Walk over Windsor Bridge, closed to cars since 1970, and you’re on Eton High Street, lined with old shop fronts, antique shops and a few 15th-century timber-framed buildings. Beside the oldest, the Cockpit, stands a red postbox of 1854, one of the earliest of its design still in use. At the far end is Eton College, founded by Henry VI in 1440. The chapel was left at less than half its planned length after Henry’s downfall, and its wall paintings, made between 1479 and 1487, were whitewashed over in 1560 and not fully revealed again until 1923. The college runs guided tours in summer, and its museums open free on Sunday afternoons. Windsor Castle is back over the Thames.
