HMS Belfast
One of the last surviving ships from WW2, HMS Belfast is a fascinating piece of history moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge, it’s easy to spend several hours…
Tag: UK
Best of 2018 – Travels
By far the biggest year of travel I’ve done, helped by taking a fifteen week leave of absence from work, in addition to eight weeks of paid and unpaid leave…
Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts
The largest exhibition of the South Pacific in London for decades, Oceania presents an extensive set of objects and art works darting from hundreds of years ago to the present…
Penshurst Place & Parham Park
A pair of grand houses built two centuries apart (the 14th and 16th) but both strongly connected with the Elizabethan era. Parham Park is one of the finest Elizabethan houses…
Best of 2017 – Photography – Further afield
Other than four trips to Australia and my current trip around South America, from Santiago to Buenos Aires via Antarctica on a cruise (posts to come in January), I made…
The Savill Garden
The perfect place to spend the morning before catching a flight from Heathrow (as it’s only 15 minutes away), The Savill Garden is 35 acres of interconnected gardens dating back…
Dorchester and around
One of the best things about the UK is the wealth of things to do and see in a small area, in this case that surround Dorchester, the county town…
The Tank Museum & Clouds Hill
If you like tanks, you’ll love the Tank Museum, the national home of everything tank related. Not sure I’d agree with TripAdvisor that it’s the best thing to do in…
Athelhampton House and Gardens
Dating in part from 1485, Athelhampton House is a very pleasant English country house and gardens close to Dorchester. Owned by the Martyn family for five generations, it is currently…
Corfe Castle
Dating back over a thousand years in places, the remains of Corfe Castle are an evocative sight in the Dorset countryside, close to Swanage. The castle would have been hugely…
Kingston Lacey
A very typical, but enjoyable, National Trust property near Wimborne. A grand old house with extensive gardens, it was home to the Bankes family for over 300 years. I particularly…
Wimborne
North of Poole and Bournemouth, Wimborne may not look like much on the map but is well worth a half day to explore it’s well preserved heritage. The highlight of…
Swanage
A classic English seaside town, Swanage is a popular spot on the Dorset coast. It’s home to a reasonable sandy beach and some rather nice heritage buildings, some of which…
Design Museum, London
Last year the Design Museum moved from it’s former location in an old banana warehouse on the Thames, to the beautifully converted former home of the Commonwealth Institute at the…
A day in London
My annual day in London catching up with friends and visiting new places, which are getting increasingly hard to find. On a sunny day though it is a pleasure just…
Best of 2016 – Photography – Further afield
I took ~10,000 photos overseas this year on my travels to Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, the Galápagos, Georgia, UK and Australia. Here’s a far smaller subset of some of my favourites. All…
Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire
Wimpole Hall is a huge eighteenth century house, once the home of Rudyard Kipling’s daughter, with gardens by Capability Brown, and some interiors by Sir John Soane. The inside was…
The Barbican Complex, London
The Barbican complex is an impressive landmark – 40 acres in central London home to 4,000 people, shops, restaurants, a church, a library, an art gallery, and the largest performing arts centre in…
Osterley House, London
An oasis of greenery in West London, Osterley House and the surrounding park make for a great stopover 20 mins from Heathrow Airport. The 250 year old mansion was built…
Switch House, Tate Modern extension, London
One of the largest modern art galleries in the world just got bigger, by over 22k sqm, and added probably the best free viewing platform in London. The Switch House…