Charlestown's Georgian Streets

Charlestown is a Georgian town that never got rich enough to be knocked down, which is why it still looks the way it does: two-storey buildings of dressed volcanic stone with shingled timber upper floors and deep verandahs, laid out along Main Street and the waterfront and rebuilt in the same idiom after the earthquake of 1840. An hour on foot covers all of it, taking in the Cotton Ginnery Mall, the courthouse and public library with its clock tower, the war memorial on the square and the little cemeteries. There is no visitor trail as such, which is part of the appeal - people are getting on with their day around you.