Marble Hill House returns as one of outer London's most picturesque Thames riverside attractions this spring, after a two-year programme of works by English Heritage -generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund-to revive the interior a

TO mark The Goring’s part in the coronation celebrations 70 years ago, when the hotel hosted many of The Queen’s personal guests, the restaurant has prepared a new Platinum Jubilee menu that includes dishes inspired by that event and the special dinn

WITH three recycled-plastic ships floating in mid air above gushing fountains and a Ukrainian flag flying defiantly above the South Wing, Somerset House hardly recalls St Petersburg, but the London landmark played the role brilliantly in GoldenEye. F

For a slice of James Bond life with all the glitz and none of the danger, there's no better place than the OWO residences in Whitehall. The former Old War Office, which has appeared in several 007 films, has been converted into 85 luxury properties s

AT the top of a green-squared, residential stretch of Islington, between busy Offord Road and the cur-clunk of the Overground, there’s a permanent queue on the pavement. People wait for coffee, bend to notice dogs and prams and know the staff by name

• Elizabeth I was known as a proud patron of British drama and literature and it was during her reign that the first permanent and public playhouse in London was built (in 1576). The playhouse was christened The Theatre and it stood on Curtain Road i

MAY is always dominated by the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, SW3, but there are plenty of other events worthy of your time. Start the month with a bang at The Gunpowder Plot, Tower Hill Vaults, EC3, a virtual-reality and multi-sensory exhibition about the

LET’S all go down the Strand,’ cries the Edwardian music-hall song, hailing it as ‘the place for fun and noise’. In the 1890s, it had more theatres, music halls, pubs and smoking rooms than any other street in London. However, more recently, it’s bee

Was opening your first restaurant in Peckham a gamble? We were taking a risk, for sure, opening Kudu (119, Queen’s Road, SE15) at the ‘wrong’ end of Peckham, away from the [gentrified] Bellenden Road and the common. When we took over the site, it wa

Rosie is an event rider, who won Blair Castle International Horse Trials in Scotland last year and will be competing at Badminton Horse Trials, Gloucestershire, which start today. She is the daughter of Richard and Dr Caroline Fry of Halstock, Dorset

BESET by pressures and short on resources, Britain’s protected areas don’t always support biodiversity, prompting a call for ‘transformative change’ to ensure they can genuinely contribute to Nature’s recovery. According to a British Ecological Socie

ANEW report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group set out ‘a comprehensive growth plan’ to create jobs and opportunities in rural areas. Arguing that ‘Rural Britain is not a museum’, the group highlighted an urgent need to boost the countryside’s econ

JOIN Gardens Editor, Tiffany Daneff, for a talk on inspiring meadowlands in the Thyme Hotel’s orchid-filled water meadows in the Cotswolds. Hugo Rittson Thomas, artist and author of Wildflowers for the Queen (Wildflower Press, 2021), will discuss the

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation has expelled for life a former member found guilty of wildlife crimes and firearms offences Pembrokeshire's farming community was left reeling when it discovered the local council had advised staf

WITH funding hard to come by during the pandemic, the future of the nation’s churches has at times looked gloomy, so the news that the National Churches Trust (NCT) will award grants worth £584,000 to keep 64 places of worship open and in good repair

A GROUP of Dartmoor commoners has restored a historic waterway on Holne Common in Devon. Built at least 170 years ago, the Holne Moor Leat is an unlined channel that runs for almost five miles, supplying drinking water to four farms. The commoners ca

THE National Portrait Gallery (NGP) and genealogy service Ancestry are inviting people to submit their family portraits for a chance to be part of their Nation’s Family Album, which promises to record the faces of Britain old and new. Published on An

AN eco-friendly draught won a Queen’s Award for innovation. The blocker ‘lodges in the throat of redundant chimneys’, according to inventor Sally Phillips of Chimney Sheep. ‘It stops warm air from escaping, prevents cold air from getting in, signific

THE line-up for this year’s Magnolia Cup charity Flat race at Glorious Goodwood (July 26–30) in West Sussex has been revealed, with the women enjoying widely varied backgrounds and equestrian experience. Journalist Kim Parker is more used to the Hous

IN this age, when all seasons of the year are much alike to us and gaiety takes its course regardless, one is apt to overlook the importance of festal days to our more restricted ancestors. Spring, we all know, begins officially when the Old Woman le

The French call it muguet de mai, source of the distinctive, old-fashioned fragrance Muguet. To the Germans, it is Maiblume, both names confirming that now is the short, but heady season to enjoy the scent of Convallaria majalis, the native lily of t

FAR from the glamour and ceremony of aviation in days gone by, those of us pictured above have just completed the Army Pilots Course amid modern, clinical and efficient facilities. Although the quality of training and engineering of our machines is f

READING the crow-hanging story (Letters, April 20) reminded me of a similar incident many years ago. A pair of crows landed nearby and were joined shortly after by about a dozen more, with one bird walking over to the original two—the rest remained a

ONE of the few activities that has continued without a break in the centre of London through the lockdowns has been construction. This history of continuous redevelopment is as old as the city itself. So, too, is the slightly buccaneering spirit in w

The kitchen at Hilles House, Gloucestershire, designed by the disciple of William Morris and Philip Webb, Detmar Blow, in 1913. For a time, the Blows ate with their servants in this room, albeit at their own table. To mutual relief, it didn't last. T

THIS School Scene by Mir Sayyid Ali teems with detail. There are men making paper and hanging it out to dry in a garden filled with blossom trees. Students copy calligraphy in the ornate schoolhouse, their shoes stashed in alcoves by the entrance. On

IF ever there was a flawed masterpiece, it was the 36-seat Comet airliner, a pioneer in civilian jet aviation destined to go down in flames. Although the Second World War had seen advances in jet-powered aircraft technology—led by Germany’s Heinkel H

THE architecture of Kelmscott Manor is woven into William Morris’s 1890 novel, News from Nowhere, in which a journey exploring utopian ideals in a post-industrial world leads, after much wandering, to a ‘many-gabled old house built by the simple coun

THE Cotswolds is a honeypot for artists: there they all are, tucked into its dips and folds, working away in their barns, sheds and garden studios. From Judith Yarrow (www.judithyarrow.com), painting what she sees on walks around her Chipping Norton

GREAT BRITAIN are the triple champions in eventing, holding Olympic, world and European team gold medals, plus two out of three individual titles. There aren’t too many sports one can say that about and it’s taken 50 years, since the late Richard Mea

EVERY year (bar the past two, of course) I am invited out to Geneva to Richemont’s über-glamorous watch fair, now called Watches and Wonders. This year saw brands outside Richemont’s umbrella entering the mix and it was inspiring to touch and try suc

POET-TURNED-FOLKLORIST Ruth Manning-Sanders understood the powerful attraction of fairy tales for readers. ‘In the end,’ she wrote in the foreword to A Book of Princes and Princesses, published in 1969, ‘it all comes right: the enemy is defeated, the

Inspired by elegant Regency design, the Cheltenham bench, £800, is made from matt-grey, powder-coated steel and supplied with a comfortable showerproof seat cushion, from Neptune (01793 934011; www.neptune.com) Useful for snacks, these Mixed Colour

INCREASINGLY, I’m asked to include a dining-entertaining space in my garden designs and not necessarily close to a house. Being forced to stay at home for so long during the pandemic has made people consider using more of their gardens, whether it is

ALTHOUGH currently in short supply, classic country houses can be found anywhere within the 787 square miles of the Cotswolds AONB, which stretches from the borders of Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the north, to the fringes of Wiltshire and Some

With its honey-coloured stones, different rooflines and pretty bay windows, Grade II-listed Rhymes Cottage, in Moreton-in-Marsh, has an almost fairy-tale quality. Inside, it's equally charming, with plenty of exposed stones and timbers, inglenook fir

RECENTLY, there have been quite fanciful ideas circulating about rewilding. If you believe some people, in the not-too-distant future, tracts of the British countryside could look like a mixture of the western US and the African savannah, with wolves

I’VE fallen newly in love with rosemary. I can be as distracted as anyone by new varieties and, this spring, I confess the wide pots of mint, the lemon verbena and the bergamot coming back enthusiastically as the days stretch and warm have each stole

TO enter a beechwood is to enter a cathedral; the same immense grey pillars, the shared mysteried gloom. The equal stillness, the equal echoing emptiness. Vita Sackville-West knew this, writing about the beeches at Knole: ‘Your stone-grey columns a c

THERE is a special point in an English summer, some time close to midsummer’s day, when the season is at its most beautiful. This is elderflower time, when creamy blossoms decorate the hedgerows like bridal bouquets in a sea of green. Country people

king , , beech does not grow to great age; 250 years is reasonable longevity for the queen. For such a soaring tree, the roots are shallow, but complex, partnering with ectomycorrhizal fungi to obtain nutrients. Native truffles grow in beechwoods. Th

Serves 4 12 large raw head-on prawns2 banana shallots, sliced3tbspn massaman curry paste1 x 400ml can coconut milk200ml vegetable stock4 kaffir lime leaves1 dried red chillior 1 tspn chilli flakes1tbspn tamarind1tbspn soft brown sugar1tbspn fish sa

AN interesting pair of mahogany armchairs at the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair, Battersea, SW11 (May 4–8), represents a new name to me. Where did Henry Thomas Peters, cabinetmaker to the King of Sardinia, begin his career and where was he bor

This year, the Salon du Dessin and Drawing Now fairs in Paris are working in tandem, at the Palais Brongniart and the Carreau du Temple (May 18–23). I shall report after visiting, but, in the meantime, I must flag up this watercolour by Johann Heinri

Slice spring greens into ribbons and drop them into a saucepan with melted butter. Add chopped spring onion, together with other greens, such as courgettes, peas or broad beans (have a fridge forage). Cook until soft and then add seasoning and a sque

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