My favourite…

18th December 2018

Blue Badge Guides show you their favourite places around the UK VIEW My favourite view is from Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire. Rising to 1000ft, it offers a superb panorama from the South to the West, the highlight being the wide open spaces of Wensleydale. In the foreground are Thirsk and Thirlby, where novelist James […]

When Manchester United

18th December 2018

Author and Green Badge Guide Ed Glinert recounts one of the most shameful events in modern politics. “The 16th of August 1819 was a defining moment in English democracy. A date which rivals Magna Carta, the Civil War and the 1689 Bill of Rights in its importance. Yet most Britons have never heard of the […]

Kids’ Stuff

18th December 2018

Blue Badge Guide Sarah Ciacci tells us about her special tours for young people. “I remember the first time I visited a museum,” says Sarah Ciacci. “I was five years old, and my family drove up to London from our home in Wimbledon. It was a great adventure as we followed the river Thames up […]

On the money

17th December 2018

From coins to cons, Marc Zakian looks at the history of British Money. ANY OLD IRON Britons made money before they made writing. Our mysterious tribal ancestors the Celts left no written documents, but Albion’s Iron Age rulers busily minted the country’s first coinage. The Atrebates were a powerful Celtic force. From their stronghold […]

Manor from Heaven

14th December 2018

Blue Badge Guide, Sophie Campbell takes us on a grand tour of Britain’s stately homes. What makes the definitive English stately home? Well, obviously, it’s Lady Penelope’s Creighton-Ward Mansion in Thunderbirds – pillared, porticoed and Palladian, complete with sprawling estate, Norman origins and supermodel scion of the family still in residence. It’s easy to take our […]

Mary pops back

13th December 2018

Everyone’s favourite nanny is returning to the screens this Christmas. Mary Poppins Returns is a sequel to the beloved 1964 original, with our umbrella-flying hero returning to Cherry Tree Lane after 25 years to – once again – help the Banks children through a crisis. Based on the books by PL Travers, the film stars […]

Palace on a Hill

13th December 2018

This December London’s Alexandra Palace Theatre reopens. The building’s story is unique. Opened in 1875, it was a spectacular playhouse, with audiences of up to 3,000 enjoying pantomime, opera, drama and ballet. The impressive Victorian stage machinery was designed so that performers could appear, fly into the air, then disappear through the stage. But it […]

Britain at Christmas

12th December 2018

There is plenty to see and do in the UK this Christmas for people interested in festive traditions. In Cambridge, King’s College Chapel hosts the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the annual Christmas Eve choral service held in the college’s beautiful gothic chapel. This year marks the centenary of the festival, which started in […]