Speightstown

Speightstown was Barbados's second town and its busiest sugar port in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, trading so heavily with Bristol that it earned the nickname Little Bristol. That history shows in its surviving architecture: old timber and coral-stone buildings with galleried upper floors overhanging the pavement, a form suited to the heat, some now restored and others weathered. It is a working town rather than a resort, with a busy fish market on the waterfront where the day's catch comes in, small shops and rum shops, and a quieter, more authentically Bajan feel than the resort strip to the south. The Arlington House museum, in a restored merchant building, tells the town's story across three floors, and the seafront has swimming beaches away from the market.

History

The town is named after William Speight, a member of Barbados' first Assembly and owner of the land it stands on, and it was settled around 1630, in the early years the island's busiest port, sending sugar and other goods straight to London and above all Bristol, which earned it the name Little Bristol. Since 2010 the Speightstown Community Archaeology Project, run by the University of Winchester, the University of the West Indies and the Barbados Museum, has surveyed its historic buildings and graveyard and dug at the 18th-century coastal fort at Maycock's Bay (Wikipedia, Speightstown).

The main sights

• The galleried buildings - old timber and coral-stone architecture along the main streets.
• Arlington House museum - the town's history in a restored merchant building.
• The fish market - the working waterfront where the catch comes in.
• The rum shops - the everyday social life of a working Bajan town.

When to go

December to May, the drier season, for the most comfortable walking. Mornings are best for the fish market and cooler for wandering the streets. It is a working town, so weekdays are liveliest.

Before you go

This is a working town, not a polished heritage quarter: some buildings are restored and others are run-down, and the appeal is the everyday character rather than manicured sights. The fish market is a genuine working place with the smells to match. Half a day covers it, and it pairs well with the west coast beaches nearby.

Nearby

The west coast beaches run south towards Holetown; the wild Atlantic east coast is a short drive across the island.

Key facts