Isle of Wight

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The GuardianAug 20, 2026

‘All the watering places are crammed with hot people’: on holiday with Dickens

Exhibition at Charles Dickens Museum in London looks at writer’s holiday pursuits, from Kent to the Isle of Wight It’s summer in the city, the pubs are crowded, and the coast beckons. In a year that has so far brought five significant heatwaves , it is a fair description of the current holiday season. But the same was true, too, of the much less frequent hot, dry summers of the past, including…

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The GuardianMay 11, 2020

Postcard from the future: 'Why I'm heading to the Isle of Wight after lockdown'

Junk shops have boxes of postcards, many from this island – a traditional holiday favourite. The author of Postcard from the Past is planning a pilgrimage One reason I spend so much time wading through boxes of old postcards in junk shops is to snoop on holidays I can never take. On one side are pictured places that are no longer quite there, reproduced in colours that nature doesn’t recognise;…

9 things in this story
  • SRN6 hovercraftSightpictured on postcards
  • The NeedlesSightThe…
  • ShanklinNeighborhoodShanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake and Sandown.
  • GodshillNeighborhoodIt lies between Newport and Ventnor in the southeast of the island.
  • Alum BaySightOf geological interest and a tourist attraction, the bay is noted for its multi-coloured sand cliffs.
  • Blackgang ChineTheme parkIt was opened in 1843 and is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom.
  • SandownNeighborhoodbeach for doing nothing
  • J SalmonPlacepublisher that closed in 2018
  • WJ Nigh & SonsPlaceUK's oldest postcard publisher
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