Essential History | The people, places and events that have shaped our history and culture
The people, places and events that have shaped our history and culture
More than three hundred years after its completion, St Paul's Cathedral dominates the skyline on Ludgate Hill in the City of London. Seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the British Commonwealth, it is the second largest domed church in the world (after St Peter's in Rome). The work of Sir [...]
Borough Market is one of London’s oldest markets, first mentioned in 1276. This is owing to its position on the south side of London Bridge - the only bridge across the river until 1750, when Westminster Bridge opened. Borough Market served travellers arriving or departing London from places to the south east of London, in [...]
Finale Ligure is an Italian comune on the Gulf of Genoa in the Province of Savona in Liguria. We visited in autumn, flying from London to Turin and hired a car for the eighty mile drive south to the coast. Finale Ligure is a popular resort for Italians living in the north, but has very [...]
Hampton Court Palace was the home of England's most famous king from 1529 until his death in 1547. With sixty acres of gardens and 750 acres of parkland, it was King Henry VIII's weekend and summer retreat from London. The palace was occupied by monarch's of the Stuart and Hanoverian Royal Houses up until 1737. [...]
One of London’s finest country homes is only a few miles west of central London. Chiswick House was the centre of highly select gatherings of the Earl of Burlington’s family and friends in the 1730’s. And around fifty years later it served the same purpose for the Duke of Devonshire and his sparkling (very ‘modern’) [...]