Northampton, the town of shoes

Northampton is the world capital of fine men's shoes. The historic county town of Northamptonshire, in the East Midlands, on the banks of the River Nene, it has more than 200,000 inhabitants and, together with Reading, is one of the largest places in England without official city status. For centuries shoes and boots sold all over the world have been made by hand here, and some of the most famous names in English footwear still have their factories in the town's red-brick streets. But Northampton was also a leading medieval town: Thomas Becket was tried here, a battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought here, and it preserves one of the four round churches left in England. Just outside town lie the grave of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Althorp, and the Formula 1 circuit at Silverstone.

Trains from London Euston take about an hour, and from Birmingham just over an hour.

A medieval town of kings and parliaments

Northampton began as a Saxon settlement on the Nene and after the Norman Conquest became one of the most important towns in England. The Norman nobleman Simon de Senlis built a castle and town walls, and kings often stayed here: in the Middle Ages Parliament met in Northampton several times. In 1164, in the castle, King Henry II had the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, put on trial; Becket managed to escape to France, and six years later he was murdered in his cathedral at Canterbury. A medieval well in the centre, Becket's Well, recalls his stay.

In 1460 the Battle of Northampton, one of the clashes of the Wars of the Roses, was fought south of the town: the Yorkists defeated the royal army and captured King Henry VI. During the Civil War of the 17th century Northampton sided with Parliament, and after the restoration of the monarchy Charles II, as punishment, had the castle and part of the walls pulled down. The castle site is now occupied by the railway station, and all that remains of the great building is a reconstructed gateway.

The Great Fire of 1675

In September 1675 a fire that started in a house near the castle destroyed most of the centre in a few hours, including its timber and thatched houses. The town was rebuilt in stone and brick with wider streets, and the new church of All Saints, at the heart of town, has a statue of Charles II under its portico: the king, setting aside his grudge, had donated timber for the rebuilding, and the townspeople thanked him in this way. Every year on 29 May the statue is still decorated with oak branches.

Shoe town

As early as the Middle Ages Northampton had many shoemakers, thanks to leather from the cattle on the surrounding pastures and oak trees that supplied tannin for tanning. In the 17th century the town supplied thousands of pairs of boots to Cromwell's army, and in the 19th century it became England's footwear capital: whole districts were made up of houses with workshops at the back and brick factories, and much of the population worked in the trade. Many of the boots worn by British soldiers in the Crimean War, the Boer War and both world wars were made here.

Today many factories have closed, but Northampton remains the centre of English luxury shoemaking, with the traditional Goodyear welted method and work that takes weeks and hundreds of manual steps. Historic names such as Church's, Tricker's, Crockett & Jones, Edward Green, Grenson and Barker are based in and around the town, and some have factory shops where pairs with small flaws are sold at reduced prices. The town's football club has always been known as The Cobblers.

Kinky Boots

In 2005 the story of a small Northamptonshire shoe factory that survived a crisis by making flamboyant boots for drag queens became the film Kinky Boots, shot partly in Northampton and in the village of Earls Barton. The film inspired a hit musical with songs by Cyndi Lauper, which won six Tony Awards on Broadway and also played in London's West End.

What to see in Northampton

Northampton Museum and its shoes

Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, reopened in 2021 after a major extension, holds what is considered the largest collection of shoes in the world: thousands of items of footwear from ancient Egypt to the present day, from medieval slippers to soldiers' boots, from 1970s platforms to the creations of contemporary designers. Among the most curious pieces are shoes once owned by famous people and a huge circus boot worn by an elephant, used in 1959 to retrace Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. The museum also has a collection of Italian paintings and galleries on the town's history.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Holy Sepulchre, built around 1100 by Simon de Senlis on his return from the First Crusade, is one of the four medieval round churches that survive in England. Its shape reproduces that of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: at its centre is a rotunda of massive Norman columns, to which a nave and a tower were added in later centuries. It is the largest and one of the best preserved of England's round churches.

Mackintosh's 78 Derngate

In a quiet street in the centre stands 78 Derngate, a small Georgian terraced house that in 1916-17 the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh redesigned for the engineer and model-railway maker William Bassett-Lowke. It is Mackintosh's only major work in England and one of the earliest examples of modern interiors in the country: the hall, with black walls decorated with yellow geometric patterns and coloured triangles, anticipates Art Deco by years. Next door, a museum and gallery tell the story of the house and its owners.

The centre and its squares

Market Square is one of the largest market squares in England, with a market that has been held for more than eight centuries. Nearby rises the Guildhall, the Gothic Revival town hall of 1864, decorated with statues of kings, saints and figures from the town's history. All Saints Church, with its columned portico and dome, is the heart of the town rebuilt after the fire. On Derngate is the Royal & Derngate, the town's theatre complex, with a Victorian auditorium of 1884 and a modern one, staging drama, musicals and concerts.

The lift tower

Northampton's skyline is dominated by an unusual concrete tower 127 metres high: the National Lift Tower, built in 1982 by Express Lifts to test lifts. Locals call it the "Northampton Lighthouse" or "the lipstick". It is one of very few buildings of its kind in the world, and was listed as a historic building in 1997, only a few years after it was built: it is still used by lift companies to test high-speed lifts.

Delapré Abbey and the Eleanor Cross

South of the river is Delapré Abbey, a former Cluniac nunnery converted into a country house after the dissolution of the monasteries and recently restored, with a museum, walled gardens and a café. The Battle of Northampton of 1460 was fought in its grounds. Not far away, along the London road, stands the Hardingstone cross, one of three surviving Eleanor crosses of the twelve that King Edward I had built in memory of his wife, who died in 1290, at the places where her funeral procession stopped for the night on its way to Westminster.

Abington Park

The town's finest park is Abington Park, with lakes, tree-lined avenues and a small museum in a house of medieval origin. The house has a link with Shakespeare: it was home to the playwright's last direct descendant, his granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard, who died in 1670 and is buried in the nearby church of St Peter and St Paul. With her, William Shakespeare's line came to an end.

A day in Northampton

A possible itinerary: the morning at Northampton Museum for the shoe collection, then the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and a walk around Market Square, the Guildhall and All Saints. After lunch, visit 78 Derngate (booking is advisable), then drop into one of the factory shops of the historic shoemakers. The afternoon can end with a walk in Abington Park or along the Nene to Delapré Abbey. In the evening, a show at the Royal & Derngate or dinner in the restaurants and pubs of the cultural quarter.

Eating and drinking

Northampton's food is Midlands cooking, hearty and unfussy: meat pies, sausages and Sunday roasts in country pubs. Villages across the county produce excellent craft beers, heirs to a long brewing tradition. The centre has historic pubs in stone buildings, tea rooms and, along Wellingborough Road, a long row of Indian, Bangladeshi, Caribbean and Eastern European restaurants, reflecting the town's multicultural population. The Market Square market sells produce from the county's farms.

Poets, scientists and musicians

The great Romantic poet John Clare, the son of Northamptonshire farm labourers, spent the last twenty-three years of his life in the Northampton asylum, where he went on writing poetry until his death in 1864. Francis Crick, who with James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, was born in Northampton in 1916. The band Bauhaus, key to the birth of gothic rock, formed in the town in 1978, and the comics writer Alan Moore, author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has always lived here and dedicated his enormous novel Jerusalem to Northampton, setting it in his home district, The Boroughs.

Sport

Northampton is one of the capitals of English rugby: the Northampton Saints, who play at Franklin's Gardens, won the European Heineken Cup in 2000 and the English championship in 2014 and 2024. The football club, the Cobblers, plays at Sixfields, and the town also has a county cricket club. About twenty kilometres south is Silverstone, home of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, and Northamptonshire hosts many motor-racing teams and businesses.

Around Northampton

• Althorp, about ten kilometres north-west: the home of the Spencer family, where Diana, Princess of Wales grew up; she is buried on a small island in the middle of a lake in the park. The house opens to the public in summer.
• Silverstone, with the circuit and an interactive museum on the history of British motor racing.
• Earls Barton, with one of the finest Saxon church towers in England, more than a thousand years old.
• Rushton Triangular Lodge, a curious Elizabethan triangular building full of religious symbols linked to the Trinity.
• The honey-coloured stone villages of Northamptonshire and the locks of the Grand Union Canal, with the canal museum at Stoke Bruerne.

Living in Northampton

Northampton offers cheaper housing than London and the south-east, a central position on the rail and motorway network and a growing economy based on logistics, financial services, the food and drink industry (there is also a large brewery in town) and the university. The University of Northampton has a modern riverside campus, Waterside Campus. Many residents commute to London or Birmingham. Like other Midlands towns, Northampton also has low-income neighbourhoods, and the centre suffers from competition with large out-of-town shopping centres.

Getting there and getting around

• By train: from London Euston about an hour; direct services to Birmingham and Birmingham Airport. The station is close to the centre, on the site of the old castle.
• By air: the nearest airports are London Luton (about an hour by car), Birmingham and East Midlands.
• By car: the town is close to the M1 motorway, linking London with Yorkshire.
• In town: the centre is walkable; local buses serve Abington Park, Delapré Abbey and Franklin's Gardens.

For travel around the rest of the country see trains and transport, and for other cities British cities.

Tips for your visit

• How long: one day for the museum, the centre and 78 Derngate; half a day for Althorp in summer.
• When to go: May to September; July for the Silverstone Grand Prix, when hotels in the area are full and expensive.
• What to buy: a pair of handmade shoes, perhaps from a factory shop, where prices are lower than in London boutiques.
• A tip: some historic factories offer guided tours by appointment to show how a hand-welted shoe is made, step by step.

Northampton on the map

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