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Inside the remarkable restoration of King George III's observatoryCommissioned by George III, the observatory has a long and fascinating history as a seat of scientific endeavour. It has now been restored as a home, as William Aslet reports.
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‘Its loss became a cautionary tale, and a rallying cry for architectural conservation’: The rise and fall and renewed interest in Ireland’s remarkable country housesLesley Bond traces a brief history of Ireland’s country houses and questions whether you can ever separate the house from the history it represents.
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Allerton Castle: The great country house that blends Hampton Court, Highclere and the Palace of WestminsterA disastrous fire in 2005 prompted the rebirth of Allerton Castle, North Yorkshire, an outstanding Victorian house with a deep and remarkable history. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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In our built heritage, is the truth stranger than fiction?Athena considers how our historic buildings are presented in an age of film and television.
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Art Deco: The striking design style that embraced it allArt Deco, with its exuberant passion for geometry, luxury and shiny chrome, cocooned troubled times in a layer of glitz. A century after the style gained its name, Gavin Plumley surveys one of the 20th century’s most all-encompassing movements.
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Nuthall Temple: The Palladian masterpiece that was blown up to make way for the M1Every Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
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Everingham Park: The revival of a lost vision of Georgian gloryBuilt between 1758 and 1764, Everingham Park, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was brilliantly reinvented in the 1960s. It also possesses an opulent chapel, a triumphalist product of Catholic Emancipation. John Goodall reports on this Georgian house, home of Philip and Helen Guest. Photography by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
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Sir Denys Lasdun: The brains behind the building branded 'a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London’ by The KingJohn Betjeman admired Sir Denys Lasdun’s work, but The King disliked it, and opinion remains divided to this day. Either way, the man who viewed ‘buildings as landscape’ has left an indelible mark on London.
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Eight of the UK's most impressive private libraries, as seen in the pages of Country LifeEvery Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
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One of 'the most magnificent and perfectly preserved of Britain’s great Edwardian country houses', built for the heir to Thomas Cook's vast fortuneJohn Goodall looks at the creation of Sennowe Park in Norfolk — home of Charles and Virginia Temple-Richards — and charts its transformation at the hands of a local architect from a Georgian lodge to a luxurious Edwardian home.
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Opinion: If we want to keep our architectural heritage, why do we tax those who repair it?It beggars belief that the state lists buildings in order to protect them — and then doesn’t contribute to their upkeep, says Country Life columnist Agromenes.
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The country home with an intriguing connection to the Titanic, doomed for demolitionEvery Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
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'Step through the front door and your expectations evaporate in amazement and delight': The humble end-of-terrace house that's a wonder of neo-Classical grandeurAn unassuming house in Swansea reveals a marvellous and unexpected secret. John Goodall enjoys a rich collection of neo-Classical decorative plasterwork lovingly created by Royston Jones and Fiona Gray.
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Simon Jenkins: 50 years of saving Britain's buildings, from triumphs and disasters to the great country house we bought for £1In 1975, a new organisation was set up with the express aim of saving Britain's most beautiful and historic buildings from the wrecking ball. How has SAVE fared in the 50 years since then far?
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The 'strikingly beautiful, authentic and innovative' Highland castle that's been saved for the ages, and available to rent by the weekendFairburn Tower is the latest magnificent building saved and given a new life by The Landmark Trust. Mary Miers takes a look.
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'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed': Inside Jane Austen's Winchester home where she penned her final words and drew her final breathJane Austen spent the last days of her life in rented lodgings in Winchester, Hampshire. Adam Rattray describes the remarkable recent discoveries made about the house in which she died.
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Ironmongers' Hall: The medieval marvel destroyed by a First World War bomb, and its inspiring 21st century renaissanceIronmongers’ Hall in London EC2 — home of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers — is one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. This year it is celebrating the centenary of its Tudor-style Hall; John Goodall takes a look, and tells the remarkable story of the building. Photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library
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‘It has been destroyed beyond repair, not by the effect of gunfire, but by a deliberate act of vandalism’: Britain’s long lost great houses that live on only inside the Country Life archiveIn the wake of the First and Second World Wars, some of Britain’s greatest houses were lost forever — to extinct familial lines, financial woes, neglect, vandalism and tragic accidents. Thankfully, plenty are preserved — in photographic form at least — for eternity, inside the Country Life archive.
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Critics be damned, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral gets Grade I status on advice from Historic EnglandLooking a bit like a large piece of moon-landing equipment on which you’d best not sit, with indoor lighting that wouldn’t look out of place in a nightclub, the building has ever divided opinions.
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Richard Rogers: 'Talking Buildings' is a fitting testament to the elegance of utilityA new exhibition at Sir John Soane's museum dissects the seminal works of Richard Rogers, one of Britain's greatest architects.
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'This is how the countryside looked to Gilbert White, to Thomas Hardy, even to Shakespeare and Chaucer': The forgotten corner of the world where King Charles has poured his energy into preserving an all-but-extinct way of lifeThe historic buildings of a Transylvanian settlement have been restored and preserved with the help of several foundations and backed by The King’s personal enthusiasm. Jeremy Musson reports on this remarkable place; photographs by Paul Highnam.
