29 April 2024

Charleston

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Frankly, my dear, you'll love it

Tom Bower packs his walking shoes to discover the deeply decadent and intriguing past of America's South.

Charleston - A typical plantation mansion

1 A typical plantation mansion 2 Family on the gulf coast 3 Middleton Place Plantation

THE PARTY ATMOSPHERE was intoxicating. Stepping into Charleston’s hot, noisy marketplace from the quiet hotel was an unexpected jolt. The heady mix of music, good food and unrivalled architecture alongside the warm Atlantic Ocean is a secret shared by four million tourists each year but few from Europe.

Americans keen to experience their history flock to the town, founded in 1670 by eight English noblemen on land given to them by Charles II. It is dominated by old mansions and no glimpse of skyscrapers or junk-food outlets.

The legacy of the British pioneers who sailed into the natural harbour on board the Carolina and transformed the plague-infested wilderness into an infamously decadent trading centre inhabited by partygoers, hunters, gamblers, cockfight promoters and prostitutes lorded over by English aristocrats is a uniquely beautiful town.

Over 330 years, Charleston has survived disease, war, fire, hurricanes and an earthquake.

Recently, streets of 18th and 19th century houses surrounded by lush gardens were restored and there’s now a vibrant commercial area.

Against a backdrop of blood spilled in skirmishes between English settlers and marauding pirates – including Blackbeard, who was hanged and buried beneath a downtown mansion – and in battles against Indians and in the Civil War, there seems more to discover in this one small area than anywhere else in the States.

One hint of Charleston’s matchless past is the love story Gone with the Wind, about Rhett Butler, the town’s blockade runner during the Civil War, and another is the local jazz band which reputedly invented the energetic Charleston dance in the Roaring Twenties.

Charleston history

To understand the remarkable town I ‘invited’ my family to endure four two-hour guided walking tours over two days and emerged more intrigued about America’s history than ever.

Our tours specialised in Charleston history, the War of Independence, the Civil War and the town’s ghosts. As we walked the cobbled streets (the stone was brought by ships from Liverpool which returned with rice, indigo and cotton), we listened to the guides – a professor, a folk singer and an author – entrancing us about America’s glory and disaster.

Within 30 years of landing, the English had created a bustling, fortified town. Beyond Charleston, they built mansions on plantations to grow crops sought by England. Two estates worth visiting are Drayton Hall and Middleton Place.

Middleton’s magnificent landscaped gardens running down to the Ashley River conjure up the mystery of an era when well-dressed pseudo-aristocrats enriched by their black slaves headed back to town for playtime.

Their hedonistic lifestyle epitomised the birth of the Old South. Looking at the town’s wooden houses with their shuttered windows and wide verandas, surrounded by azaleas, it is easy to imagine the elegant furniture crafted by English carpenters for high ceilinged rooms where good food was eaten and parties thrown.

There was drinking, theatre and famous weeklong horse races. The smell of that excess lingers as guides portray Charleston as the centre of the universe immersed in the raw passion of the lawless violence and greed of the struggle for independence and the Civil War.

Our tours took us to where Charlestonians saw their first victory in the War for Independence, wrecking a British fleet, and where they suffered after the town was later occupied by English forces.

Southern elegance

The soldiers’ barbarity is recalled with glee to British tourists, especially on the site of the brutal hanging of Colonel Isaac Hayne, a local aristocrat.

Charleston also witnessed on April 12, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War. But the bombardment of Fort Sumter, an outpost guarding the harbour entrance, brought short-lived glory. After a delightful boat trip, we heard the story of Charleston’s eventual defeat and sacking on the orders of President Lincoln with the intention of expunging the inhabitants’ amoral lifestyle.

Nearly a century passed before the town, ransacked by looters, was restored. Among the benefits were the new restaurants. Striking out from the Planters Inn, a comfortable old town hotel, we tried several but none beat High Cotton – a relaxed joint blessed with southern elegance and fine food.

The finale to the story was found after a two-hour drive south to Savannah, Georgia, a dreamy town of tragedy, mystery and unexpected beauty. Founded by Englishmen at the same time as Charleston, it is built around 23 squares, inspired by London’s design. Each square is graced by fountains, statues and plaques and surrounded by old brick houses.

Our walking guide (the less mobile can take open-bus tours) told of a booming town enriched by the Civil War which has only recently revived from long decline.

The gulf coast

One key to understanding the diversity and unresolved animosity across that part of the country is to walk through Savannah’s squares and streets, among the 2,000 restored houses adjacent to the river, recalling English kings, preacher John Wesley and America’s inimitable presidents and soldiers.

Don’t miss the colonial Park Cemetery, with a bizarre history. Union soldiers camped here after the Civil War and, as a prank, moved the gravestones, making it impossible for many descendants to identify family tombs.

The coast of South Carolina and Georgia, spectacular white sandy beaches and warm seas, is unknown to most Britons.

Those enjoying resort holidays will head for Hilton Head a bustling town offering entertainment, sport and countless bars and restaurants. For solitude, The Cloister on Sea Island is ideal.

In the local bustling town, we headed for Uncle Tom’s Crabhouse, a noisy, cheap restaurant offering fish and meat where emphasis was on partying – an art southerners have clearly long been perfecting.

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