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Sport

The Dunstable Leisure Centre is owned by South Bedfordshire District Council and is situated at the far end of the beautiful Grove House Gardens. Having undergone a recent refurbishment, the centre provides a multipurpose sports hall, squash courts, super gym, aerobic studios, health suite and sauna, sunbeds, steam room as well as an attractive swimming pool and learner pool. Outside facilities include floodlit ‘Redgra’ pitches and tennis courts. The centre has become the home for many of the town’s sports based clubs including the British-Champion producing Dunstable Trampoline Club. In the same area and adjacent to the Leisure Centre, is the popular ten pin bowling alley.

There are over 180 acres of parks, gardens and open spaces to enjoy in Dunstable. Within the parks are fifteen football pitches, all of which are used on a regular basis by local adult and youth football teams, a bowling green and hard tennis courts. There are also private sports clubs - Dunstable Downs Golf Club with its spectacular location on the western edge of the town, Dunstable Cricket Club, now located just down the road at nearby Totternhoe, Dunstable Tennis Club, and the famous Dunstablians Rugby Football Club. Activities such as para gliding, hang-gliding and kite flying are ideally suited to Dunstable Downs which are themselves an interesting and convenient site for exploration for local and visiting ramblers. Anyone standing at the top of the Downs can’t help but notice the London Gliding Club, which dominates the landscape below.

Arts

Dunstable is able to boast the Grove Theatre, one of the very finest arts and entertainment centres. The 780 seat venue is situated in the heart of Dunstable, bordering Grove House Gardens. The venue opened in April 2007 with a gala attended by the local community and compered by theatre favourite Brian Blessed. The venue offers superb modern facilities including; stalls, circle and box style seating, a full fly tower enabling large touring productions to be housed, a fully accessible auditorium including wheelchair accessible seats on both stalls and circle levels, two spacious bar areas and an outside terrace along with plenty of car parking in the local vicinity. There is a mix of one night shows and week long productions spanning a variety of art forms including dance, drama, musicals, children’s theatre, live music and an annual Christmas pantomime. The theatre operates a free mailing list and you can join the mailing list by calling the Box Office on 01582 602080 or logging onto the website at www.grovetheatre.co.uk, a brochure will then be mailed to you three times a year.

In addition, Priory House provides a centre for heritage activities in the town, an exhibition space and promotes a wide range of events, talks and demonstrations.

The town also boasts over fifty arts organisations registered with the Dunstable Arts Council, which provide amongst themselves an abundance of drama, art, dance and much more for both participant and audience. The Arts Council produce a tri-monthly diary of events to inform all visitors and residents of forthcoming cultural activities in the town. There is also the Dunstable Amateur Operatic Society who perform no less than two ‘West End’ style shows each year and the Dunstable Repertory Theatre, who between September and June, perform five plays at approximately eight week intervals in their own Little Theatre. There are youth drama groups, a contemporary dance troupe, Dunstable Concert Music Society running workshops for young musicians, and the Priory Church who, as well as having the excellent Priory Choir, host their own regular concerts in the magnificent setting of the Church. Supplementary to all these various promotions are those organised by Dunstable Town Council. These include a whole range of community events for all ages and interests with supporting development opportunities, as well as major town annual events including the ever popular town Carnival, weekend music festival and spectacular charity firework display, presented and supported by international artists and the up and coming talent in the town.

Entertainment

Dunstable’s plethora of inns, nightclubs and restaurants make it an ideal venue for evening entertainment, for every age group. Some of the public houses cater very much for the younger Dunstablian and visitor, with continental and american beers on sale, dance floors and live music. Similarly there are those venues which would appeal to the more mature person, who enjoy sitting, relaxing and maybe having a drink and/or meal in comfortable surroundings. There are places to eat in Dunstable to suit all tastes and pockets, with many fine restaurants offering Indian, Italian, Chinese, Cantonese, Thai and other more traditional dishes. For those who enjoy a late night, several of the public houses hold a late night licence while nightclubs including Cubes in a beautifully restored art deco cinema and the renowned ‘Jumpin’ Jaks’, based above the Quadrant Shopping Centre, provide dancing and entertainment most nights of the week. All these inns, pubs, clubs and restaurants can be found within easy walking distance of the town centre, but should you need a lift, there are centrally based taxi companies more than willing to take you to your destination.

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is located in the beautiful Bedfordshire countryside and is home to more than 200 species of rare and exotic animals, making it one of the largest conservation centres in Europe.

The Safari Bus and Jumbo Express steam train give the visitor the opportunity to see tigers, elephants, hippos, giraffes, rhinos and more, out and about in their huge outdoor enclosures. Don’t be surprised to find a free-roaming wallaby, peacock or one of the strange-looking mara wandering idly by as you make your way around the zoo.

New exhibits include In With the Lemurs, where visitors can walk among these fun, friendly, black and white ring-tailed primates from Madagascar. Among the latest “zoo babies” are Leelee the Asian elephant calf, Asha, a rare greater one-horned Asian rhino and four Bactrian camel calves. There are plenty of free shows to look out for which run daily through the season, including the Sealion Splash, Birds of the World and elephant demonstrations as well as bear, giraffe and penguin feeds. Don’t forget to visit the Discovery Centre, which is home to a fascinating array of species from tamarins to turtles, big snakes to sea horses.

The park also features the Café on the Lake and the Lookout Café; both serve a range of hot and cold food, snacks and drinks.

With beautiful picnic areas, free daily keeper talks, animal shows, exciting events and exhibitions, there are plenty of reasons to visit ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, for a big day out that’s full of discovery and wild fun.

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is open daily, with the exception of Christmas day, and located just off Junction 9 of the M1.

For current ticket information and further details please visit zsl.org or call 01582 872171.

The Chilterns Gateway Centre & Dunstable Downs

For incredible views there’s only one place to visit - the highest point in the East of England that’s voted one of the region’s Seven Natural Wonders.
‘….this section of the ridge points to far horizons as it does nowhere else …. The numerous outliers; the surge of the plateau, seamed with coombes and pitted with depressions; the churches on their mounds in the midst of the generous tableland; the clean scoring of the ridge against the sky; the scene of the meeting of the two ways, of three counties and of the Chilterns with the watershed of the Upper Thames; the source of the Ouse – all contribute to the pivotal sense’.
So described author H Massingham in his book Chilterns Country (1943-44) the wonderful landscape of the Dunstable Downs.
Nowhere else in the U.K can you leave a bustling town and within minutes be in countryside offering the most exceptional views and fascinating history.

The Chilterns Gateway Centre

The hub for visitors to the Downs is the Chilterns Gateway Centre crowning the hilltop at Dunstable. The centre boasts an outstanding panoramic view from the comfort of a light and spacious glass fronted café, where visitors can sample the delicious Bedfordshire Clanger and the only National Trust location to serve chips! There’s also a National Trust shop selling gifts, state of the art environmentally-friendly toilets and baby changing facilities and a new parking area close to the centre, which is fully accessible to people with disabilities.

New educational facilities and interpretation material for the area is in development, which will equip visitors with the confidence and knowledge they need to get the most out of a visit to the Downs and to extend their visits to explore further into the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The Downs

Perhaps the most obvious gateway into Bedfordshire from the Chiltern Hills, from the west the Downs often appear to be the final stretch of the Chilterns proper. A visually imposing area of chalk Downland looming over the Icknield Way, the Downs show many traces of man’s influence throughout history. Currently the most visual area of this is the patchwork of scrub and grassland which developed during the late 20th century as a result of the cessation of grazing. Look a little harder and the 5 Knolls, Bedfordshire’s’ only surviving Round Barrow cemetery appears on the skyline close to Dunstable. As the highest point in Bedfordshire, the Downs provide an awe-inspiring panorama which encompasses no less than six other counties. The wind swept ridge provides ideal conditions for a variety of air sports and on calmer days offers the ideal site to enjoy the view over a picnic.

The Chilterns Gateway Centre is open daily, with the exception of Christmas day, and located on the B4541 between Whipsnade and Dunstable.

Notes on Access: The centre has a level access into the building and (surfaced) ramped access from the viewing terrace onto the Downs; a surfaced path allows wider access. The remainder of this countryside property has steep slopes which can be hazardous particularly in wet weather.

For more information on the Chilterns Gateway Centre and our programme of family friendly events please visit; www.chilternsgateway.org.uk or phone 01582 500920, or for more information on neighbouring National Trust Properties visit; www.nationaltrust.org.uk
(Batsford, London – taken from The Chilterns Landscape, Countryside Commission 1992)

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral

On National Trust land near Whipsnade Common, not far from the wild animal park, a man called Edmund Kell planted his dream over seventy years ago. If you walk there now you will find trees making a Nave, Transepts, Cloisters and Chapels. This beautiful and serene place with its pond in the centre is open all year round with no charge for admission.

Shopping in Dunstable

For over seven centuries Dunstable has been a very important market town, servicing the surrounding areas and villages. The main arterial road that was used by the Romans is still flanked by traders. The first point of call for visitors today is the Quadrant Shopping Centre behind High Street North and Church Street, where many national chain stores can be found. Nearby in Queensway is a food and retail superstore, whilst the White Lion Retail Park, less than a mile from the Town Centre, offers a range of popular retail warehouses. Traditional shopping pleasures, however, still abound in Dunstable especially in the pleasant pedestrian shopping areas off High Street North and South. Ashton Square and Eleanor’s Cross are intimate lanes where Dunstable’s rich and colourful past is reflected. Here are found a variety of specialist shops and small family businesses.