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Downtown Abbey is about to finish forever, and you're about to get a chance to see — and to buy — the costumes from the show
Downton Abbey's exquisite costumes and props are going on show at a free exhibition ahead of a sale being held by Bonhams later this summer.
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‘One of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever made’: the Bayeux Tapestry heads to Britain for the first time in almost a millennium
A historic agreement between this country and France sees the 225ft-long tableau — which may have been made in Britain but has been in France since 1077 — arrive at the British Museum in Autumn 2026.
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‘This isn't just silver — it's a story of a man who fell in love with a woman who society deemed unworthy': The large silver sculpture of rutting stags that scandalised Victorian society
George Harry Grey, the 7th Earl of Stamford, was shunned when he married a circus performer. This sculpture was his way of showing the world that he was a fighter — and it's now been acquired by the National Trust.
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‘They remain, really, the property of all of those who love them, know them, and tell them. They are our stories, the inheritance of the people of Scotland’: The Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales
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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 breath
Jane 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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‘Reactions to the French in the 1870s varied from outrage to curious interest’: Impressionism's painstaking ten year journey to be taken seriously by the Brits
Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro spent time in London, but it took James McNeill Whistler to act as artistic bridge with Britain and the ‘sweetened’ Impressionism of Jules Bastien-Lepage to inspire most homegrown painters.
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Richard Mille: The man who went from carving watches out of soap to making timepieces for Rafael Nadal and Lando Norris — and built a £1bn business in the process
A new coffee table book by Assouline celebrates one of today’s most daring and innovative watch brands.
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Simon Armitage: 'I've tried getting AI to write poems — and they've all been reassuringly awful'
The poet laureate Simon Armitage joins the Country Life Podcast.
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Quirky ceramics, Carey Mulligan and Greece: Lucy Williams's consuming passions
The content creator, and brand ambassador and consultant reveals why she loves stories about 'normal' people and the podcast she listens to on repeat.
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A five minute guide to the new V&A East Storehouse’s treasures
Samurai swords and 350,000 books are just some of the curios in the new Victoria & Albert storehouse in Stratford, London, which is now open to the public.
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Young at art: Meet the new generation of Young British Artists
As British contemporary art beats all odds to remain a cauldron of inventiveness and passion, Carla Passino discovers which artists aged 40 or under are on the radar of forward-looking museum directors and curators
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What the Dickens! Celebrate 100 years of the Charles Dickens Museum alongside the great novelist's family
To mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Charles Dickens Museum, a number of the author’s descendants will give talks and readings.
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Wigs, Weddings, Powder and Palaces: Live out your Bridgerton fantasies at the Old Royal Naval College in London
The Greenwich attraction, which is where Colin and Penelope's wedding in the Netflix series was filmed, is celebrating 100 years of being used as a film and TV set with a period drama-themed tour.
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You're all invited to Cecil Beaton's Garden Party
'The space given over to 'Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party' at the Garden Museum is smaller than Beaton’s own drawing room, but its intimacy is its trump card.'
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Kermit the frog, a silver-horned goat and Charles III’s 69ft-long coronation record star in a groundbreaking exhibition
‘Happy & Glorious’, at the The National Archives in Kew, captures the spirit of the King’s coronation with works by eight contemporary artists alongside the official roll of the day — and that of Edward II’s crowning in 1308.
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The National Gallery rehang: 'It is a remarkable feat to hang more with the feeling of less', but the male gaze is still dominant
Almost everything on display at the National Gallery has been moved — and paintings never previously seen brought out — in one of the the biggest curatorial changes in the Gallery's history.
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VE Day in pictures: 18 powerful and evocative images that capture the joy of May 8, 1945
Tomorrow, it will have been 80 years since the Second World War in Europe came to an end, after six long, bloody years. Country Life looks back on a remarkable day in history.
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'Tate Modern has exploded the canon of art history, and transformed the public’s relationship with contemporary art'
Artwork by Louise Bourgeois and Salvador Dali, among others, will be on display for the Tate Modern gallery's 25th Birthday Weekender event.
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Athena: We need to get serious about saving our museums
The government announced that museums ‘can now apply for £20 million of funding to invest in their future’ last week. But will this be enough?
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Burberry, Jess Wheeler and The Courtauld: London Craft Week 2025 explained
With more than 400 exhibits and events dotted around the capital, and everything from dollshouse's to tutu making, there is something for everyone at the festival, which runs from May 12-18.
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These are J. M. W Turner's 11 best paintings, as chosen by Britain's top curators, art historians and creative minds
Cold moonlight, golden sunset and shimmering waters are only three reasons to love Turner. On the 250th anniversary of his birth, curators, art historians and other creative minds reveal which of his paintings they’d hang on their walls and why.
