-
Refurbishing the Palace of Westminster will be extremely expensive, but so too will be doing nothing
We must confront the neglect of Parliament.
-
What binds the Queen Mother and Chicago's first department store? A lost Scottish castle that was blown to smithereens by the Territorial Army
Streatlam Castle was one of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne three principal seats.
-
The only thing better than a stately home is a stately home in wooden miniature
Meet George Barham — the gifted woodcarver who can turn your family pile into a wooden masterpiece.
-
'I have never ceased talking of the beauty of Ampthill': The tale of one of Britain's best-loved country houses
Jeremy Musson describes the complex evolution of Ampthill Park House, Bedfordshire — home of Sir Timothy and Lady Clifford — at the hands of Sir Christopher Wren’s master mason Robert Grumbold, mason-surveyor John Lumley and Sir William Chambers.
-
Les Espaces d'Abraxas: 'Building a Versailles for the people in Noisy-le-Grand'
The Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill's development in the suburbs of Paris is an intriguing solution to how you expand a city using unwieldy machinery.
-
'A fantastic creation, with the magic of a strange, dreamed, longed-for world': Inside Schloss Charlottenhof, the Prussian royal family's exquisite sanctuary
The desire for a retreat from the cares of the Prussian court and the formality of palace protocol created Schloss Charlottenhof, Brandenburg, a neo-Classical masterpiece. Aoife Caitríona Lau explains more; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
The magnificent London mansion that Country Life mourned when it was demolished to make room for the Dorchester Hotel
Dorchester House was once the epicentre of late-Victorian society.
-
Repton: The 500-year-old school with a medieval priory whose story leads back to the kings of Mercia
The medieval Augustinian priory within the curtilage of Repton School in Derbyshire links together the history of this great public school with the Anglo-Saxon era and the Kings of Mercia. David Robinson tells its story, with photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
'The Shakespeare of architects... he has yet had no equal in this country': Sir John Vanbrugh and the legacy of Blenheim Palace
To mark the tercentenary of Sir John Vanbrugh’s death, Charles Saumarez Smith considers the changing reactions to one of his greatest creations, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
-
Can you tell the difference between a trefoil and an embrasure? A pictorial guide to medieval architecture
Medieval architecture is easy to admire, but its terminology can be impenetrable. Matthew Rice's illustration unlocks it.
-
Lord Byron, Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott once dined at this Jacobean mansion in London. Destroyed by The Blitz it lives on now only in the Country Life Archive
Lord Byron jockeyed for position at the table alongside Lord Melbourne and Benjamin Disraeli. Charles Dickens and Sir Walter ScottThe Holland House estate was once London's best example of early domestic Jacobean architecture in the country.
-
'Climbing is to ascend not only through space, but through centuries of lineage': The great staircases of Britain's finest country houses
The grand, sweeping staircases of old country houses are loaded with centuries of architectural, romantic and ghostly allure. Melanie Cable-Alexander takes a look at how they've become entwined with our ideas of what a country house should be.
-
The Picturesque Scottish castle built on land admired by Robert Burns and erased by war
Dunglass Castle, in Scotland, was once a vision of 18th century Picturesque beauty. Now it lives on only in the Country Life Archive.
-
Portmeirion: A century of peculiar genius at Clough Williams-Ellis's great village experiment
2026 marks the centenary of Portmeirion, one of the most celebrated holiday villages in the British Isles. Kathryn Ferry tells the remarkable story of this Picturesque creation; photographs by John Goodall.
-
The great country houses which inspired the tales of Agatha Christie, 50 years on from her death
Britain's greatest-ever crime writer set many of her murder mysteries in country houses. With the help of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice, Jeremy Musson looks at the architecture of the buildings she knew — and those which she imagined.
-
Find out what remains of the colossal country house whose 'corpulent buffoon' of an owner had it blown up with vast quantities of gunpowder
Melanie Bryan revisits Eastbury Park in Dorset — which was photographed for Country Life 99 years ago, decades after large parts of it were demolished.
-
The light, heavenly mills that 'rival the splendour of the great palaces of Venice', built beside a canal in West Yorkshire
Over the past 40 years, a remarkable experiment has brought about the revival of an imposing and vast Victorian factory building. John Martin Robinson visits Salts Mill in Saltaire, West Yorkshire — the property of the Silver family — to find out more. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
Our cathedrals are 'by far the most important works of architecture in Britain', and Exeter is a perfect 21st century update to a medieval masterpiece
John Goodall looks at an ambitious restoration project to the choir and cloister of Exeter Cathedral, which was completed in 2025. Photographs by Paul Highnam and Andy Marshall.
-
The real-life Manderley, and the other country houses that inspired Daphne du Maurier
The writer Daphne du Maurier was fascinated by the English country house. Jeremy Musson explores her evocation of these buildings with the help of photographs from the Country Life Image Archive and a series of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice.
-
Country Life's top 10 architecture stories of 2025, from the South Wales terrace with an exquisite Georgian interior, to Ireland's remarkable country houses
We look back at the most-read architecture stories on the Country Life website in 2025.
-
Heaven in Devon: The sophisticated, ethereal beauty of Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral in Devon is an idiosyncratic masterpiece that illuminates the sophistication and personalities behind the development of late-medieval English architecture. John Goodall explains more, with photography by Paul Highnam.
