Explore Halesworth with the Love Halesworth Celebrity Tour

Despite its small size, the market town of Halesworth is packed with history. The town started life as a Roman settlement before becoming a centre of medieval worship and a prosperous Victorian market-village. With its thriving cultural life, centred around the hugely successful Cut Theatre and Gallery and its annual Gig in the Park which features top acts like the Buzzcocks, the Stranglers, Suzi Quattro and the Selecter, Halesworth has been host to many famous faces over the years. With this in mind, we’ve come up with the Halesworth Celebrity Walk, which offers a tour of landmarks associated with some of the town’s most notable residents.

Halesworth Celebrity Tour Route

Our walk begins at the train station (1), which makes it ideal for daytrippers. Walk south-west down Station Road until you come to the New Cut on your right. The Cut Arts Centre (2) is halfway down the road, and is well worth a visit. Stars of stage and screen often perform here, so it’s a good idea to see what’s on to make sure you don’t miss out.

Continue down New Cut and turn left onto Norwich Road. Turn right at the roundabout onto Bridge Street and then left onto the Thoroughfare. This street is a goldmine of local celebrity history, and it’s worth taking your time to enjoy this superlatively English street. (3)

The Thoroughfare is packed with buildings from many eras: 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century buildings all coexist happily, creating an eclectic atmosphere.

Number 8 used to be an ironmonger’s which was run by the grandfather of Sir David Frost, who has visited the town several times in recent years as a patron of the local arts scene. (4)

Number 14 was the home of George Lansbury, who was the Labour Party leader from 1931 to 1935, and whose granddaughter Angela Lansbury is well known to daytime TV fans as literary super-sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote (5)

Next door to this is number 16, which was home to a highly unusual resident: when the building’s 20th century owners renovated the building, they discovered a perfectly preserved, mummified cat beneath the foundations. It is believed that it was buried there for good luck and to ward of rats and mice, and the owners replaced it once the work was completed.

Keep following the Thoroughfare and make sure you bear left just after Angel Link, and you’ll arrive at the White Swan Inn (6), where our walk comes to an end, and where you can sample some of the region’s famous real ales and home cooked food.