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Crestwood Hills: American suburbia need not have been the isolating experience it sometimes wasTim Abrahams explores a bohemian community created in Los Angeles by a group of musicians.
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Sir John Vanbrugh, Castle Howard and great houses on fire, with Dr John GoodallThe Architectural Editor joins the Country Life Podcast to discuss the legacy of Sir John Vanbrugh and the glorious restoration of Castle Howard
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Why does the discovery of ‘Port Talbot’s Pompeii’ matter?The discovery of a Roman villa at Margam, outside Port Talbot in Wales, generated huge amounts of publicity, but the press failed to get to the heart of why it matters.
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Castle Howard was devastated by fire. Against all the odds, its decades-long restoration has made it even greater today than it once wasAn award-winning restoration at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire has transformed the interior of this fire-damaged great house. What's more, the work has been finished in time for the celebrations surrounding the tercentenary of the death of its designer, Sir John Vanbrugh. John Goodall reports; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The 'Welsh Pompeii' is is a staggering reminder of how ancient history still shapes the modern landscapeCountry Life's cultural columnist Athena takes a look at the Roman villa discovery in South Wales which plugs a centuries-wide gap in the chronology of the area.
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One of the first substantial buildings constructed from cast iron lives on only in the Country Life ArchiveThe London Coal Exchange enabled City merchants to buy and sell coal across the world. Despite this magazine's best efforts, it was destroyed in the 1960s.
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The National Trust's untold story: How generations of bachelors poured their souls into their houses, and then gave them to the nationThe acquisition of houses by the National Trust from the 1930s had less to do with the impoverishment of aristocratic families than the industrial wealth of bachelor donors, as Michael Hall reveals.
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'This is an international institution, a great Regency building and a public face of London. It deserves something better'The British Museum's proposal for a new temporary pavilion has every chance of casting a permanent shadow.
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From baroque masterpiece to the UKs most picturesque motor circuit: The tragic tale of Oulton Park and its inhabitantsOne hundred years ago, Oulton Park — whose family had already been torn apart by the First World War — was consumed by fire.
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At war in a foreign country, jailed by your own son and traded as a teenager as part of a business proposition: The ladies of Leeds Castle saw it allLaura Kay charts the remarkable history of ‘The Ladies' Castle’ near Maidstone, Kent.
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'A celebration of connoisseurship and the sheer enjoyment of art and history': The extraordinary treasures of Ampthill Park HouseIn the second of two articles on Ampthill Park House, Bedfordshire — the home of Sir Timothy and Lady Clifford — Jeremy Musson looks at an exceptional modern collection that speaks to the history and character of the house it dignifies.
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There's a town in the Netherlands where you can build whatever you want. The outcome is quite extraordinaryTim Abrahams on the bewildering and intoxicating architectural collage that is Oosterwold.
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Gibside: The curious roofless castle where The King's ancestor was kidnappedGibside flourished under coal baron George Bowes but his heiress daughter, Mary Eleanor, nearly lost it all to her deceitful second husband.
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'A blue-blood background and a drive to disrupt': Lady Violet Manners on the importance of preserving Britain's privately-owned country homesThe Viscountess talks about a childhood at Belvoir Castle, primogeniture and why Americans love a British country home.
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A Suffolk home where glass, steel, timber and thatch come together in perfect harmonyThis new house of four discrete elements adopts vernacular forms and materials to striking effect. Clive Aslet pays a visit to Housestead, Suffolk — home of Abigail Hopkins and Amir Sanei — to discover more. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Why has everyone fallen under the spell of Wrotham Park — one of the largest private houses inside the M25Wrotham Park, the seat of the Earls of Strafford, is not open to the public and hardly any interior photographs are available to view online. So why do film directors, photographers and luxury brands continue to flock to it?
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Refurbishing the Palace of Westminster will be extremely expensive, but so too will be doing nothingWe must confront the neglect of Parliament.
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The only thing better than a stately home is a stately home in wooden miniatureMeet George Barham — the gifted woodcarver who can turn your family pile into a wooden masterpiece.
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'I have never ceased talking of the beauty of Ampthill': The tale of one of Britain's best-loved country housesJeremy 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.
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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.
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'A fantastic creation, with the magic of a strange, dreamed, longed-for world': Inside Schloss Charlottenhof, the Prussian royal family's exquisite sanctuaryThe 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.
