Sights in England
-
A
Battersea Power Station
Its four smokestacks famously celebrated on Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover, Battersea Power Station is one of south London’s best known monuments. Built by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1933 with two chimneys (the other two were added in 1955), the power station was snuffed out in 1983 only to enter an existential limbo, slowly deteriorating as it passed from one optimistic developer to the next. The power station’s future seems as uncertain as ever, with another ‘master plan’ in the pipeline.
reviewed
-
B
Eltham Palace
The art deco house here was built between 1933 and 1937 by the well-to-do textile merchant Stephen Courtauld (of Courtauld Institute fame) and his wife Virginia; from the impressive entrance hall with its dome and huge circular carpet with geometric shapes, to the black-marble dining room with silver-foil ceiling and burlwood-veneer fireplace, it appears the couple had taste as well as money. They also, rather fashionably for the times, had a pet lemur, and the heated cage, complete with tropical murals and a bamboo ladder leading to the ground floor, for the spoiled (and vicious) ‘Mah-jongg’ is also on view. A royal palace was built on this site in 1305 and was for a…
reviewed
-
Cathedral Church of St Peter
At Exeter's heart is the magnificent Cathedral Church of St Peter, which has stood largely unchanged (barring some WWII bomb damage) for the last 600 years. It's one of the most graceful of England's cathedrals, with features including the 14th-century stained glass of the East Window and the largest section of Gothic rib-vaulting in the world.
There's been a church on this spot since AD 932; in 1050 the Saxon church was granted cathedral status, and between 1112 and 1133 a Norman cathedral replaced the original building. Inside, the carved Pulpitum Screen, completed in 1325, features some marvellous 17th century ecclesiastical paintings. Behind is the choir, decorated…
reviewed
-
Dartmoor National Park
At first glance, Dartmoor can come as something of a shock to the senses. The largest stretch of open moorland in the southwest, Dartmoor covers an area of 945sq km (368sq mi) between Plymouth and Exeter. It's a stark, wild and bleakly beautiful place, dotted with granite-topped hills, marshy bogs and patches of purple heather, as well as many weirdly shaped tors.
Dartmoor encloses some of the wildest, bleakest country in England: suitable terrain for the Hound of the Baskervilles (one of Sherlock Holmes' more notorious foes). The landscape and weather can make this an extremely eerie place; try not to think of An American Werewolf in London on a dark, foggy night. With…
reviewed
-
C
National Railway Museum
Many railway museums are the sole preserve of lone men in anoraks comparing dog-eared notebooks and getting high on the smell of machine oil, coal smoke and nostalgia. But this place is different. York's National Railway Museum – the biggest in the world, with more than 100 locomotives – is so well presented and full of fascinating stuff that it's interesting even to folk whose eyes don't mist over at the thought of a 4-6-2 A1 Pacific class chuffing into a tunnel.
Highlights for the trainspotters among us include a replica of George Stephenson's Rocket (1829), the world's first 'modern' steam locomotive; the sleek and streamlined Mallard, which set the world speed…
reviewed
-
D
Royal Armouries
Leeds' most interesting museum is undoubtedly the Royal Armouries, beside the snazzy Clarence Dock residential development. It was originally built to house the armour and weapons from the Tower of London but was subsequently expanded to cover 3000-years'-worth of fighting and self-defence. It all sounds a bit macho, but the exhibits are as varied as they are fascinating: films, live-action demonstrations and hands-on technology can awaken interests you never thought you had, from jousting to Indian elephant armour – we dare you not to learn something! To get here, walk east along the river from Centenary Footbridge (10 minutes), or take bus 28 from Albion St.
reviewed
-
E
Beverley Minster
One of the great glories of English religious architecture, Beverley Minster is the most impressive church in the country that is not a cathedral. Construction began in 1220 – it was the third church to be built on this site, the first dating from the 7th century – and continued for two centuries, spanning the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular periods of the Gothic style.
The soaring lines of the exterior are imposing, but it is inside that the charm and beauty lie. The 14th-century north aisle is lined with original stone carvings, mostly of musicians. Indeed, much of our knowledge of early British musical instruments comes from these images. You'll also see…
reviewed
-
F
Syon House
Just across the Thames from Kew Gardens, Syon House was once a medieval abbey named after Mt Zion. In 1542 Henry VIII dissolved the order of Bridgettine nuns who were peacefully living here and had it rebuilt into a residence. (In 1547, they say, God got his revenge when Henry’s coffin was brought to Syon en route to Windsor for burial and burst open during the night, leaving his body to be set upon by the estate’s dogs.) The house from where Lady Jane Grey ascended the throne for her nine-day reign in 1553 was remodelled in the neoclassical style by Robert Adam in the 18th century and has plenty of Adam furniture and oak panelling. The interior was designed on…
reviewed
-
G
Chiswick House
This stunner of a neo-Palladian pavilion with an octagonal dome and colonnaded portico is a delight. The confection was designed by the third Earl of Burlington (1694–1753) fired up with passion for all things Roman after his grand tour of Italy.
Inside, some of the rooms are almost overpoweringly grand. The coffered dome of the main salon has been left ungilded and the walls are decorated with eight enormous paintings. With its stunningly painted ceiling (by William Kent), the Blue Velvet Room also has a portrait of architect Inigo Jones, much admired by Lord Burlington, over one of the doors. Look out for carvings of the pagan vegetative deity, the Green Man, in the…
reviewed
-
H
Speke Hall
This diagonally patterned Tudor home dates from 1490-1612, and is filled with gorgeously timbered and plastered rooms. The house contains several 'priest's holes', where the hall's sympathetic owners hid Roman Catholic priests during the anti-Catholic 16th and 17th centuries.
A marvellous example of an Elizabethan half-timbered hall, Speke Hall was formerly surrounded by thousands of acres of land, but these days all that remains is the drive and an oasis of meticulously maintained gardens; the hall's Chapel Farm became the nucleus of nearby Liverpool Airport. A bus runs from Lime St to Speke Hall, but the walk from the bus stop is about a kilometre and a half.
Tours to…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
I
Wellington Arch
This magnificent neoclassical 1826 arch, facing Apsley House in the green space strangled by the Hyde Park Corner roundabout, originally faced the Hyde Park Screen, but was shunted here in 1882 for road widening. The same year saw the removal of the disproportionately large equestrian statue of the duke crowning it, making way some years later for Europe’s largest bronze sculpture: Peace Descending on the Quadriga of War (1912), three years in the casting.
Until the 1960s part of the monument served as a tiny police station (complete with pet moggy), but was restored and opened up to the public as a three-floor exhibition space, with exhibits on the blue plaque scheme …
reviewed
-
J
Clapham Common
A magnificent expanse of green at the heart of the Clapham neighbourhood, huge Clapham Common is a verdant venue for many outdoor summer events (see http://claphamhighstreet.co.uk) and sports. The main thoroughfare, Clapham High St, starts at the common’s northeastern edge, lined with many of the bars, restaurants and shops that draw people to Clapham. It’s much more pleasant to explore the more upmarket streets of Clapham Old Town, a short distance northwest of the tube station, and Clapham Common North Side at the common’s northwesternmost edge.
Just west of the Pavement, the brick and stone Holy Trinity Church (1776) was home to the Clapham Sect, a group of…
reviewed
-
K
Captain Cook Memorial Museum
This fascinating museum occupies the house of the ship owner with whom Cook began his seafaring career. Highlights include the attic where Cook lodged as a young apprentice, Cook's own maps and letters, etchings from the South Seas and a wonderful model of the Endeavour, with all the crew and stores laid out for inspection.
reviewed
-
L
All Hallows-by-the-Tower
A church by the name All Hallows (meaning ‘All Saints’) has stood on this site since AD 675, and the best bit of the building today is undoubtedly its atmospheric Saxon undercroft (crypt). There you’ll find a pavement of reused Roman tiles and walls of the 7th-century Saxon church, as well as coins and bits of local history. Above ground it’s a pleasant enough church, rebuilt after WWII. There’s a copper spire (added in 1957 to make the church stand out more), a pulpit from a Wren church in Cannon St that was destroyed in WWII and a beautiful 17th-century font cover by the master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons. From April to September, free 20-minute church tours leave at…
reviewed
-
M
Banqueting House
This is the only surviving part of the Tudor Whitehall Palace, which once stretched most of the way down Whitehall and burned down in 1698. It was designed as England’s first purely Renaissance building by Inigo Jones after he returned from Italy, and it looked like no other structure in the country at the time. Apparently, the English hated it for more than a century.
A bust outside commemorates 30 January 1649 when Charles I, accused of treason by Cromwell after the Civil War, was executed on a scaffold built against a 1st-floor window here. When the monarchy was reinstated with Charles II, it inevitably became something of a royalist shrine. In a huge, virtually…
reviewed
-
N
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The UK’s oldest public art gallery, the small Dulwich Picture Gallery was designed by the idiosyncratic architect Sir John Soane between 1811 and 1814 to house nearby Dulwich College’s collection of paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Poussin, Lely, Van Dyck and others. Unusually, the collectors Noel Desenfans and painter Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois chose to have their mausoleums, lit by a moody lumière mystérieuse (mysterious light) created with tinted glass, placed among the pictures. In the Wolfson Room, seek out ‘Bridge in an Italian Landscape’ by Adam Pynacker, with its masterful use of light. Celebrating its bicentenary in 2011,…
reviewed
-
O
St John’s, Smith Square
In the heart of Westminster, this eye-catching church was built by Thomas Archer in 1728 under the Fifty New Churches Act (1711), which aimed to build 50 new churches for London’s rapidly growing metropolitan area. Though they never did build all 50 churches, St John’s, along with a dozen others, saw the light of day. Unfortunately, with its four corner towers and monumental facades, the structure was much maligned for the first century of its existence thanks to rumours that Queen Anne likened it to a footstool, though it’s also said that she actually requested a church built in the shape of a footstool. Whatever the case, it’s generally agreed now that the church is a…
reviewed
-
P
Pendennis Castle
Perched on the promontory of Pendennis Point, Pendennis Castle was constructed from 1540 to 1545 by Henry VIII as one of a chain of fortresses designed to defend the British mainland from Spanish and French invasion. Falmouth's deepwater harbour made the town a key strategic asset, and Pendennis was built, along with its sister fortress of St Mawes, to defend the harbour and the entrance to the Carrick Roads.
During the Civil War, the castle was engaged in a five-month siege under the command of Captain John Arundell of Trerice, and later became a defensive gun battery during WWII. These days the guns have fallen silent, but you can still experience a taste of Tudor…
reviewed
-
Q
Yorkshire Dales National Park
Sitting snugly between the brooding North York Moors to the east and the dramatic Lake District to the west are the Yorkshire Dales (from the Viking word dalr, meaning 'valleys'), a marvellous area of high hills and moors, cut through by rugged stone walls and spotted with extravagant houses and the faded, spectral grandeur of monastic ruins.
Thankfully, nature's feast has been protected as a national park since the 1950s, assuring its status as a walker's and cyclist's wonderland. But the fabulous scenery attracts plenty of four-wheeled visitors, making the roads very crowded - especially during the summer. If you can't avoid busy summer weekends, try to come by bus or…
reviewed
-
R
Kenwood House
This magnificent neoclassical mansion stands at the northern end of the heath in a glorious sweep of landscaped gardens leading down to a picturesque lake, around which concerts take place during the summer months. The house was remodelled by Robert Adam in the 18th century, and rescued from developers by Lord Iveagh Guinness, who donated it to the nation in 1927, including the wonderful collection of art it contains. The Iveagh Bequest, as it is known, contains paintings by such greats as Rembrandt (one of his many self- portraits), Consta-ble, Turner, Hals, Vermeer and Van Dyck and is one of the finest small collections in Britain. Robert Adam's Great Stairs and the…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
S
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Housed in a traditional building along the Mall, the ICA is as untraditional as you can possibly get. This was where Picasso and Henry Moore had their first UK shows, and ever since then the institute has sat comfortably on the cutting and controversial edge of the British arts world, with an excellent range of experimental/progressive/radical/obscure films, music and club nights, photography, art, theatre, lectures, multimedia works and book readings. There’s also the licensed ICA Bar & Restaurant. The complex includes an excellent bookshop.
reviewed
-
T
St Clement Danes
An 18th-century English nursery rhyme that incorporates the names of London churches goes: ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clements’, with the soothing final lines: ‘Here comes a chopper to chop off your head/Chop, chop, chop, chop, the last man’s dead!’ Isn’t that nice? Well, even though the bells of this church chime that nursery tune every day at 9am, noon and 3pm, this isn’t the St Clements referred to in the first line of the verse – that’s St Clements Eastcheap, in the City. But we all know that historical fact needn’t get in the way of a good story.
Sir Christopher Wren designed the original building in 1682 but only the walls and a…
reviewed
-
U
Britain at War Experience
You can pop down to the London Underground air-raid shelter, look at gas masks and ration books, stroll around Southwark during the Blitz and learn about the battle on the home front. It's crammed with fascinating WWII memorabilia.
reviewed
-
V
Fulham Palace
Summer home of the bishops of London from 704 to 1973, Fulham Palace is an interesting mix of architectural styles set in beautiful gardens and, until 1924, when filled with rubble, enclosed by the longest moat in England. The oldest part to survive is the little red-brick Tudor gateway, but the main building you see today is from the mid-17th century and was remodelled in the 19th century. There’s a pretty walled garden and, detached from the main house, a Tudor Revival chapel designed by Butterfield in 1866. You can learn about the history of the palace and its inhabitants in the museum. Guided tours, which depart a couple of times a month on Sunday, usually take in…
reviewed
-
W
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich's most stunning landmark is the magnificent Anglican cathedral, its barbed spire soaring higher than any in England except Salisbury, while the size of its cloisters is second to none.
Begun in 1096, the cathedral is one of the finest Anglo-Norman abbey churches in the country, rivalled only perhaps by Durham. The sheer size of its nave is impressive, but its most renowned feature is the superb Gothic rib vaulting added in 1463. Among the spidery stonework are 1200 sculpted roof bosses depicting Bible stories. Together they represent one of the finest achievements of English medieval masonry.
Similar bosses can be seen in closer detail in the cathedral's remarkable…
reviewed