Essential History | The top sights in London, Madrid and beyond
The best cultural and historical sights in London, Madrid and beyond.
One of Madrid’s most delightful house museums, Museo Sorolla, charts the life of Joaquin y Bastida Sorolla through his art and in his home - where he worked and lived from 1911 to 1923. Famed for being the Spanish ‘painter of light’, his impressionistic style and ability to capture the tones of the Mediterranean coastline [...]
Plaza del Rey is home to the curiously named Casa de Las Siete Chimeneas (House of the Seven Chimneys) - apparently each representing one of the seven deadly sins. Completed in 1577, it’s one Madrid’s oldest buildings, and is now home to the Ministry of Education and Culture. Plenty of lore is associated with the [...]
The history of Hatfield House starts in 1485, when the Bishop of Ely (Cambridgeshire) constructed Hatfield Palace, today known as the Old Palace. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-41), Hatfield Palace was acquired by King Henry VIII, passed down in sequence to his children; Edward, Mary and Elisabeth and then inherited by King James [...]
Lincoln’s Inn Fields is named after the former recreation ground for lawyers learning and practising their profession at the adjacent Lincoln’s Inn - one of London's four Inns of Court still operating today. Originally, two separate fields, it was home to public executions before becoming a training ground for parliamentarian troops during the English Civil [...]
Somerset House has an illustrious past. The site was once the home of Lord Protector Somerset then Tudor and Stuart queens of the realm before becoming the first home of the Royal Academy (1771-1836), the Royal Society (1780-1857), a London headquarters of the Royal Navy - and then a government tax and records office (1789-1985). [...]
Holland Park in west London is the former estate of Holland House, home to Henry Fox Lord Holland and his family from the late 1700s. Henry’s son, Charles James Fox, was a prominent Whig politician. A leading libertarian and lifelong thorn in the side to George III, he was Britain’s first foreign secretary. Today, the [...]
Note: Book ahead, walk ups will be accommodated subject to availability. At the age of 25, Charles Dickens rented (as was normal practice of the day) a large home in Doughty Street, London. He did this, just as his writing career, under the pseudonym of ‘Boz’, was taking off. Dickens lived here with his wife, [...]
Renowned for being the home of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane has a colourful past stretching back to the fourteenth century. Named after Sir Thomas Drury, who built a house here during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it peaked as a select and fashionable neighbourhood in C16-17. However, one hundred years later, it had [...]
Here are London’s 5 most historic five-star hotels, in date-of-opening order. If your budget doesn’t stretch to an overnight stay, settle for a coffee in the public lounge! London’s first hotel built in 1837 with numerous historical associations - not least being the location for the first successful telephone call in London by Alexander Graham [...]
The former London home of Sir Thomas More, stands on Chelsea Embankment adjacent to Chelsea Old Church (More’s home is the central grey stone building in the featured picture). Originally situated in Bishopsgate it was moved here in 1910 since Chelsea was the location of More’s Beaufort House and estate (only recalled now by local [...]