Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2025/January 2026 i Discover Britain

This issue, our travel special focuses on the city of my birth – the place I call home and yet of which I never tire: London. On page 14, we bring you some of the best ways to enjoy your time in the capital, whatever the season, from traditional Christmas pastimes to autumnal walks and quintessential summer days out. London also offers plenty of out-of-the-ordinary experiences, unusual activities and secret destinations for an unforgettable trip – read all about Jeremy Flint’s food awakening at Borough Market on page 24 for starters. Meanwhile, this issue’s Magical History Tour (p39) reveals the places to visit to find out more about one of the most devastating events in the capital’s history: the Great Fire of London. Elsewhere this issue, English traditions don’t get…

“All the world’s a stage”. Nowhere is William Shakespeare’s famous quote (from As You Like It) more true than in London, which boasts over 240 theatres – that’s more theatres per square mile than New York City. About 40 of them, including the largest and most well known – the Coliseum, Palladium and Theatre Royal, for instance – are in the West End: Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Soho. However, there are plenty of other smaller or less famous but equally good theatres dotted around the capital. Here are some of the most historic venues in the capital putting on plays, musicals, pantomimes and shows to keep everyone entertained this winter. Shakespeare’s Globe You could be forgiven for thinking that Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, which is located on the…

EXHIBITION No money needed Tucked away beneath the Bank of England building on London’s Threadneedle Street, the Bank of England Museum is one of the capital’s lesser-known museums – and is free to enter year round. To mark 100 years since work began on the current building, the Building the Bank exhibition will display previously unpublished images and unseen objects charting the development of this London landmark, designed by architect Herbert Baker. Though Baker’s neoclassical design drew criticism – not least from architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, who described the demolition of the old John Soane-designed building as ‘the greatest architectural crime to befall London in the twentieth century’ – today it is a symbol of the City of London. Visitors to the exhibition, which runs until Spring 2027, can find…

Steeped in history and overlooking the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace, The Rubens at the Palace is a sumptuous, five-star hotel, located in central London. With its origins in 1703, the grand building in which it is housed has been a dressmaker’s establishment, an artificial flower store, and a café run by the Aerated Bread Company, in its time. In 1912, Hotel Rubens opened on the site, quickly establishing itself as a favoured retreat for débutantes and members of high society, as they attended royal events at the palace across the road. Rubens became part of The Red Carnation Hotel Collection in 1997 and today it oozes elegance and grandeur, with a royal theme running through its recently redesigned interiors. These include 161 rooms and suites, a New York-style bar,…

Crossing the Solway Firth to Workington in Cumbria was one of the worst decisions Mary ever made Everyone thinks they know the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, but do they really? One reason I have written a sequel to my book Homecoming, about her years in Scotland, was that there was still so much to discover. While Mary was on the throne in Scotland (1561-68), her life was filled with adventure and drama. Following the murder of her second husband Lord Darnley, in which she was believed to have been complicit – marrying Lord Bothwell, the prime suspect for his killing did not help – Mary was abducted by her enemies, a clique of Protestant lords led by her half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray. While held prisoner in…

Gracing the covers of books on science, industry and the Enlightenment, Joseph Wright’s paintings feel oddly familiar. Works by the artist, born in 1734, have come to define Britain’s early Industrial Revolution. From the Shadows, the first ever National Gallery exhibition devoted to Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’, explores the artist’s ringside seat at not one but two revolutions. “Discoveries in art were as much an influence on Wright’s work, as discoveries in science,” says Christine Riding, director of collections and research at the National Gallery. We are walking past 28 Iron Gate, Wright’s childhood home, in Derby, marked by a red marble obelisk, topped by an orrery – the mechanical model of planets orbiting the sun, made famous by his work A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, 1766. Earlier, we…

Connecting cousins The author of Going to the Gower in our last issue received the below message from a long, lost family member… I have just read an article on the Gower and with such a distinctive surname and with the photo of you and your dad, I am pretty sure your dad and his sister are my cousins. My father and his mother were brother and sister. Please pass on my best wishes to your dad, who I lost contact with and have not seen for maybe 20 years. Your article brought back many happy memories of summer holidays spent on the Gower. Name kept private, by Facebook Fashion forward When we shared the news of the opening of a landmark exhibition in London exploring the fashion legacy of…

Stepping across the threshold of 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury, where Charles Dickens lived with his family from 1837 to 1839, I could feel the presence of ‘The Inimitable’, as he was nicknamed, all around me. The smart five-storey Georgian terraced house – which, since 1925, has been a museum open to the public – is where Dickens (who lived from 1812 to 1870) created some of his most famous stories and characters, beloved by readers across the globe. Initially using the pseudonym ‘Boz’, he first penned The Pickwick Papers here; published in serial form, the first instalment sold just 400 copies. By the time he left Doughty Street for a larger property in Marylebone, his third novel, Nicholas Nickleby, published proudly under his real name, was selling in excess…

London has more palaces than you could shake a sceptre at. Besides the seven royal palaces — including the most famous: Buckingham, Kensington, St James’s and the Tower of London — there are a host of other landmark buildings in the capital that qualify as palaces; that is, are fit for a king, queen, political leader or Archbishop. And it’s the Archbishop of Canterbury for whom Lambeth Palace has provided the official London residence for over 800 years. Situated on the southern bank of the Thames (although, technically, it’s on the eastern bank as the river flows north – or south, according to the tide – between Lambeth and Westminster bridges), the origins of Lambeth Palace can be traced back to the turn of the 11th century. In that era,…

Although the origin of our fascinating centuries-old tradition remains a mystery, there are many theories on how the custom began – from pagan fire rituals repelling spirits and protecting those involved to burning barrels to celebrate the prevention of blowing up the Houses of Parliament on the 5th of November 1605. I believe it was likely a method of fumigation of thatched properties during the plague, as this was conducted in many towns in the southwest of England. Originally, tar barrels were rolled through the streets every year on 5 November before evolving to being carried on participants’ shoulders. Hatherleigh, in West Devon (Ottery is East Devon) is the only other town that still burns barrels today, pulling them ablaze on a sled through the streets. Due to popularity and…