Saint George (Bermuda)

The Town of Saint George, habitually called by locals St. George's, in St. George's Parish is the second town and former capital of Bermuda.

Not to be confused with Saint George's in Grenada.

Understand

St. George's is described as the oldest, continually inhabited English settlement in the new world. In 1609, Admiral Sir George Somers named the town not after himself but in honor of the Patron Saint of England, St. George; it served as the capital of Bermuda until eclipsed by Hamilton in 1815. Because of a shift of business and government to Hamilton, St. George's did not have its streets and buildings demolished and rebuilt as in Hamilton, and therefore looks very much like it did 250 years ago. In fact, because of its many heritage buildings, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site during the 1990s.

Bermudian convention, where a toponym contains the name of a person, is to render the person's name in the possessive form. The place is rarely treated as equivalent to the person. For instance, Bermudians will always say St. George's and St. David's are the largest islands in St. George's Parish, and never St. George and St. David are the largest islands in St. George Parish. As many maps and other printed materials featuring Bermuda are produced abroad, it is extremely common to find maps, books and other material using the non-possessive forms, but visitors to Bermuda should be aware that using the non-possessive forms when speaking to Bermudians is likely to cause as much awkwardness as saying "Bermudan" (although Bermudians, who pride themselves on politeness, are unlikely to respond rudely).

St. George's Parish stands at the northeasternmost part of the island chain, containing a small part of the main island around Tucker's Town and the Tucker's Town Peninsula, as well as the big islands of St. George's and St. David's (where the airport is), and many smaller islands, notably Coney, Paget, Nonsuch, Castle, and Smith's Islands.

Get in

By road

Saint George's is accessible directly from Hamilton by bus, and from the rest of the islands by changing buses in Hamilton, or by use of taxis.

It is possible to walk across the Causeway from the airport to Grotto Bay Resort (or other destinations southwest), but there is limited shoulder on the Causeway and it may be a dangerous choice to save money from a +$10 taxi ride. Some airport workers actually walk across the Causeway daily, so it's not crazy to do so when traffic isn't busy.

By ferry

• Sea Express, ☎ [phone]. ferry service 
  • Orange route - to St George's from Sandys Parish (Royal Naval Dockyards)

By plane

• 🌍 L.F. Wade International Airport (BDA ^IATA Bermuda International Airport) (at St. David's Island), ☎ [phone]. Air-travelling visitors always land and depart from inside this parish.  

Get around

All locations in and around Saint George's are easily walkable. Explore on foot.

See

Due to its status as a World Heritage Site, there are many fine old, colonial streets and buildings to immerse yourself in; streets and alleys with fanciful names such as 'Featherbed Alley', 'Old Maid's Lane' or 'Needle and Thread Alley'. However, upon arrival in the town, the best thing to do is head for the original main square of St. George's, 🌍 King's Square. Here you can see the Town Hall, the Visitor's Service Bureau, and Ordnance Island across the small bridge directly to your south. During the tourist season (May-September), actors in period dress provide colour to the community, acting as town criers or sentencing men or women to the stockades, pillories or the dunking chair.

The Visitor's Service bureau supplies maps and brochures about the town and provides an excellent walking tour of the old town.

The State House

• 🌍 Bermuda Heritage Museum, 29 Water Street, ☎ [phone]. This building used to be called the Samaritan Lodge. It was the head office of the Order of Good Samaritans & Daughters of Samaria - A society formed in the 1800s to help the blacks after they were freed from slavery in 1834. Since 1994, the Smaritan's lodge is the home of Bermudian Heritage Museum which is the only Black History Museum in Bermuda. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 Bridge House, Bridge St, ☎ [phone]. A circa 1700 mansion, one of the earliest in the area, once near a bridge across a creek from the sea. It was once the home of Governor Benjamin Bennett in the early 18th century . Later the American-born Revolutionary War Loyalist and privateer Hon. Bridger Goodrich and his wife Elizabeth lived here. Goodrich stood in the local Legislature, hence his Honorable title. There's a memorial to him in St. Peter's Church. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 Bermuda National Trust Museum (the Globe Hotel, Confederate Museum), 32 Duke of York St, ☎ [phone]. This 17th century building was constructed by Governor Samuel Day in 1699, using government provided land and wood. Later in the mid 19th century, it became "The Globe Hotel"; a Confederate agent during the US Civil War, wanting to smuggle goods in from Europe in return for American cotton, used it as his office. It was opened as a museum in 1961. You will find an amazing replica of a machine commissioned by the congress of the Confederate States that stamped a seal for all their official documents.  
• 🌍 HMS Deliverance, ☎ [phone]. A great little replica ship remembering the 1609 wreck, when the colonists, passengers of the Deliverance and Jamestown, got stranded in Bermuda. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 The Old Rectory, 39 York St. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 St. George's Historical Society Museum, 39 Duke of Kent Street, ☎ [phone]. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 St. Peter's Church. The oldest parts of the current structure date to 1620, though the building has been much expanded and improved since. It is reportedly the oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside the British Isles, as well as the oldest continuously used Protestant church in the New World.  
• 🌍 Somers Garden, Government Hill Road. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 State House. Built in 1620, it was the first purpose-built House of Assembly, which then constituted the only chamber of the Parliament of Bermuda. Other than fortifications, it was Bermuda's first stone building. It is the oldest surviving Bermudian building. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 The Town Hall, Water Street. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 Tucker House Museum, 5 Water Street, ☎ [phone]. 
• 🌍 Unfinished Church, Blockade Alley. (updated Oct 2018)
• Water Street. 

The town boasts some notable museums and attractions:

• Fanny Fox's Cottage. 
• 🌍 Featherbed Alley Printshop, Mitchell House, 39 Duke of Kent Street. Dedicated to the history of Bermuda's first newspaper and printing business, The Bermuda Gazette. Has a replica Gutenberg press.  
• 🌍 Fort St. Catherine, 15 Coot Pond Road, ☎ [phone]. Has displays and dioramas and replica Crown Jewels. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 Major Donald H. Burns Memorial Park. The Major Donald H. (Bob) Burns Memorial Park on the island includes the Desmond Hale Fountain statue of Admiral Sir George Somers (credited as the founder of Bermuda, and at the helm of the Sea Venture when she was driven on the reefs) which was unveiled by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon in 1984, during the 375th anniversary of the shipwrecking. The Memorial Park was unveiled on 20 April 1997 during the Twinning Ceremonies with Lyme Regis. 
• One Gun Alley. 
• 🌍 Ordnance Island. The island is joined to St. George's Island by a concrete bridge. Most of the buildings erected by the Army and the US Navy have been razed. One large Army building, the Storekeeper's House remains, and was recently refurbished as offices for the Corporation of St. George. (updated Oct 2018)
• Queen's Warehouse. 
• St. George's Foundation. 
• 🌍 Stella Maris Church, 3 Duke of Clarence St, ☎ [phone]. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her title Stella Maris, or "Star of the Sea", inaugurated and blessed in February 1948,  
• Tiger Bay. 
• 🌍 World Heritage Centre, ☎ [phone]. M–Sa 10AM–4PM. (updated Oct 2018)

The parish also offers:

• 🌍 Alexandra Battery. 
• 🌍 Castle Islands Fortifications (on Castle Island, accessed via boat). King's Castle, Devonshire Redoubt, and Landward Fort. King's Castle is, today, the oldest surviving English fortification in the New World. It is Bermuda's oldest standing stone building, predating the State House. Its Captain's House, built a year after the State House, in 1621, is the oldest stone home in Bermuda. It is also the oldest standing English house in the New World. In 1614, King's Castle famously repulsed Spain's only ever attack on Bermuda.  
• 🌍 Ferry Island Fort (at Ferry Reach). Built in the 1790s. 
• 🌍 Gates Fort, Cut Rd (guarding Town Cut channel entrance). 
• 🌍 Fort George (overlooking the Town of St. George). 
• 🌍 Martello Tower (at Ferry Reach). Built in 1822. 
• 🌍 St. David's Battery. Built by the British Army and completed in 1910. Today, St. David's Battery is intact, but derelict. The two 9 inch and the two 6 inch guns remain emplaced, but have been allowed to suffer considerable corrosion damage. Although the magazines are locked, the guns of the battery can be visited by the general public without restriction or cost.  
• 🌍 St. David's Lighthouse. Construction started in 1876 and it became operational in 1879. In 1940, the SS Pelinaion, a Greek freighter en route from Africa to Baltimore, oblivious to the fact that the lighthouses had been switched off due to the war, ran aground and broke in two on a reef to the east of St. David's Head. The sizeable wreck is now a popular dive site, with the boilers and triple-expansion steam engine still visible (updated Oct 2018)

Do

Take a guided tour or rent a moped and tour on your own.

• 🌍 Mid Ocean Golf Course, 1 Mid Ocean Drive, Truckers Town, ☎ [phone]. 
• Parasailing (in the harbor). 
• 🌍 Tuckers Point Golf Course (near Tucker's Town), ☎ [phone]. 

Swimming, bays and beaches

• 🌍 Achilles Bay and St. Catherine's Bay (Can be reached on foot from St. George's square or shuttles are readily available. Adjacent to Fort St. Catherine.). Rest rooms, food concession nearby, beach rentals. 
• 🌍 Clearwater Beach, Turtle Beach, Turtle Bay, Long Bay, Well Bay, and Soldier Bay (in St. David's near the eastern end of the airport runway). On former US Air Base lands, used for the NASA tracking station at Cooper's Island. Rest rooms, food concession and bar. Children's playground. Lifeguards during the summer months. 
• 🌍 Tobacco Bay (Can be reached on foot from St. George's square or shuttles are readily available. Another walk will take you to nearby Fort St. Catherine.). A boulder-sheltered, shallow, warm-water beach which can become quite crowded with cruise ship passengers. Rest rooms, food concession, beach rentals.  

Buy

• 🌍 Lili Bermuda Perfumery (Stewart Hall), 5 Queen Street, ☎ [phone]. Shop and museum. 

Eat

• 🌍 The White Horse, 8 King's Square, ☎ [phone]. Pub and restaurant 
• 🌍 The Wharf, 14 Water St, ☎ [phone]. Restaurant and bar (updated Oct 2018)

Drink

Sleep

• 🌍 Rosewood Tucker's Point, 60 Tucker's Point Dr, ☎ [phone]. A luxury resort where anyone can enjoy a day golfing, at the spa, or at one of their fabulous restaurants. 
• 🌍 The St. George's Club, 6 Rose Hill. (updated Oct 2018)
• 🌍 Aunt Nea's Inn, 1 Nea's Alley, ☎ [phone]. (updated Oct 2018)

Go next

• Hamilton Parish is to the southwest.