James Tucker in Cov

In the spirit of Lichfield, Warwick is a town that's remarkably close to Birmingham, pretty famous, and yet a place I've not yet been to. On previous trips to England I've visited the castle, like seemingly everyone else, and was suitably impressed. But I've never really looked around the town before, and it was pretty interesting. The main downtown is demarcated by the East and West gates, which each have a chapel built right on top of them.
The chapel at the Westgate is actually part of an ancient home for old soldiers- the Lord Leycester Hospital. A lot of it was built as the city's Guildhall in the 1400s and was converted in the 1570s as a retirement home. 8 elderly veterans still live there and manage the place. The old buildings are covered in heraldic symbols, such as the Sydney porcupines and the Warwick bears- all symbols of the family that founded the place, and still act as patrons. They are also some of the only old wood buildings left in Warwick- a fire started just east of the Hospital in 1694, and most of the city centre was clearly built in the early 1700s, including the faux-gothic church that has a smattering of classical elements up the front tower.
Below the castle, running to the river, is Mill Street, left, which was also spared from the fire. It used to be the main street in Warwick, leading up to the town from the bridge over the Avon River. When the bridge was replaced and then collapsed, Mill Street became a dead-end, and was basically preserved. By then it was getting pretty dark, though it was only 4:00- you can see the pictures getting dim.