The Tower of London is dressed for Christmas this winter and has launched its annual magical festive experience for all the family. There are plenty of twinkling trees dotted around together with twelve festive installations reflecting the fortress’s 1000-year history. It’s easy to imagine the old walls whispering about the famous residents as you wander
Did you know you really can time travel back to London’s yesterday? And there is no better time than at Christmas when you can experience the sights and smells of ‘ye old London as you tread in the footsteps of Christmas past. I might not be able to give you a horse and carriage, but
Christmas at Waddesdon Manor is back for its 20th year, and for the first time since 2019, the manor house has opened its doors to reveal a twinkling, merry Christmassy wonderland – all done à la Rothschild with rich and opulent festive touches. The 2022 Waddesdon Manor Christmas lights trail is the longest it’s ever
Tucked behind the green door of Number 18 Stafford Terrace is Sambourne House a house museum which time forgot and an extraordinary five-storey cabinet of curiosities. You may have seen it before in Merchant Ivory’s A Room with a View or in Maurice. It’s the former family home of Punch cartoonist, Edward Linley Sambourne, his wife Marion and their two
It’s safe to say that Leighton House in Kensington probably houses the most beautiful room in London. This historic house, once owned by celebrity artist of the day, Lord Frederic Leighton, has one of London’s showstopper interior gems, hiding an Arab Hall which looks like a Fabergé egg just had babies with Ali Baba’s cave.
David Pountney is a genius. The British-Polish director has transformed one of the repertoire’s most difficult and eccentric operas into a madcap, merry work of art, bursting with colour, humour and silliness. I was both intrigued by and slightly dreading The Excursions of Mr Brouček at Grange Park Opera. I ended up with quite a crush on
Most people I speak to don’t know about Turner’s house in Twickenham. You won’t see his famous seascapes in Sandycombe Lodge, his west London home in the borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, but you will be in the presence of the only three-dimensional work of art Joseph Mallord William Turner’sleft behind: the home he designed in the
Strawberry Hill House in London’s leafy suburb of Twickenham is possibly the most unusual house in London. If Oscar Wilde and Nicky Haslam had sired a love child in the eighteenth century, I think it would have been its architect, a Horatio “Horace” Walpole. He had wit, he had style, and he clearly lived by
What better way to explore all of London’s watery gems than by canal, or, to be more specific, via GoBoat? I always think of Little Venice as the Montmartre of London. It’s picturesque, bohemian, eclectic and soulful. It’s wedged between Paddington’s high rises and grungy Camden, and it neighbours majestic Regent’s Park and London Zoo.
I do enjoy a jaunt outside of London. Throw in a castle, anything about Henry VIII and a historical pub, and I’m there quicker than you can throw a jousting stick. And Hever Castle in Kent isn’t just any old castle. It was the Boleyn family seat and Anne Boleyn’s childhood home. Fast forward to