The Old Town is the reason Poole repays more than an afternoon. Three or four streets back from the Quay sits one of the better-preserved historic quarters on this coast, and almost nobody on the beach knows it is there.
The buildings
Scaplen's Court is a late medieval merchant's house. The Guildhall is the Georgian civic statement, built when the town was rich. Between them run merchant streets paid for by the Newfoundland cod trade, which made Poole fortunes through the eighteenth century.
Walking it
The Cockle Trail is marked on the ground and free, linking the buildings in about ninety minutes. See history and culture and the history of Poole.
Shops, galleries and pubs
The lanes hold independent galleries, makers and small shops, and some very old pubs in a town whose trading and smuggling past is not far below the surface. See shopping and pubs and bars.
Next door
Poole Quay is at the bottom of the hill, with the boats and the museum.