Feature: Aspire to HEAVEN

11th April 2018

Sophie Campbell investigates our enduring affair with great church buildings Half-past seven on a winter’s morning at Lincoln Cathedral and I was worried. First, I had turned up for Mattins and was not entirely sure what it was. Second, I was brought up Catholic; was that allowed? Third, and easily the most upsetting, why two […]

Tour de Force: The bloody tower

6th November 2017

Tim Hudson first encountered the dark side of the Tower of London in 1990. As an actor performing in Sir Thomas More he was given private access to the Bell Tower, where More was imprisoned before his execution in 1535. “It was a sobering experience,” Tim recalls. “The Tower can chill your soul; the frowning […]

Tour de Force: Sea change

6th November 2017

In 1935 Julie Kershaw’s grandfather hitched a ride on a milk cart heading out of North Wales. He took his five-year-old son – Julie’s father – with him. Like thousands of others in Depression Britain, they were on their way to Liverpool in search of a job. “It’s the story of our city,” says Julie. […]

Feature: To die for

5th November 2017

Marc Zakian digs up extraordinary stories about our burial grounds From ancient tombs to graveyards, Britain’s burial grounds tell a fascinating story. There are 15 dead Britons for every one living. More than half a billion souls, entombed across landscapes, graveyards, churches and cemeteries. Their lives are part of our history and their resting places […]

Mithras Returns

5th November 2017

A Roman temple to the god Mithras will be redisplayed this November at a new public museum inside the recently opened Bloomberg building in the City of London. The temple was first uncovered in 1889, but the site was only fully excavated after WWII bombing – attracting some 400,000 visitors. A 1950s redevelopment offered no […]

Witch way to London

4th November 2017

Cornwall’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic will be popping up in the capital in November. Founded in the 1950s and located in Boscastle since the 1960s, the Cornwall museum boasts the world’s largest collection of spooky artefacts. From November, a selection of these supernatural objects will be hosted by the eccentric Viktor Wynd at his […]

The Crown moves ahead

2nd November 2017

The new series of the Netflix TV drama charting the life of Queen Elizabeth II begins in December. This second series of The Crown covers the decade from the mid-1950s to 1960s, following the Queen’s relationship with her husband Prince Philip and Princess Margaret’s glamorous life with Lord Snowdon. The drama features towering political figures […]