About 20 miles from my hometown of Milton Keynes sits the county town of Northampton. One of the largest towns in the UK Northampton has undergone some changes in the last decade, including the creation of a ‘Cultural Quarter’ which is where we headed to on a fine Spring day. Now I have to admit Northampton & Culture are two words not usually found in the same sentence but I was actually really impressed with our day.

What first drew us to Northampton was tickets for the comedian Stewart Lee, at the Royal & Derngate, a theatre there. The show was great and I really like the layout of the theatre so it was a fantastic evening.

We decided to make a day out of our visit, Adam went to university in Northampton so is quite familiar with the town, although he says it’s changing every time he visits. There are a couple of shops that we like to look around when we’re there. I absolutely adore ‘A Vintage retreat’ which can only be described as a vintage emporium. There is so much to look at, you can easily spend an hour examining their nooks and crannies! Adam also loves to browse at the ‘Close Encounters’ comic book store. Adam has got me into comics a bit, I like the noir art styles. The owner was so amazingly helpful and I got a few comics that I think I might do something creative with.

We did head towards the new cultural quarter as well, wanting to check out ’78 Derngate’ which is the only house in England designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I absolutely adore his bold art deco style and the volunteers who ran the place were really friendly. I would certainly recommend for any Mackintosh fans!

We were so lucky that it was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and we could walk around enjoying some of the sights of Northampton. We ended up stopping at the ‘Department of Meat & social affairs’ for dinner. The menu sounded really good and the food was yummy too but I felt the service was lacking a bit and by this point in the evening the sun had gone down and we were freezing in the restaurant, we both kept our coats on! And then we were off to spend a couple of hours laughing at the Derngate, not bad for a spring day!

We’ve also stopped at Sakura, a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, which is great if you like a bit of a show with your dinner. The food was really good and the service very quick.