Maidenhead

Most of our time will be spent in Maidenhead, working in elementary schools. This quiet town holds much history and warmth. With only a forty minute tube ride into London, it is an ideal spot for travelers to escape the city, and enjoy a suburb of London.






Maidenhead is probably most famous for the River Thames which passses within a mile of the town center. A river path on the right hand side runs downstream to Windsor (behind the photographer) and beyond towards London. Upstream under the bridges is Boulter's Lock and Cookham, then eventually Reading and Oxford. A pleasant place to stroll. The second bridge you can see in the distance is the A4 road bridge.The railway line to London Paddington was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1838 and terminated at Maidenhead Riverside, a temporary station on the Buckinghamshire (east) side of the Thames, out of view to the right of the scene above. The bridge over the Thames was not complete at that stage. The present station was opened in 1871 when Maidenhead Riverside station and another (Maidenhead Boyn Hill station) closed.
This is the High Street - The road is pedestrian-only at all times and used to be the A4 Bath Road. The A4 was diverted to a dual-carriageway section to the north of the High Street in the early 1970's. You can see how some of the original buildings looked if you look above the modern shop fronts; the same goes for this view of the High Street.A large shopping centre, Nicholson's Centre, stands on the site of Nicholson's Brewery, one of the town's four breweries, now all closed. The High Street and shopping centre and surrounding roads are now home for many national chains such as Boots, Marks & Spencer, Superdrug, Argos, Virgin (record stores), Woolworth, Next, W H Smith, Sainsburys, Mothercare, Miss Selfridge, Thomas Cook, Tesco and Waitrose. There are also take away food chains, banks, estate agents, a market (Tuesday - Saturday) and charity shops as well as some classy small local shops.