Visit – Eltham Palace

Down in suburban South-East London is a building that managed to blend Medieval palace, art-deco design and a castle-like moat into one perfect home - this is Eltham Palace.

Day trips from London – Dover Castle, the largest castle in England

Looming high over Dover town centre is the mighty fortress that remarkably includes almost every era in English history from Roman to WW2.

Day trips from London – Tilbury Fort

Today marks the anniversary of a certain Queen giving a rather famous speech to her troops in Tilbury. But why Tilbury?

Day trips from London – Berkhamsted Castle

The small commuter town of Berkhamsted sits on one of the most important sites in English history - the location of the formal surrender of the English to William the Conqueror. And yet, most people haven't heard of it.

Derek Jarman gets a Blue Plaque

Yesterday, an anti-establishment film director known for the colour blue got his own Blue Plaque from the establishment.

Ranger’s House – the art collection you’ve probably never seen

At the top end of Greenwich Park, away from the tourists is a grand house, called a lodge, and inside is one of the UK's finest collections of art. And until last week, not the easiest or most obvious one to see.

Day trips from London – Avebury Stone circle

There's a part of England's green and pleasant land that's rich in ancient stone works, and at one place, you can find a pub inside a giant stone circle.

The ancient tradition of cleaning the Uffington Horse

For thousands of years, people have come to Uffington to clean a prehistoric white horse carved into the landscape. And this weekend, the ancient tradition was performed once again.

Day trips from London – Rochester Castle & Cathedral

A mere 35 minutes from central London can be found a large, if ruined castle, and next to it a vibrant, if modest sized Cathedral. This is Rochester, and a very historic town.

Apsley House puts on the Waterloo Banquet

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington's London home, Apsley House has re-presented Waterloo Gallery where Wellington held annual banquets to commemorate the great victory.

Wartime bunker under Eltham Palace to be restored

As part of a range of upgrades just announced for the art-deco Eltham Palace, the WW2 bunker underneath the building is to be restored to its wartime appearance.

Museum Meals – The Jewel Tower

In a small grassy depression directly opposite the Houses of Parliament can be found a small stone tower, which happens to be a 14th century building that is open to the public as a small museum.

More Blue Plaques planned for London

Despite all the media fuss about the death of the Blue Plaque a couple of years ago, they are still going strong, and nominations has opened for more of them to be installed on buildings.

How close London came to being covered in concrete

One of London's greatest strengths, and in some ways, its greatest curse, has been the lack of a dominating Overload with the power to tear down entire chunks of the city and rebuild it in their preferred style.

Post War buildings celebrated inside the Wellington Arch

Wellington Arch next to Hyde Park has swapped out the display inside the top of the arch bit and is running a short exhibition on how 20th century buildings, often derided have been preserved and in some cases, gained affection.

A look at the improvements to Stonehenge

Work on the new visitor centre and removal of the old road that ran next to Stoneehenge in Wiltshire is progressing, and as we were in the area at the weekend, it seemed worth stopping for a look.

John Betjeman exhibition opens inside Wellington Arch

Almost everyone who has visited St Pancras station has taken time out to look for the statue of John Betjeman in his famous upward staring pose holding onto the trademark hat.

A look at the secular enclave within Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, that mighty bastion of religion has an alien invader amongst its midst, a couple of buildings that were nominally religious, but have spent the past 800 years performing more secular duties.

The grass gets greener at Stonehenge

Computer generated images of new buildings and urban landscapes have long been a bit of an annoyance for me (and many people) in how the images rendered are rarely realistic representations of how the building will look when finished.

New exhibition inside Westminster’s Jewel Tower

The Victoria Tower dominates the southern end of the Houses of Parliament and is the repository of laws passed by our elected masters -- but sitting on the other side of the road is the much smaller, and vastly older building that it replaced.

The General, The Scientist & The Banker

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, but an equally important discovery was made in France, when a flint axe was found buried amongst the bones of now extinct animals.

Egyptian Architecture in London – an Exhibition

London is packed full of various lumps of ancient Egypt cluttering up museums who by various means in the past acquired them, so another display in another museum might seem excessive.

Go inside the Duke of Wellington’s London Home

In a time when politicians were almost exclusively drawn from the landed gentry, it helped prospective Prime Minister's to have a grand London home to entertain and work from, and one such building can be found at number 149 Picadilly.

A look at a 600 year old “timber cathedral” just outside Heathrow

A tiny shade under 600 years ago, Winchester College needed a new barn to replace an older one on some land it owned just outside what is today Heathrow Airport.