Many cities and regions are defined by their buildings. statues and works of art. Some such as The Great Wall of China, Leaning Tower of Pisa achieved this status despite being originally built for very different reasons. Others like the Eiffel Tower or even the London Eye were only ever meant to be temporary structures and… Continue reading The Angel of The North
Category: Cool Britannia
VE Day Remembered in Photos – This Is Your Victory!
The 8th May 1945 was V.E. Day or Victory in Europe Day. As the U.K. is in the midst of remembering and celebrating perhaps the most momentous day in our history, I thought it would be interesting to post some old photos of that incredible day as well as showing how war had left London and… Continue reading VE Day Remembered in Photos – This Is Your Victory!
A Trip To Norfolk, A Pilgrimage To Walsingham
Not many people have heard of Walsingham in the U.K. and even less people know of it overseas and yet around 900 years ago it would have been one of the most famous pilgrimage points in the known world. Situated only 130 miles from London but even today much more isolated and harder to… Continue reading A Trip To Norfolk, A Pilgrimage To Walsingham
The Red Squirrel Fightback begins!
It is one of our most loved creatures and like the Robin redbreast is one of our most treasured creatures. Symbolised in snowy British winters it is iconic and yet like most of us, I’ve never seen a Red Squirrel. 150 years ago they were rampant across much of the nation but then in 1876… Continue reading The Red Squirrel Fightback begins!
A Guided Tour Inside The Houses Of Parliament
The last year or so I have probably visited Parliament a dozen times but always from the outside. I’ve been in before when I was about 10 years and remember bits and pieces of the interior and especially inside the famous clock tower of Big Ben and the unusual scenario of being deafened by the… Continue reading A Guided Tour Inside The Houses Of Parliament
A Brief History of Parliament
On Thursday evening I was kindly invited on a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament by my local MP, Richard Harrington. Before I write-up a post about the tour itself I thought this would give a great opportunity to write a little about Parliament itself. Though there were bodies with some parliamentary like qualities… Continue reading A Brief History of Parliament
Was it something I said? – Accents and dialects of the world and Great Britain
Over the weekend it was a revealed in a Time Magazine survey that we British apparently have the most sexy accent in the world. Whilst not sure how many from Tanzania or Mongolia were surveyed, we sure are grateful to all our English speaking and European friends. I must say though that I find it… Continue reading Was it something I said? – Accents and dialects of the world and Great Britain
Grace Darling – A Victorian Heroine
Not many people know about Grace Darling today but 175 years ago her fame hadn’t just spread around the land but around the world and with good reason. Grace was the daughter of William and Thomasin Darling, just one of nine children born into the family in the early 19th century. Aged just a few… Continue reading Grace Darling – A Victorian Heroine
The Death of the music scene in London
I’ve written before on the various building and engineering projects that are transforming many cities in Britain and London in particularly. In the grand scheme of things, many of these obviously offer huge improvements bringing 20th and often 19th century infrastructure into the new millennia. However increasingly it is becoming obvious that all is not… Continue reading The Death of the music scene in London
The Lost Treasures of Bad King John (plus other treasures both found and missing).
Have you ever wanted to get rich quick? Long before Nigerian spammers were in on the act there was the art of metal-detecting. Often metal-detecting enthusiasts are derided as being a little bit odd and depicted as spending their lives wondering around barren fields with not much to show for it but then one of them… Continue reading The Lost Treasures of Bad King John (plus other treasures both found and missing).
Stephen Liddell 