England’s most Italian town

It’s Bedford, in case you’re wondering. Whole villages of men from southern Italy were press-ganged into working for the London Brick Company there and brought a little bit of home in their food, hairdressing techniques and penchant for unreliable but exotic looking motors to Bedfordshire.

According to the BBC, there are about 14,000 people of Italian origin living in Bedfordshire, most of these in Bedford itself. The town has an Italian Vice-Consulate, and the local radio station has a weekly programme, called Mondo Italiano, dedicated to its Italian community. And every June the local Italian Society throws the Bedford Italian Festival, primarily to deck the town in green, white and red and eat Italian food.

I set off from Bar Italia, naturally, in Soho. The street was blocked off so I was able to park right outside. One of the waiters came out and insisted on posing for a photo. I asked why the street was closed and he answered that it was his wife’s birthday. It was also the day of the Gay Pride march.

I headed north out of central London and after an hour or so, found myself riding through the rolling hills of Cambridgeshire. The fields had been freshly slashed and for a moment I fancifully imagined I was riding through Blighty’s answer to Tuscany. That moment passed when I stopped at Baldock services. Around about lunch time I was approaching Bedford.

My first impression of Bedford was that it didn’t look very Italian. In fact, down by the river, near the boatshed, and beside the imposing Swan Hotel, it looked like any riverside town in Surrey. But it wasn’t long before little Italian flourishes began revealing themselves. La Piazza cafe, laden with Italian memorabilia, in a little kiosk near the markets. The stalls in the market selling Italian delicacies. The Pricecheck supermarket selling Pezzetti coffe makers, biscotti and pasta from the home country. And the hairdressers. Scores of them. With names like Enzo’s and Russo’s and Vincenzo’s.