Bedford, England
Bunyan's Roundabout Republic
"Where Pilgrim's Progress Meets the Ring Road"
Official Coat of Arms
A shield bearing a hot air balloon rampant over wavy lines representing the River Great Ouse, flanked by two roundabout signs, with a battered copy of Pilgrim's Progress as the crest and the motto rendered in a font nobody can quite agree is Comic Sans or not.
TripAdvisor Review
★★★☆☆ 3/5
"Nice enough riverside walk along the Embankment and the Panacea Museum is genuinely bizarre in a good way, but the town centre shuts down alarmingly early for a place with two universities' worth of students nearby. The Higgins Museum is a hidden gem but finding parking near it is its own pilgrimage worthy of John Bunyan himself. Harpur Shopping Centre feels stuck in about 2004. Would return for the river festival, not for a Tuesday night out."— DerekFromLuton_DoesDaytrips
Property Listing
Charming market town living with EXCELLENT river frontage, a genuinely stunning park (The Embankment, you'll love it), and rail links to London in under 40 minutes — perfect for commuters who enjoy telling people they live somewhere with a real river, not just a canal!
Twinned With
Milton Keynes — Both are frequently confused with each other by people from London who've never actually visited either.
Supporting Evidence
Bedford is home to the UK's International Balloon Fiesta, meaning that for one weekend a year the flattest part of the county is briefly the most exciting place in Bedfordshire.