European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine holy grimly Church in Stratford when Shakespeare was buried. Shakespeare s Stratfor tourist town with dignity by Gregory Jensen United press International there Are rooms available sign outside Stratford upon Avon hotels andthe1, be Bee there All through the pea Toons season something must to wrong there is Bustle behind the White Swan a pub William Shakespeare knew Wilh spick and Span rebuilding of Quail buildings lining an Alloy. Something must be right whal s wrong is the problem shared Wilt All european tourist areas Inis year he americans Havon l come what s right is that despite this setback. Sara lord is doing rather belter than Oil. Few visitors to England leave without seeing Shakespeare s Homo town americans most of All. Last year More americans than any other nationality signed the Register at Shakespeare s Birthplace this year is disc enl you know thai 17 to 35 percent of your Market is american said Roger Thompson chairman of the Shakespeare country association of tourist attractions. And when hey Slop coming hat s no a Hiccough that s  americans apart sural Ford is a Peculiar place neither tourist Iraq nor Beauty spot but both at he same time sural lord has everything thai typifies the ancient English Market town the half timbered houses Iho georgian Brick and stucco the nor which was the reason for the original reman settlement said one recen travel write i even if shakes Caie had not been born the Lown would still be an interesting and Lasc mating place to Visil says a tourist pamphlet. For its size. Sural lord upon Avon has a greater concentration it historic buildings than any other English  All True. Sural lord brims with amazingly preserved Shakespeare Era structures so Many that one ancient half timbered building is a Charity shop another is now being converted for a pizza Chain Branch a Hird once the Home of Shakespeare s daughter Judith is the town s information office. The Park fringed Avon is still Lovely although Lead poisoning has devastated its hordes of swans there were once so Many Hal the own deported an entire flock to another River but other English owns can match this Beauly. What makes Stral Tord different is Shakespeare. He was bom in 1564 in a House in Henley Street lived in iwo Strafford houses died Here in 1616 and is buried in a Sla Cly Riverside Church. Yet Lor 300 years that did t seem to matter Gready. A few Short Shakespeare Fesh Vals came and went. What is now the Floyal Shakespeare company was quietly born and quietly grew but otherwise Stratford simply slumbered. Ii did t grow much and did t change much and that Ranqui Lily was a mighty preservative Friday september 12, 198b then came the explosion Twenty years ago Sli Allord had 50.000 foreign tourists a year. Now there Are 1,5 million. Twenty years ago sural lord Oll Rcd 300 hotel Beds and a flock of bed and Brea wast houses mow there arc More than 3.000 tourist Beds an invasion on thai scale would have buried Many a town in heaps of tourist i rash and Gaudy sideshows. Any other Lown that owned Iho world s greatest playwright would have capitalized on him mercilessly sural lord. To its arc till. Has tried to avoid those fates it is not festooned Wilh Neon not an unbroken Maze of to nuns traps not a Las vorp i upon Avon or a shakespearean Disneyland and Yel the Lown is nut a museum nerf 1 5 million visitors a year Are a powerful temptation so now there s the Anne Tudor cloth of shop the Shakespeare Hosle lne. In old Tudor House restaurant to Hathaway Lea rooms shops sell Piaster models of Shakespeare s Birthplace for $30. A discreet Mcdonald s now overlooks the Shakespeare memorial i healer and the information Bureau in Judith Shakespeare s House throngs Wilh questioners 303.040 of them last year of you would t Bali voc the questions to get  said info Mailon officer is Anclle Wolf. One tourist asked the Way to Charles Dickens House Well coped with one Man who wan cd to Scalier his wife s ashes Over Ono of the shake spare properties Tivo houses or gardens associated Wilh i lie playwright or his family vet with All this Wanh to a crowding and congestion with All Clamour i .1  of the$75 million tourists spend hero end your slant Lenl in gains most of it dignity and its sense of i "  its new chopping Center i  in ii   old buildings Arjil in t All Hiril i wave been i Wal in in. / in in slut Cosca c Over since Ricamo to in.  l.  years  Younst promo Ltd Thompson so there s now a Moiner  in fic Gant r re House urls in of Irr i   s. A b/a5s nit lying can Lar in a  r the Ion i. In Amis and Armor Mush in Iho la t 1u/ij/.tjii, met Nisan ingenious 25 minute slice of Rii incl Hon Lite in voice  anal cunningly lit mndf.-l". To make up Lor vanished americans Thompson s association has now slashed 10 percent Oil the Price of hotels. Restaurants and Louril Atli actions Lor anyone who spends a night in a sural lord tourist bed in the longer term Thompson Louls the Virtues of sir Aloid Ralh i than London As an English base and there is vigorous promotion of 200 Hounsl attractions in and around the  where Shakespeare was born 5 phone 6y in so Nuiell Lanne hat away s House at shatter. Hathaway and Shakespeare were married in 1582, the stars and stripes Page 13