Maidenhead

Maidenhead has been the place people pass through on the way to somewhere else since the bridge went up in 1280, and it has become very good at being passed through. Charles the First saw his children for the last time at an inn on the High Street, and the spot is now a NatWest, which says most of what the town feels about sentiment. The villages around it use its station and its motorway junction, then give their address as anywhere but Maidenhead. Even the Elizabeth line was meant to end here, and on reflection carried on to Reading.