Archive For The “UK Travel” Category
Mangaマンガ – till 26 August 2019 Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery The British Museum presents the largest exhibition of manga ever held outside of Japan. Manga are Japanese comic books or graphic novels with a twist, serialised in magazines and read by a global audience. A multi-billion-pound business that embraces anime and gaming, manga are a global…
It’s some kind of prejudice, I guess. It’s just that I didn’t expect to discover such a restaurant in a spot that seemed so difficult to find by car. One could easily miss this rather isolated inn (OK, so I come from London) which might be mistaken for a cosy cottage with its own car…
The landscape around Halifax is a blanket of rolling hills and moorland, dotted with small towns and villages that give a nod to both its industrial and its farming heritage. There are plenty of striking views at any time of year and, significantly, there is also a spot where locals can interact with their vegetal…
The Plough in the hamlet of Lupton was built around 1760 but the welcome to this historic pub is contemporary and artful. There is a horse outside, but this is a rather ghostly plough-horse in metal, giving a nod to its rural location and its stylish interior. The pub has recently undergone extensive renovations to…
What better setting for a classic court-room drama than this chamber at the beautiful, iconic and historic County Hall in London! The audience have the sense that they are in a real law-court as they watch the murder case unfold in Witness for the Prosecution. The venue is small, accommodating just a couple of hundred…
Balham isn’t the first neighbourhood in which one might think to find a distillery. But here it is on a small industrial estate, and looking thoroughly contemporary with white walls and crisp painted logo. The first impression is of, perhaps, a drinks warehouse, but this building houses heritage, history and a distilling revival. This is…
Friday 12 January – Tuesday 13 March 2018 Room 90a, Prints and Drawings Gallery, British Museum The British Museum presents a selection of objects in a new display called Pots with Attitude: British Satire on Ceramics, 1760-1830. This focussed display offers a unique opportunity to enjoy 18th-century satire on both ceramics and prints. Drawing on…
Today sees the launch of the British Museum’s collaboration with Google Arts and Culture to digitise and share the ancient Maya collection of Alfred Maudslay, a 19th century explorer who brought the stories of the Maya to the world. This important collection is made up of photographs, casts and other scientific documents created during archaeological…
Flavours of India and Beyond We Londoners are a cosmopolitan bunch. That isn’t a recent phenomenon: our country has been built, over the centuries, on a diversity of cultures and that has also added to our cuisine. The British national dish is curry. There is a curry house on every high street, with around 10,000…
Many of us have become interested in wine. Yes, drinking it and pairing it. Remember the days when we in the UK drank just a few different wines? It wasn’t that they were so good that they became popular; truth to tell, it was all we had. Red or white from ‘various countries’. They were…
This isn’t the first trip with this charming and characterful Majestic Line. My first voyage was a couple of years ago and was an introduction to the Scottish Isles; this second trip was to remind me of why I loved the initial experience so much! The Majestic Line offers holidays and short breaks on two…
Twickenham Stadium, just like Wembley Stadium, is usually known by its address rather than its function. Wembley is mostly just ‘Wembley’ and Twickenham is ‘Twickenham’ with rarely the word ‘stadium’ getting a mention. That’s likely due to its long history and the popular respect for the institution. Twickenham is the largest stadium in the world…
I am a Londoner and I am ashamed to say that I rarely take advantage of visiting our iconic and internationally-appreciated historic and cultural sites, unless I just happen to be passing. The Thames is our ancient thoroughfare, but now work vessels are mostly a thing of distant memory – that watery road is these…
We might be in London for a short holiday. We see the sights, monuments, museums. We shop till we drop and we are swept along by throngs of others looking for the same delights of retail therapy. But there is another vision of England. It’s that ‘green and pleasant land’ of manicured gardens, country houses…
Swan Upping is an annual ceremonial event and an activity that has endured since the 12th century. The mute swans on part of the River Thames are caught, weighed, inspected, ringed, and then released. Centuries ago these birds were eaten and this exercise was game management! Swans were regular food in the Tudor age, but…
The Shaftesbury Theatre is both beautiful and historic, and a worthy presenter of a show that is beautiful in a very different way. Memphis is a musical and a memorable and striking one. It is set in an era of segregation, overt racism, poverty, and dreams. The story line is perennial and simple but with…
The British Museum in London is famed the world over for its displays of artefacts and curios. Granted, there are some that feel many of these objets d’art should be returned to their place of origin, while others feel that they are safer where they are. That conundrum is best left to wiser heads than…
I live in West London but whenever I consider a weekend break I turn right instead of left at the end of the road. That takes me to central London with the thronging crowds, fuss and rush. Lots of excitement, it’s true, but it hardly constitutes relaxation, and perhaps if I turn left there could…
Strawberry Hill. Even the name conjures visions of pastoral idylls, perhaps a water-colour of mature trees with the promise of a gently-flowing river just over that grassy knoll. Well, the reality isn’t that far from the pastel dream and there is a House that is at the very centre of the quintessentially English scene. Strawberry…
You couldn’t make it up! A story that, on the face of it, sounds quite improbable. The King in the Car Park … indeed a sovereign in the Social Services Car Park. Richard III, or at least his mortal remains, were discovered on the site of Greyfriars Friary in Leicester, where Richard was buried in…