which is believed to have inspired the original Cheshire Cat. The moggy has now inspired landlords around Cheshire to name their boozers after the smiling moggy; the Cheshire Cat pubs group owns a host of cosy pubs across the region for a post-exploration pint.
Heading on to the historic city of Chester, Oddfellows Bar and Hotel has its very own private dining room with a Wonderland theme – think upside-down furnishings hanging from the ceiling and a centrepiece White Rabbit.
The Georgian property majors on quirky design with a Secret Garden bar out back, while the Grown Up bar upstairs is focused around a wicker model of boxing March Hares straight out of a Wonderland tea party. Retire to one of the in-house hotel rooms or apartments for Alice-inspired sweet dreams.
Next the trail leads along the North Wales coast from Chester, hugging the railway line, to the Victorian seaside resort of Llandudno. Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Carroll’s classic novel, holidayed with her family here in the 1860s.
Carroll, who by this time was Lecturer in Mathematics at Oxford University, was a family friend and regularly visited them in Wales, delighting in the imaginary adventures young Alice would recount. Soon afterwards, he completed his manuscript for the story that would go on to be translated into 97 languages, inspiring the likes of James Joyce and T. S. Eliot.
You can pick up the White Rabbit Trail map from the Tourist Information Centre and follow the 55 bronze-cast rabbit footprints around town. It will take you from the promenade, via the Happy Valley to the West Shore, where the Liddells had their holiday home, Penmorfa, with carved wooden sculptures of