Discover Britain 2016-02-03

EXCLUSIVE: THE SECRET TREASURES OF KENSINGTON PALACE

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Editor’s note
IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT Colin

Firth, as Mr Darcy, emerged fully
clothed from Pemberley’s lake in the
1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and
Prejudice over 20 years ago. The
iconic moment, indelibly imprinted
on the (largely female) collective
imagination, calls to mind not only
the sight of Firth in rather damp
white shirt and breeches, but the
glorious stately home Lyme Park,
with its Italianate architecture and
sweeping grounds, which stands
in for Pemberley. Another source
of inspiration for perhaps Austen’s
best-loved stately home is the peerless
Chatsworth in the Peak District, seat
of the Dukes of Devonshire since
1549. Join us on a picturesque tour
of these and other sublime Jane
Austen settings – both real and as
imagined by film directors (p.8).
This issue is packed with iconic
British buildings – St Paul’s
Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament
and Banqueting House among them
– which have witnessed landmark
moments in our history from the
execution of Charles I to Horatio
Nelson’s funeral. Oxford University
alumnus Alexander Larman also
takes a trip down memory lane as he
revisits the city’s colleges (p.54), while
Nancy Alsop goes behind the scenes
at Kensington Palace (p.30), home of
Queen Victoria, Princess Diana and
the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Those pining for wilder views
can feast their eyes on the majestic
Yorkshire moors (p.76), or the
whisky-making regions of Scotland
(p.86). And don’t miss your chance
to enter our competition for a
once-in-a-lifetime trip to Britain...
NICOLA RAYNER Acting Editor

On the covers: Radcliffe Camera, Oxford: Jon Bower/
Loop Images/Corbis. A cottage in Thornton le Dale,
Yorkshire: Mike Kipling Photography/Alamy

Page 8 The 18th century landscape garden at Stourhead, Wiltshire, featured in Pride and Prejudice in 2005

Contents

8

40

MANSIONS AND
MANNERS

PORTOBELLO GOLD

18

46

Pendle Harte steps out on the
colourful street made famous
by the film Notting Hill and its
world-famous market

Nancy Alsop tours estates
used in Jane Austen screen
adaptations and those that
inspired her work

COMPETITION

Win an all-expenses-paid
holiday to Britain with stays
in top luxury hotels and
other exciting treats

20

AT HOME WITH
HOLMES
Page 30 Queen Victoria’s palace

KEY TO THE
KINGDOM

Nicola Rayner follows
the clues to the Sherlock
Holmes Museum

50

THE INSIDER

Dover Castle is the entry point
to Britain. Nigel Jones finds out
how held it repelled invaders

Brenda Cook casts her eye
over the British Isles and
reveals some hidden gems
and undiscovered treasures

30

54

THE TREASURES OF
KENSINGTON PALACE
We meet the palace’s senior
curator to discover its delights

DREAMING SPIRES
Page 18 Win a life-changing trip

Oxford University alumnus
Alexander Larman tours the
pick of the city’s colleges

discoverbritainmag.com 3

Contents

66

ARCHITECTS WHO
BUILT BRITAIN

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The enduring legacy of the
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76

NORTHERN SOUL

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Page 46 Step inside the Sherlock Holmes Museum

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most famous export – whisky

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Page 86 The stunning Cairngorms National Park in Scotland

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Page 66 St Paul’s Cathedral is Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece

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The finest 4 star hotel &
spa in the Peak District

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01433 621 219

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News

Travel notes
Nicola Rayner tours the country to bring you
the last word in luxury travel

THE GOOD LIFE

In the village of Timsbury, just outside
Bath, budding chefs can combine a
trip to a beautiful part of Britain with
improving their foraging and cookery
skills. Founded in 2013 by Bod and
Annie Griffiths, who escaped London
life to return to their rural roots, Vale
House Kitchen is set in a local stone
outbuilding adjacent to the family’s
home and offers a wide range of “field
to fork” courses – the most intensive of
which is the two-day Complete Game
Experience – with some of the best
chefs and foragers in the West Country.
www.valehousekitchen.co.uk

PAPER TRAIL

“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded
by books,” said Jorge Luis Borges, who
would have been very happy at the
Beaumont in Mayfair, where co-owner
Jeremy King personally selects all
the books for the hotel’s bedrooms.
Celebrating the hotel’s first anniversary
– traditionally “paper” – owners King
and Chris Corbin have paired up with
iconic Mayfair bookshop Heywood
Hill to offer A Year in Books, a special
deal that combines an overnight stay
with a visit to Nancy Mitford’s favourite
bookshop for a consultation with a
dedicated bookseller. Over the course
of the following year, guests will
then receive 12 carefully picked and
beautifully gift-wrapped new books.
You can pick from the paperback or
hardback option with prices from £555.
www.thebeaumont.com

NANNY KNOWS BEST

WALTER DIRKS; DANIEL WILDEY

An Arts and Crafts gem in the heart of the Lake District
has been nominated for a prestigious national award. Luxury
Ambleside venue Nanny Brow opened its doors in 2011
following the restoration of its exquisite original features.
Now offering 14 bespoke suites, the hotel is very proud of its
23-year-old manager, Emma Robinson, who started there as a
chambermaid and recently made the shortlist in the category
of Front of House Manager of the Year in the Boutique
Hotelier Personal Service Star Awards 2015.
www.nannybrow.co.uk

discoverbritainmag.com 7

8 discoverbritainmag.com

Mansions
& manners
Jane Austen’s sublime settings are as famous as the heroes
and heroines of her novels. Nancy Alsop tours the estates
used as screen locations, and those that inspired Miss Austen

I

t has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly
know when it began. But I believe I must date it from
my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.”
Elizabeth Bennet’s words to her sister Jane following
the news of her engagement to Mr Darcy, the man she
loathed until the volte-face finale to Pride and Prejudice,
illuminate two things. First, that it’s not just “a truth
universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession
of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” but, more to
the point, that one in possession of a beautiful home must
surely be seeking a mistress for it. Second, it shows how
important place was to Miss Austen, who once noted:
“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”
As long as it is of a suitably grand order, naturally.
As well as the central love stories and the minutely
observed vagaries of human nature, the reason Austen’s
novels have translated so well to the big and small screens
is the novelist’s preoccupation with beautiful setting. The
most recent of the stately homes to, belatedly, figure in
the Austen canon is Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire.

Historian Dr Robert Clark last year proposed a theory
that the home of relatives of Spencer Perceval, the onlyever assassinated British Prime Minister, also acted as the
inspiration for Mansfield Park – which happens to be set
in Northamptonshire. His claim that Austen’s heroine,
Fanny Price, came of age amidst this particular stately
splendour is based on clues gleaned from a series of
letters between the author and her sister Cassandra.
In 1813, the latter received a missive from Jane, at the
time busy penning Mansfield Park, enquiring as to the
nature of Northamptonshire, a county it’s clear she didn’t
know. Dr Clarke’s suggestion is that the novelist was
angling for Cassandra to gather descriptive information
from her friend Elizabeth Chute, whose sister, the
Marchioness of Northampton, lived at Castle Ashby.
He believes the key to Austen’s inspiration was the
Marquess and Marchioness’ political connections;
the Marquess was cousin to Spencer Perceval, who
supported the abolition of slavery, and who Dr Clarke
believes would have appealed to Austen as a hero
➤

Left: The Octagon Drawing Room at Basildon Park, imagined as Netherfield in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film

discoverbritainmag.com 9

Jane Austen

10 discoverbritainmag.com

Above: Lacock,
Wiltshire, which
doubles as Meryton
in TV’s 1995 Pride
and Prejudice
Below: Castle Ashby
reputedly inspired
Mansfield Park

But the country abounds with places connected to
Austen – whether those she knew, or those latterly
imagined for the screen as the places in which she set her
novels. And as every Austen fan knows, the settings are as
readily recognisable as the lovelorn heroes and heroines
themselves. Here are some of our favourites to visit.

Basildon Park and Lacock Village
Basildon Park, an 18th century Palladian home, features
in a pivotal role in the 2005 big-screen adaptation of Pride
and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley. Although Austen
set much of her book in Hertfordshire, Basildon is slightly
west of that mark in the almost-neighbouring Berkshire.
Doubling up as Netherfield, the new country residence
of Mr Bingley, it is here that our story starts; the
Bennet girls – with varying degrees of enthusiasm and
embarrassment – are forced by their mother to take full
advantage of the arrival of this handsome and, more
to the point, monied new addition to the village.
It is here that Jane Bennet duly takes Bingley’s fancy
while Elizabeth Bennet riles – and is riled by – the even
wealthier and more handsome Mr Darcy. Visitors today
may not hope for such luck as to pique the interest of
such an eligible bachelor of £5,000 a year. But they may
instead explore one of the last Palladian mansions of the ➤

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/DENNIS GILBERT; ARNHEL DE SERRA; ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL;
NICK MEERS; PORTRAIT ESSENTIALS/ALAMY; GRAHAM OLIVER; TOM WILKINSON

(indeed, it is telling of the times that, in Mansfield Park,
Sir Thomas Bertram leaves for his plantation in Antigua).
Whether the theory has credence or not, visitors can
nonetheless visit the Northamptonshire pile, originally
built in the shape of an E to commemorate the coronation
of Queen Elizabeth I, to parade the grounds. While there,
note the 1624 Inigo Jones façade, the 1761 Capability
Brown gardens and take a turn about the Orangery,
where you can clap eyes on an impressive profusion of
waterlilies, before taking tea at its exemplary
walled-garden tea room.
www.castleashbygardens.co.uk

Mont Orgueil Castle,
Gorey Harbour – Jersey
TH
h
25t March – 10 MAY 2016

Peel back the layers of the Channel Islands’ past during
the Heritage Festival – a celebration of a group of small
Islands with a big history, this year honouring our timeless
relationship with the sea. From our Ice Age past to Roman
wrecks, famous seafarers to privateering, shipbuilding to
great shipwrecks; explore museums and lighthouses, take
guided walking, cycling and bus tours and much more.
PICK UP YOUR FESTIVAL GUIDE OR FIND OUT MORE AT:
VISITCHANNELISLANDS.COM
@VISITGUERNSEY
@VisitJerseyCI

FACEBOOK.COM/VISITGUERNSEY
FACEBOOK.COM/VisitJersey

Xxx
Left: Chatsworth House in
Derbyshire is allegedly the real
inspiration for Pemberley in
Pride and Prejudice
Right: The dining room at
Lyme Park, which stood
in for Pemberley in the
BBC’s 1995 production

12 discoverbritainmag.com

Xxx

discoverbritainmag.com 13

Jane Austen

period in the country (finished in 1783, the architectural
fashion was on the cusp of giving way to neoclassicism).
In disrepair by the 20th century, for some years of
which it was used as army barracks, the 1950s saw it
snapped up by Lord and Lady Iliffe, who restored it to its
former glories – before gifting it to the National Trust and
thus posterity. Since then, it has not only welcomed film
crews recreating Austen’s England, but Basildon has also
starred as Grantham House in Downton Abbey.
Meanwhile, when not found staking out resident
wealthy bachelors, the Bennet girls could be seen in their
neighbouring hamlet of Meryton, which – in the 1995
BBC television adaptation – is imagined as the perfectly
preserved Wiltshire village of Lacock. The 13th century
parish provided the ideal backdrop for the town where
the silliest of the Bennet girls shopped for bonnets and
attempted to attract the attentions of stationed officers –
to disastrous effect for one particular sister.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/basildon-park

Chatsworth House and Lyme Park
Yet more Pride and Prejudice, but then it’s hard to ignore
the most beloved of all the Austen novels – and, indeed,
that best loved of all Austen’s stately homes: Pemberley.
Elizabeth Bennet, the story’s headstrong heroine, falls in
love with Mr Darcy’s ancestral home even before she falls
for the oscillating charms of the master of the house.
Austen writes of it: “It was a large, handsome, stone
building standing well on rising ground, and backed by
a ridge of high woody hills; and in front, a stream of some
natural importance was swelled into greater, but without
any artificial appearance.”
The real inspiration for the object of Miss Bennet’s
affections? Allegedly, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire,
Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the same county in
which Austen sets the fictional Pemberley. It is fitting
then that it should have been used once more in the 2005
➤
silver-screen adaptation of the book. Visitors will no

14 discoverbritainmag.com

Top left: The Tea Party – a
carving inside the pagoda in the
Chinese Room at Claydon House,
Buckinghamshire, featured in
Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow
This page: Stourhead landscape
garden in Wiltshire featured
in the 2005 film adaptation
of Pride and Prejudice

discoverbritainmag.com 15

Jane Austen
For more beautiful photographs of
“real-life” Jane Austen locations, go to
www.discoverbritainmag/
jane-austen-on-location

Verney was standard bearer to King
Charles I and his ghost is said to have
roamed the house since his demise at
the Battle of Edgehill in 1642).
Today, the slightly austere exterior
is the only part of the building still
standing. It would once have made
up the west wing of the larger house,
while the interior is, by contrast,
all rococo opulence – hence the
suitability for its role as Emma’s
lavish ballroom. Don’t miss the
bedroom of Florence Nightingale,
a regular visitor and sister of
Parthenope, Lady Verney.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/claydon

doubt recognise its grand staircase
and Painted Hall, which Lizzie tours
with her aunt and uncle. Indeed,
Chatsworth has hung on to the bust
of Mr Darcy, played by Matthew
Macfadyen, as a souvenir of the film.
If, like Lizzie Bennet, you are
disinclined to leave, you can stay on
the Chatsworth estate in a holiday
cottage. It may not have been grand
enough for Darcy, but it will do for us.
Or, devotees of the BBC version
may prefer to visit Cheshire’s Lyme
Park, an Italianate palace that has
also been home to Mr Darcy, so
memorably played by Colin Firth.
Visitors to the Peak District
mansion – with 1,400 acres and
a deer park – should see the Long
Gallery and Edwardian interiors,
before exploring the herbaceous
borders alongside the famous lake
where he takes that impromptu dip.
For the real Austen devotee, next
it’s time to head down south to the
Stourhead landscape garden in
Wiltshire, where the 2005 production
used its Temple of Apollo for Mr
Darcy’s first failure of a proposal
to Lizzie Bennet.
Famous for its 2,650-acre gardens,
and replete with classical temples and
resplendent lake, Stourhead opened
its doors in the 1750s. Do venture
into the house too, where visitors can
see the spectacular Regency library.
www.chatsworth.org
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lyme-park
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead

Claydon House
It takes little imagination to see why
Claydon House, a glorious example of the 18th century
stately home, featured in the 1996 film adaptation of
Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The consummate
matchmaker attends a ball at the fictional Donwell House,
and it is here that our heroine realises that Mr Knightley
is more to her than simply a brother figure.
One of the older of the stately homes featured here,
Claydon in Buckinghamshire was built in 1620 for
the Verney family. It still remains under this family’s
ownership, while being open to the public. (Sir Edmund

16 discoverbritainmag.com

Top: Looking
through to the
Morning Room and
Velvet Drawing
Room at Saltram,
Devon, where
Jane Austen was a
regular guest
Bottom: Bath
Assembly Rooms

To cast your eyes over the hand that
penned these much-loved tomes,
visit Saltram House in Devon,
where Jane Austen’s letters to the
mistress of the house, Frances the
first Countess, reside. Home for
300 years to the Parker family,
it is magnificent place to visit.
But for the ultimate Jane Austen
pilgrimage, the city of Bath, in
Somerset, where she set both
Persuasion and Northanger Abbey,
is unbeatable. In the latter, she
writes: “They arrived in Bath.
Catherine was all eager delight; her
eyes were here, there, everywhere, as
they approached its fine and striking
environs...” So happy did it make
Austen that she adopted the city as
her home from 1801 to 1806. There
are Austen walking tours, and a visit
to the Assembly Rooms – scene of
balls attended by both the writer and
her heroines – is obligatory. (Indeed, so important were
terpischorean skills to the writer that Hidden Britain Tours
offers a special Dancing Years package through Austen’s
Hampshire too). Yet the starting point must surely be Bath’s
Jane Austen Centre, for full immersion into the world of
one of the greatest writers Britain has ever produced. n
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/saltram
www.janeausten.co.uk
www.hiddenbritaintours.co.uk

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JOHN HAMMOND; HPPAARCHIVE

Bath and
Saltram House

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Competition

WIN a Great British holiday
Win a luxury, all-expenses-paid holiday to Britain, including free
flights if you live outside the UK, courtesy of Discover Britain

Five-star London
On arrival, our winner and his or her
companion will be whisked to the
heart of town to spend two nights in
a Junior Suite at the fabulous Savoy,
where previous guests have included
King Edward VII, Cary Grant and
Elizabeth Taylor.
During your stay in London, your
time is your own to do as you please
– we’re sure you’ll want to see the
sights and visit Buckingham Palace,
Big Ben and the Tower of London.
And we’ll also treat you to
afternoon tea at the exclusive Mews
of Mayfair, just off Bond Street,
London’s premier shopping parade,
as well as an evening out at a theatre
show of your choice in the capital’s
glamorous West End.

Treasure Houses
After a breathtaking few days in
London, it’s time for a trip to the

country to visit the Treasure Houses
of England, where you can admire
some of Britain’s most historic stately
homes such as Blenheim Palace,
birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill,
and moated Leeds Castle, and enjoy a
two-night stay as the special guest of
Classic British Hotels.
Our winner and companion will
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Choose between a Downton
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Along the way we’ll throw in a
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This once-in-a-lifetime holiday may
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Entering through the revolving doors of The
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Breakfast is included.

Our winner will receive a Gold Pass, which entitles
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Our winner and his or her guest will enjoy a
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www.fairmont.com/savoy-london

www.treasurehouses.co.uk

www.classicbritishhotels.com

18 discoverbritainmag.com

FREE TRAVEL

TRAVEL PICTURES/ALAMY; VISITENGLAND/VISITKENT

O

ur five-star, one-week
holiday for two will be
the trip of a lifetime as
our winners visit many of Britain’s
most iconic landmarks and receive
celebrity-style red-carpet treatment
along the way.
Your fantastic holiday will start the
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● Free

travel ● 2 nights at The Savoy ● West End tickets ● Afternoon tea ● Free entry to stately homes
● 2 nights at a boutique hotel ● A chauffeur-driven tour ● 2 nights in a romantic cottage ● 1 night at The Sloane Club

How to enter

Clockwise, from top left: Lindeth
Howe Country House Hotel, part
of the Classic British Hotels group;
The Savoy; afternoon tea at Mews
of Mayfair; our winner will be
chauffeured around for the day;
moated Leeds Castle; a romantic
bolthole with Sykes Cottages

To be in with the chance of winning this special prize go to
www.discoverbritainmag.com/GreatBritishComp
or fill in the coupon below with the answer to the question.
Question: Whose official London residence
is Buckingham Palace?
a) The Prime Minister
b) HM The Queen
c) The Duke of Cambridge

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

For full Terms and Conditions go to www.discoverbritainmag.com/GreatBritishComp.
Closing date for entries is 1 August 2016. Winner will be notified by 1 0 August 2016.
Prize to be used between 1 October 2016 and 31 August 2017

ENTRY FORM
SEND YOUR COUPON TO: US readers – Great British Competition,
C/O Circulation Specialists, 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton, CT 06484
UK and ROW – Great British Competition, Discover Britain Magazine, Jubilee House,
2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ, UK
My answer:
Name:

ENJOY FREE TRAVEL

Address:

Our prize will include return flights to London
from a gateway airport, plus rail connections

Postcode:

✁

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KEY
TO THE KINGDOM

Dover Castle is the white cliffs’ crowning glory.
As the entry point to Britain, it has held its own
against French invaders; in civil wars; and is where
Dunkirk was masterminded, writes Nigel Jones

20 discoverbritainmag.com

discoverbritainmag.com 21

Kent

T

he medieval monk and chronicler Matthew
Paris called it “Clavis Angliae” (“England’s
key”). And anyone approaching Dover Castle
from land or sea can see why. Crowning the
chalk-white cliffs of Dover, the massive fortress – one
of Britain’s biggest castles – dominates the gateway to
the country, just as it has always done since William the
Conqueror began building fortifications here in 1066.
Apart from the Tower of London, arguably no fortress
has played a more central role in Britain’s island story
than Dover: from the Norman conquest to the Second
World War and beyond to the Cold War, when the castle’s
warren of subterranean tunnels were chosen as a seat of
regional government in the event of a nuclear attack –
until, that is, the penny dropped that chalk might, in fact,
be permeable to radiation.
The castle’s commanding site has always attracted
builders. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of Iron
and Bronze Age hill forts; a Roman lighthouse – called
a Pharos – still survives within the castle’s precincts.
Indeed, before the conquering Normans came this way
in 1066, the Saxons built a castle here from local clay.
But it was King Henry II who really set Dover in
stone in the 1180s when he ordered a master builder
known as Maurice the Engineer to turn Dover into an
unimpregnable stronghold. It was Maurice who raised
the huge rectangular stone keep at the castle’s centre, and
many of the stout girding curtain walls which encircle it.
Maurice’s work was soon put to the test of war when
the castle was besieged in 1216. It passed with flying
colours. The attackers were an army led by Prince Louis,
son of the French king, who had been invited to invade
England by the rebellious barons who, the previous
year, had forced “bad” King John to grant Magna Carta.
Having occupied the whole of south-east England apart
from Windsor and Dover castles, Louis settled down to
besiege the Kent fortress in mid-July.
His men bombarded the castle walls with siege engines
called mangonels, but they made little impression on
Maurice’s stout handiwork. The French duly dug into the
soft chalk to undermine the castle from below; in answer,
the undaunted defenders started their own counter-tunnel
(which can still be seen).
The French finally succeeded in toppling one of the
twin towers guarding the castle’s northern entrance, and
poured through the gap torn in the walls. But John’s loyal
garrison, led by the castle constable, Hubert de Burgh,
were waiting, having plugged the breach with wooden
beams cannibalised from the castle’s interior. After a hard
fight, they threw the besiegers back. In October, John
mercifully died and the siege was lifted. Hubert repaired
the damage and built new gateways on the castle’s
eastern and western sides.
Civil war came to the castle once more in 1642, when
the country divided between Royalist Cavaliers and
Parliamentary Roundheads. Dover town supported
➤

22 discoverbritainmag.com

Clockwise, from left: An aerial view of
Dover Castle, which took shape in the
1180s on the orders of King Henry II and
was designed by Maurice the Engineer;

the imposing and robust stone gate of
Dover Castle, traditionally the gateway to
Britain; the ancient stone stairway in the
Great Tower at Dover Castle

discoverbritainmag.com 23

Kent

Below: The
subterranean
tunnel complex
created in 1803
to protect against
invasion by
Napoleon and,
later, where the
miracle of Dunkirk
was masterminded
Bottom: King
Henry II’s
bedchamber at
Dover Castle

Parliament, while its governor, MP Sir Edward Boys,
held the castle for the king. On 21 August 1642, a daring
Dover Roundhead, Richard Dawkes, surprised the sleepy
garrison in the night when he led a raiding party up the
white cliffs and into the castle via the Avranches Tower.
An enraged Sir Edward laid siege to his own castle, but
Dawkes summoned reinforcements from elsewhere in
Kent and the castle remained in Parliamentary hands
throughout the civil war.
But Dover Castle’s finest hour was yet to come. In 1803,
when Napoleon threatened a cross-Channel invasion,
the castle was put into the hands of a military engineer,
William Twiss, who transformed its defences. Twiss made

the castle into a giant gun platform, building a huge
horseshoe-shaped rampart and brick bastions to carry
the guns. When he ran out of space, he dug into the cliffs
beneath, creating miles of tunnels and underground
barracks housing 2,000 soldiers.
The labyrinth was abandoned after Waterloo in 1815,
but brought back into use during World War II. It was
from this subterranean vantage point that, in 1940,
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay masterminded the miracle
of Dunkirk – Operation Dynamo, the rescue of the British
army from the beaches of Dunkirk under the noses of the
Nazis. Later, the tunnels were extended and remained the
nerve centre of Britain’s frontline defences throughout the
war, housing a telephone exchange, a military hospital, an
air-sea rescue service for plucking downed pilots from the
Channel, as well as dining rooms and dormitories.
The tunnel complex was opened to the public after
English Heritage took over Dover from the military, and
spent nearly £3 million on it. The labyrinth is still being
investigated and its secrets revealed, and more tunnels
may yet be unveiled. With its stirring history, wellpreserved architecture, and those tunnels testifying to
its proud patriotic past, Dover Castle truly is the key to
England. It is no wonder that some 350,000 people visit
it every year to experience its treasures for themselves. n

ENGLISH HERITAGE/NIGEL WALLACE-ILES; JIM HOLDEN; ALAMY/DENNY ROWLAND; STEVE VIDLER; ISTOCK

www.english-heritage.org.uk

24 discoverbritainmag.com

Relax, Unwind, Experience
Join us at the Bella Luce, a small and independent family

coast, lingering over a long lunch in our courtyard, or simply

run hotel situated in a historic Norman manor house on

retreating with a book to an armchair next to the fire for

the tranquil island of Guernsey.

an afternoon, the Bella is the perfect setting from which

An award winning hotel, restaurant and spa, the Bella

to experience Guernsey, however you choose to do so.

Luce is the perfect bolthole for a long stay or a few days

We like to say that we offer a little bit of luxury but with

away. Whether you wish to spend your time exploring the

your shoes kicked off, and we invite you to be our guest.

nearby dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches of Guernsey’s

For further information

call 01481 238764 or visit www.bellalucehotel.com

The Bella Luce
Hotel & Restaurant
La Fosse, St Martins,
Guernsey, GY4 6EB

The Bella Luce
Hotel is part of

Made in Britain
Left: William Morris-designed
apple tree embroidery
Below: A portrait of William
Morris, Arts and Crafts
Movement revolutionary

I

Red House
Post-Oxford, Morris immersed himself in
a group which called itself the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. Along with architect Philip
Webb, in 1860 he designed a medieval style
red-brick house for himself and his wife,
Pre-Raphaelite model Jane Burden.
“Red House” in London’s Bexleyheath
represented the cherished ideal: his friends,
Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and
Charles Faulkner converged on the property.
They collectively decorated stained-glass
windows, and created simple Arts and Crafts
furniture and embroideries, the latter finding
its apotheosis in 12 large hangings, designed
by Morris and made by Jane, that depicted
Illustrious Women from Chaucer.
The collective’s cottage industry was soon
formalised into a decorative business and
its radical founder members, Burne-Jones,
Ford Madox Brown and Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, would revolutionise art and design
in the Victorian age. The studio, known as

26 discoverbritainmag.com

“The Firm”, picked up awards and adulation
along the way, which led to a commission
to decorate the dining room at the South
Kensington Museum (later the V&A).
It was not until 1862 that Morris focused
on wallpaper design. Using hand-cut wood
blocks, he created Daisy, Fruit and Trellis,
capturing English hedgerows and gardens –
and the public imagination. In 1880, Morris
& Co was commissioned to decorate the
entrance and banqueting rooms of St James’s
Palace, and later, in 1887, Queen Victoria
knew just who to call on when she wanted
new wallpaper for Balmoral Castle.

Kelmscott Manor

ART FOR
ALL

William Morris revolutionised
art and design in the Victorian
era and did more work than most
would in 10 lifetimes, says
Rose Bateman

Morris leased Kelmscott Manor in the
Cotswolds in 1871. Its idyllic setting,
however, did little to stem the pain at his
wife’s affair with Rossetti (who co-leased the
house), or the frustration he felt with fellow
members of The Firm. In 1875, he dissolved
it, instead setting up Morris & Co, alongside
Burne-Jones and Webb; in 1877 they opened
a showroom on Oxford Street which brought
the full Morris “look” – ceramics, lighting,
wallpaper and embroidery – under one roof.
It was a hit in the UK, while exports to the
US became a mainstay of the business.
By this time, Morris co-founded the then
radical Society for the Protection of Ancient
Buildings, which championed conservation;
he campaigned against poverty, setting up
the Socialist League in the 1880s; and he
launched his own publishing company, the
Kelmscott Press, in 1891, seen as the finest
collection in the private press movement.
It is no wonder that when he died in 1896,
his physician noted, “I consider the case is
this: the disease is simply being William
Morris and having done more work than
most 10 men.”
As for his legacy, we look to his own
words: “The past is not dead, it is living in us,
and will be alive in the future which we are
now helping to make.” It just so happens that
Morris did more to mould it than most. n
www.sal.org.uk/kelmscott-manor;
www.williammorrissociety.org.uk

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY 2015

do not want art for a few any more than
education for a few, or freedom for a
few.” As a man with a keen appreciation
for the power of words – known during
his lifetime as a poet as well as an artist –
William Morris certainly lived by his. Born in
1834 to a middle-class family in east London,
he is considered the greatest designer of the
Arts and Crafts Movement.
This championed the use of traditional
craftsmanship and had a disdain for ornate,
machine-produced pieces (“altogether an
evil”) that had taken off during the Industrial
Revolution, insisting that the true designermaker should be considered an artist. As
such, Morris helped to make art available for
all through its application to everyday items.
He told his disciples: “Have nothing
in your house that you do not know to
be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” A
polymath, Morris’s range spanned poetry,
art, philosophy, typography and political
theory and, while at Oxford, he fostered a
dream with the artist Edward Burne-Jones of
an ideal and fair society – and of living amid
a simpatico artistic community.

The Buckingham
Orchid

Transforming the Applied Arts since 1897
Unseen in London for over a hundred years, the white helleborine orchid, rediscovered by the London Natural History Society,
recently crept back into city life again in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. This wonderful, yet unexpected find prompted
Moorcroft’s Senior Designer, Rachel Bishop, to celebrate HM The Queen’s 90th birthday this April with these feminine blooms.
Rachel swept the white orchid, a favourite colour of the Queen’s, into her world of romantic linework and luxurious colour.
T: (01782) 820515 E: [email protected] W: www.moorcroft.com

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• THE TREASURES OF KENSINGTON PALACE •
A WALKING TOUR OF PORTOBELLO MARKET •
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM •

SHUTTERSTOCK; RHS; VISIT BRITAIN; ISTOCK; HEMIS/ALAMY; HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES

LONDON
PAGES

London

The
Treasures of
Kensington
Palace
Nancy Alsop meets Deirdre Murphy, senior
curator at Kensington Palace, to tour the
home of King George I, Queen Victoria,
Princess Diana and now the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge

30 discoverbritainmag.com

Slug

discoverbritainmag.com 31

London

T

o Deirdre Murphy, senior
curator at Kensington Palace,
its state apartments are
populated with familiar,
friendly faces. It’s not just
that she is in possession of an excellent
imagination; it is also literally true.
In 1714, the advent of the Hanoverian
King George I brought with it a makeover
for the palace, which had first been adopted
as a royal household by the co-regents King
William III and Queen Mary II, the former
of whom was looking for a country

32 discoverbritainmag.com

residence and cleaner air to help with
his pronounced asthma.
Rebuilding the central state apartments,
hitherto a Sir Christopher Wren design
(albeit one executed in haste), George I
appointed the architect, interior designer,
landscape architect and all-round
Renaissance man, William Kent – the man
credited with “designing Georgian Britain”
– to bring his revamped Palladian ideals
to this pocket of what was then considered
rural England. It was a bold move; Kent
was a relative unknown, drafted in to

replace John Vanbrugh, despite the king’s
resolve that Kensington Palace should rival
that celebrated architect’s achievements at
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
By 1723, Kent had decorated the King’s
Staircase – the ceremonial entrance to the
palace – with wall paintings that depicted
actual characters from the king’s court. “You
can see the yeoman of the guard and in this
archway you can spot two of George I’s
grooms of the king’s chamber – they were
Turkish, named Mehmet and Mustafa,” says
Murphy as we ascend the stately entrance,

was.” All of the upper echelons of Georgian
London society would have ascended these
stairs, situated atop the private quarters
of the resident royals, as we do today, to
be admitted for parties in its public state
rooms, which remain as sparsely filled with
furniture now as then to allow guests to
circulate unencumbered.
As palatial entrances go, Kent’s painted
characters imbue what could have been
a grandly forbidding – if beautiful –
staircase with life, warmth and a sense of
the lives played out at this elegant royal ➤

Previous page, main image: The King’s Staircase,
the ceremonial entrance to the palace, was designed
by William Kent in 1723 Top left: A statue of Queen
Victoria, who spent her childhood at the palace
This page, clockwise from left: Detail from William
Kent’s painting on the King’s Staircase; the King’s
Gallery looks much as it did in 1727; the ceiling of the
Cupola Room where Queen Victoria was baptised

VISITBRITAINI/HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES; STEVE VIDLER/ALAMY

before pointing out one of the wall painting’s
more eyebrow-raising curiosities.
“Here, on the right-hand side, you can see
a small boy known as ‘Wild Peter’. He was
a feral child found in the woods in Germany,
who had been brought to the king’s court
as a sort of human pet. We don’t know
anything more about him than that – we
don’t know if he slept in royal splendour
or in the stables, though he wore a collar.
“It’s always tempting to apply 21st
century codes of morals, but you have to
try to remember how different a time it

➤

discoverbritainmag.com 33

London
Below: The young Queen Victoria descends the
King’s Staircase, accompanied (behind) by her
controlling mother, the Duchess of Kent, with
whom she lived at Kensington Palace

residence. For Kensington Palace abounds
with characters, and intrigue – from
Mary II, who died of smallpox aged 32 in
1694, to Queen Caroline’s humiliations
in the 18th century when her husband,
King George II, showed a particular
partiality to her own personal assistant.
On a tour of the state apartments,
visitors can marvel at its many treasures:
from the William Kent designed silk
wall hangings, and the Vasari painting of
Venus and Cupid in the King’s Drawing
Room, to the King’s Gallery, where
guests were infrequently invited. It was
reserved for the monarch’s quiet solace and
contemplation amongst the ceiling frescoes
depicting scenes from The Odyssey.
The magnificent Cupola Room – as
everything in the state apartments – was
commissioned by King George I, whose
accession to the throne had been aptly
marked at Kensington Palace with fireworks
and the drinking of six strong barrels of beer.
Once again, it is the handiwork of the ever
capable Mr Kent who, as a relative unknown,
charged less than half the official royal
painter, Sir James Thornhill. It is also in the
Cupola Room that you can clap eyes on the
spot where Queen Victoria was baptised.
By that time, the palace had fallen
into disrepair and as such was deemed
appropriate only for lesser royals, such as
Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent. He died
young, leaving his daughter to pass her
childhood at the palace in semi-isolation, but
for the company of her controlling mother.
But her memories were not all unhappy
of this place; it was at Kensington Palace
that she became queen; and here where
she first saw her beloved Prince Albert.
It was only as queen that she moved into
Buckingham Palace.

Today, the palace is famously home to the
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but it was
in the 20th century that it was fully restored
to glamour. This is evidenced by Fashion
Rules, a long-running exhibition – set to be
restyled and relaunched in February – of the
official dress worn by three major royals: the
Queen, Princess Margaret, who lived in high
glamour at the palace, and, finally, Princess
Diana – by far its most famous former
incumbent. After all, as Deirdre Murphy well
knows, Kensington Palace’s archive of royal
dress is to be considered as much a historic
treasure as its architecture.
“The restyled exhibition will have
➤
a completely different set of dresses and
34 discoverbritainmag.com

PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY

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Discover the UK & Ireland...
...and enjoy the British way of life with

The Bed & Breakfast Nationwide brochure – The Little Green
Book – is a 114 page, comprehensive guide to more than
500 inspected, quality B&Bs and a selection of self-catering
accommodation.
Illustrated in colour with detailed descriptions and maps, it features
‘pet friendly’ B&Bs, those with facilities for the less mobile and B&Bs
offering something different such as gardens open to the public,
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Hidden
britain1-4 30/1/09 14:53 Page 1

Jane Austen
The Dancing Years

A DAY TO REMEMBER
D I S C OV E R O N E O F E N G L A N D’ S M O S T
B E AU T I F U L A N D H I S T O R IC C A S T L E S

h e verc ast l e.c o.u k
Email [email protected] | Call +44 (0)1732 865224

Explore Jane Austen’s
early life with Hampshire
Ambassador, Phil Howe.
Discover the villages,
churches, country houses
and trace the people she
describes in her letters.
Tours can include a visit to
the Jane Austen
House Museum, and
the village of Chawton.
Enjoy lunch at a Hampshire
country inn. An ideal halfday or one-day tour.
Downton Abbey Tours
when available.
45 mins by train from
London Waterloo

For more information Phone: +44 (0)1256 814222
e-mail: [email protected]
or visit www.hiddenbritaintours.co.uk

Visit-Britain-99x129-V3.indd 1

16/12/2014 16:13

London
rules,” explains Murphy. “The exhibition
looks at ideas around diplomatic dressing.
So, for example, this dress was worn by
the Queen on a visit to Pakistan, and it is
green and white to reflect the colours of
the Pakistani flag.”
We move through to the exotic fancy dress
donned by film star-esque Princess Margaret
through to the 1980s extreme silhouettes
favoured by Princess Diana, complete with
photographs of her, bouffant hairdo and all.

Hidden treasures
But while the stars of the show twinkle on
public display downstairs, it is upstairs, in

The exterior of Kensington Palace

➤

36 discoverbritainmag.com

the collection show store, that some of the
unsung heroes are kept. They are altogether
quieter but no less compelling treasures.
“Kensington has had dresses on display
since it was opened to the public in 1899,”
explains Murphy as she lays out four
exquisite pieces for inspection. “The Royal
Ceremonial Dress Collection started life
when we got a huge loan of court uniforms
to the palace, and the collection has grown
around that. So uniform is a huge strength
of the collection, but it also includes clothes
worn by members of the royal family.”
She gesticulates towards a Lanvin court
dress from 1926, a showstopper in sparkling

ivory and gold. “Court dress stopped
officially being worn in 1939. You’ll notice
that this dress and train are different
colours. That’s because court dresses were
essentially fashionable dresses with trains
attached to the shoulders.
“As a debutante, the regulations stated
that you had to wear court dress and
actually that whole scene had a huge impact
on the building of the couture industry. So
many of the big couture houses like House
of Worth and Norman Hartnell would work
with girls every year – and their mothers.
“After all, you would only be presented
formally to the monarch once and there are

O
NO UT
W!
the pièce de résistance, a uniform worn by
Queen Victoria’s Lord-in-Waiting, whose
story is heartbreakingly poignant.
“It was worn by Lord Boston and he
was required, when he got this ceremonial
post, to buy a royal household uniform.
You can tell it’s this, because it’s got red
cuffs and a red collar.
“The uniforms were codified from
the early 19th century; the amount
and configuration of the gold and silver
showed who you were. So in the 19th
century, you would be able to walk into
a room and say, ‘I’m going to talk to
him, he’s definitely an influential person ➤

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VISITBRITAIN/HISTORICROYALPALACES

a lot of very detailed newspaper descriptions
of huge courts from the 1920s and 1930s.
This 1926 dress shows just how important
that industry was because Lanvin, of course,
was a Paris-based firm. The fact that it
was making court dresses is significant as
it shows that there was obviously some
competition to be fashionable. But also that
French couture houses were advertising.”
Many of the items do not represent literal
riches alone, but historic ones too, saturated
as they are with interesting narratives.
Take, for example, the buff-leather sleeved
waistcoat associated with King Charles I,
designed to be worn under his armour. Or

www.chelseamagazines.
com/LondonGuide2016
or call
+44(0) 207 349 3700
(Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm GMT)
discoverbritainmag.com
discoverbritainmag.com37
37

London

because he’s got 5.5 inches of gold across his
chest,’” Murphy explains. “He was Lord-inWaiting in 1885 and then he suddenly lost
his job in 1886.
“He wrote to the Lord Chamberlain’s
office saying he didn’t understand what
was happening or what he should say to his
peers. The London Gazette announced that
someone else was put in that post, but that
Lord Boston had resigned.
“He spent the rest of his life trying to
find opportunities to wear the uniform.
Technically he wasn’t supposed to – he wrote
to the Prime Minister to say, ‘I know I am no
longer in this post, but would it be all right to
still wear the uniform?’
“He was 25 in 1885 and he lived until
1940, so he lived through three coronations
– 1902, 1911 and 1937. In the family
photographs, there are pictures of him
wearing it underneath his coronation robes.
The lining was replaced, the trousers have an
insert where he got a little bit bigger, but he
wore it for 55 years. It may, of course, have
been that he just wanted his money’s worth!”
And who can blame him? He would,
perhaps, then be gratified to think on the
afterlife his uniform has had – and indeed,
as Murphy says: “The stories that the pieces
tell are so important. Just looking at these
things, you think, ‘Wow, that’s a glamorous
relic of a world that no longer exists.’
“For example, uniforms were no longer
needed and valued after the war so you get
them being sold on Carnaby Street in the
1960s and rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and
Eric Clapton in them. There’s a fantastic
photograph by Annie Leibovitz of Michael
Jackson wearing a real court uniform.”
Kensington Palace makes regular new
acquisitions, which come out on show on a
rotating basis and are often lent to museums
around the world. As Murphy says: “It’s
astonishing sometimes what people have
in their lofts. And they don’t necessarily
attach importance or monetary value to
them, but to us they are invaluable, as
they capture this moment in time that just
doesn’t exist any more.” The same could
be said of Kensington Palace as a whole. n
www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace
38 discoverbritainmag.com

ALICIA POLLETT

Clockwise from top left: A buff-leather sleeved
waistcoat associated with King Charles I; a 1926
debutante’s Lanvin court dress upon presentation
to the king; a splendid uniform worn by Lord Boston,
Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria; a golf suit worn
by the Duke of Windsor; a Lanvin dress detail

LORD’S MUSEUM & TOURS
Walk in the footsteps of cricket legends

A Tour of Lord’s provides a fascinating
insight behind-the-scenes of the most
famous cricket ground in the world.
With extraordinary architecture, and
a fascinating collection of art and
memorabilia, a Lord’s Tour is not only a must
for all cricket fans, but for everyone looking
for a quintessentially English experience.

For more information please visit lords.org/tours

London

Portobello Gold
Pendle Harte wanders Portobello Road, the street made famous by the film
Notting Hill, and samples the créme de la créme of the vibrant market and stylish shops

W

here can you shop for
Victorian prints, antique
watches, fruit, vegetables
and vintage fashion – while
snacking on falafel or frozen yogurt, beer or
bubble tea? Portobello’s enduring popularity
lies in its mix of old and new, traditional
and modern, long-standing community
and new incomers. This is London’s most
famous street antiques market and for

40 discoverbritainmag.com

many visitors, its colourful houses, quirky
vibe and thriving street trade epitomise
everything appealing about the capital.
It was in 1999 that Portobello Road’s
global status was inflated exponentially
by what is these days commonly referred
to locally simply as “that film”. Richard
Curtis’s Notting Hill drew the world’s
attention to this vibrant part of town and
tourists flocked from all over the globe to

see the actual blue door and visit Hugh
Grant’s bookshop. But it’s less well known
that until the mid-19th century the area was
rural, mostly farmland, becoming built-up
after the arrival of the railways in 1864.
By the 1950s, the area around Portobello
Road was largely poor, its large houses split
into countless, overcrowded dwellings. By
the 1960s and 1970s, Notting Hill was at the
very heart of London’s counterculture,

MAP ILLUSTRATION BY JANE SMITH; ZORAN MILICH/MASTERFILE/CORBIS

its street life characterised by hippies,
artists and musicians.
These days, things aren’t so laid-back.
Streets with a desirable W11 postcode
command some of the highest property
prices in the world – the large four-storey
terraced houses regularly sell for around
£12 million and inhabitants of the streets
around the market are now more likely
to be international financiers with glossy

wives, expensively educated children and
teams of staff than the scruffy bohemian
types of the late 20th century.
And then, of course, there’s Carnival.
Every year at the end of August, Portobello
Road becomes host to Europe’s largest
street party, attracting at least two
million revellers whatever the weather (in
recent years, even the most torrential of
downpours have not dampened spirits).

Carnival started out in the mid-1960s,
led by London’s West Indian community.
Its anarchic spirit, soca music, steel pans,
costumes and rum punch make it an everpopular party (though many of those who
live on the procession’s route see it as
a loud, messy and even dangerous affair).

➤

Above: The pretty multi-coloured houses made
famous by the film Notting Hill

discoverbritainmag.com 41

London

Portobello today:
a walking guide
If you’re coming from Notting Hill Gate tube
station, it makes sense to start a Portobello
ramble with a fortifying ale at the Sun in
Splendour pub. This is one of the street’s
oldest hostelries, featuring on maps dating
back to 1850. Its window seats make a good
spot for people watching, especially on
Saturdays when the market is at its busiest,
and increasingly Fridays too.
Heading north, don’t miss the blue plaque
that marks novelist and political essayist
George Orwell’s first London home at 22
Portobello Road. These small cottages are
now brightly painted and desirable but
Orwell lived in poverty here in 1927,
before anybody had painted the outside
of their house pink.
Beyond the junction of Chepstow Villas
is where the antiques world begins. Alice’s
Antiques at number 86 has distinctive red
signage that has appeared in many films,
including The Italian Job in 1969 and, more
recently, Paddington in 2014. Portobello
Road became known for its antiques in
the 1950s and the stalls and labyrinthine
arcades are very much still in evidence,
though some have fallen victim to property
developers and chain stores. Along this
stretch you’ll also see the Portobello Gold
pub, known for its oysters and live music
(and infamously the place where Bill Clinton
left without paying in 2000).
Cross Westbourne Grove and the antiques
stalls continue, selling everything from
Victorian dolls to silverware to crockery –
do arrive early on a Saturday if you want
the best pickings. Note the entrance to
Vernon Yard, named after Admiral Lord
Vernon who, in 1739, took the Spanish port
of Porto Belo in the Gulf of Mexico, causing
the Victory of Portobello to be celebrated
throughout Britain. Around this time, a farm
in Notting Hill was renamed Portobello
Farm, giving the area its name.
Pass the American Hummingbird Bakery
(credited with bringing the cupcake to the
UK) and step in the Portobello Star, a site
that has been a pub since 1740. It’s now
home to Portobello Road’s own-label gin and
the Ginstitute, where you can discover the
history of London’s finest spirit, and create
your own blend by mixing a concoction of
distilled botanicals. And near the corner of ➤
Clockwise from left: Alice’s Antiques; scenes
and displays from Portobello Road

42 discoverbritainmag.com

discoverbritainmag.com 43

CORBIS/PAUL PANAYIOTOU; ZORAN MILICH/MASTERFILE; ATLANDTIDE PHOTOTRAVEL; VISITENGLAND/DIANA JARVIS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Elgin Crescent is relative newcomer,
La Fromagerie, which, together with longestablished Elgin Crescent delicatessen
Mr Christian’s and The Grocer on Elgin,
forms part of a serious foodie destination.
At weekends, the French cheese stall
and German bratwurst van on this stretch
draw serious crowds. Anyone wanting to
linger over a meal at this point should visit
the Electric Diner, an element of the ever so
stylish and now international Soho House
group. The diner is part of the Electric
Cinema, one of the UK’s oldest purposebuilt cinemas, now a luxe venue with sofa
seating but a chequered history, including
long periods of closure.
Opposite the cinema you’ll notice an
intense smell of coffee – this is the Tea
and Coffee Plant, home to organic and
fair-trade coffee on Portobello since the
1980s, long before the coffee chains took
over. Continuing northwards you can turn
left into Westbourne Park Road if you’re
searching for the Blue Door (number 280).
Back on Portobello Road there’s the brilliant
Spanish supermarket and deli, R Garcia
& Sons, and The Grain Shop, a vegetarian
takeaway restaurant, a relic from the area’s
hippy past, where lentil bakes and chickpea
curries are doled out in generous portions.
From here on, the market (on Fridays and
Saturdays) is dominated by vintage clothes;
the covered area is a treasure trove for
fashion fans. Browse leather jackets from
the 1970s, 1950s cocktail dresses, Victorian
nighties and rails of denim, as well as shoes,
handbags and countless accessories. The best
day for fashion is Friday, when you’ll spot
stylists and models from all over the world
browsing discreetly.
The final stretch of Portobello Road, north
of Portobello Green, is often neglected,
but on Fridays you’ll find a quirky array of
vintage ceramics and mid-century furniture
(as well as a lot of less interesting fare) and
on Saturdays there’s the Penny Market
(a penny for charity for each two pennies
spent) selling artisan foods.
Also worth a mention here is Pizza East
– grab a pavement table if it’s sunny – and
just north of Golborne Road, where the
antiques and bric-a-brac continue, is Swanky
Lash and Brow bar, where gossip is freely
exchanged over manicures and pedicures.
If you want to get a sense of local life, stop
in for a file, a polish and to shoot the breeze.
Just don’t ask the locals about “that film.” n
Top to bottom: Portobello’s stalls heave
under an eclectic array of wares

44 discoverbritainmag.com

SHUTTERSTOCK; STEVE VIDLER/CORBIS

London

m a rt i n r a n d a l l t r av e l

Grand designs,
circa 1598.
5085

ABTA No.Y6050

A country house is much more than a house: great architecture, fine furniture, works of art,
glorious gardens, an ideal backdrop for music.
Special arrangements are a feature of all our tours. They range from a private visit of the state
apartments of Windsor Castle, to an evening concert in the Chapelle Royale of Versailles, to a
stay in an 18th-century Scottish country house which remains a private home.

Find out more at martinrandall.com or call +44 (0)20 8742 3355

Image: Montacute House, Somerset, lithograph 1842.

Houses of Parliament

Visit one of the world’s most iconic buildings
Visitor Services Advert 202 x 129.indd 1

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03/12/2014 16:29:58

London

I

At home
with

Holmes
With the return of the BBC’s
Sherlock to our screens in January,
Nicola Rayner dons deerstalker
and magnifying glass to follow
the trail to London’s Sherlock
Holmes Museum

46 discoverbritainmag.com

t’s one of the most famous addresses
in London, if not the world, but while
most of us don’t have a precise idea of
what 10 Downing Street or No 1
London look like inside, the interior of
221B Baker Street is a familiar friend.
“Cheerfully furnished, and illuminated
by two broad windows,” as we are told
in A Study in Scarlet, the first-floor study
shared by Britain’s most famous fictional
detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his friend
and biographer, Dr Watson, is immediately
recognisable, with two chairs facing its cosy
fireplace and a sofa against the opposite
wall (which bears a patriotic “VR” (Victoria
Regina) inscribed in bullet holes, as
described in The Musgrave Ritual).
The most famous room in the Sherlock
Holmes Museum is not a spacious one
(Holmes is able to emerge from his bedroom
next door and take one spring across the
study to close the curtains) but, everywhere
you look, there’s something to recognise
from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories.
“You can touch everything except the
knife, the violin and the syringe,” we’re
told by a friendly-looking Victorian maid
(her counterpart outside is a period-style
policeman guarding the entrance).
There is a reason for the familiarity.
Sherlock Holmes is one of best known
fictional personalities in the world – it has
been said he shares the spotlight only with
Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus – and he
made his screen debut in 1900, in Sherlock
Holmes Baffled, a 49-second-long silent
film, followed in 1905 by The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes (shown in Britain as
Held for Ransom). “After this,” Michael
Pointer writes in The Public Life of
Sherlock Holmes, “scarcely a year passed
without Sherlock Holmes appearing on the
screen somewhere in the world.”
Among the most famous screen
representations of Holmes in the past
are William Gillette, Basil Rathbone and
Jeremy Brett, but the latest actor to make
the part his own is Benedict Cumberbatch,
who returned to our screens with Sherlock:
The Abominable Bride, a one-off episode
set in London in 1895, on New Year’s Day.
The BBC show is, in fact, filmed in
North Gower Street in Euston with the
nearby Speedy’s Café on the to-see list
for admirers. However the number one
destination for scores of new fans – and
fanmail – is still 221B Baker Street, which
houses the Sherlock Holmes Museum.
First things first: the eagle-eyed will
notice that the Sherlock Holmes Museum ➤

A Study in Scarlet: The
first-floor living room
shared by Sherlock
Holmes, whose violin can
be seen tucked into the
right-hand corner, and Dr
Watson, whose medical
desk is on the left

discoverbritainmag.com 47

London

is actually located at what was once 239
Baker Street. The building was reallocated
the number 221B when it opened in 1990
but, interestingly, 221B Baker Street did
not exist in 1887 when A Study in Scarlet
was published, marking the first appearance
of Holmes and Watson – back then Baker
Street house numbers didn’t extend that far.
Nevertheless, the museum building is well
suited to its task, not least because from
1860 to 1934 it was registered as a lodging
house – like that of Mrs Hudson, Sherlock
and Watson’s landlady, who
rented the rooms to the pair
between 1881 and 1904. The
Georgian house fits the bill
from the 17 steps from the
ground-floor hallway to the
first-floor (“I know there are
17 steps, because I have both
seen and observed,” says
Holmes), to the lovingly recreated study,
a treasure trove for newcomers and
dedicated fans alike.
The latter will have fun spotting their
own “clues” from the stories – chessboards,
chemistry equipment and case notes among
them. Portraits of the ill-fated General
Charles Gordon and Henry Ward Beecher
adorn the walls – the pictures are key to
Holmes’ reading Watson’s thoughts in The
Cardboard Box. A more personal memento
from A Scandal in Bohemia can be found
propped on the mantelpiece: a photograph
of “The Woman” – Irene Adler, who
famously outwitted the great detective.

On the next floor, Mrs Hudson’s
and Watson’s rooms are more sparsely
furnished, with display cabinets featuring
photographs, letters and memorabilia:
Sherlock’s medal from the French
government, a wide selection of knives,
a revolver concealed in a Bible, a bust of
Napoleon and a hungry-looking hound. All
the museum’s artefacts are sourced from the
era or have been donated to the museum
(though as to where the Engineer’s Thumb
or the severed ears from The Cardboard
Box came from, the mind boggles).
Mrs Hudson’s room features a shrine
to her pragmatic nature and pastimes,
while Watson’s displays taxidermy and
medical equipment, as well as reminders
of his military past. A diary entry is open
to a page of notes for The Hound of the
Baskervilles, while pride of place is given to
the original cane chair used by the Victorian
artist Sidney Paget, who illustrated Conan
Doyle’s stories for The Strand magazine,
for The Greek Interpreter.
Look out for the silver steed – a nod to the
story Silver Blaze (where the famous phrase
“the curious incident of the dog in the
night-time” comes from). On the third floor,
the stories make a more literal appearance
in the form of wax figures. Irene Adler,
the creepy blackmailer Charles Augustus
Milverton, Sherlock’s
nemesis Professor James
Moriarty (“the Napoleon
of Crime”) and even the
Hound of the Baskervilles
appear as large as life.
Of course, part of the fun
is playing amateur sleuth
oneself – separating Sherlock
“fact” from Sherlock “fiction”. Apparently
Holmes never did say, “Elementary, my
dear Watson.” And he “never actually
wore the deerstalker”, we are told as we
photograph ourselves with the hat and pipe
that are temptingly laid out in front of the
fire. The most serious fans, however, take
their dedication to a new level. Players of
“the Great Game” believe that the world’s
most famous detective was not, in fact,
fictional at all. His presence is so strongly
recreated at the museum that perhaps, after
all this time, the case remains open… n

“221B Baker
Street did not
exist in 1887”

48 discoverbritainmag.com

www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk

ALAMY/MAURICE CROOKS; JOHN KELLERMAN; STEVE VIDLER; THE SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM

Left: Sherlock’s deerstalker, pipe and magnifying
glass are laid out in front of the fire in the study
Below left: Staff attired in period dress man the
Sherlock Holmes Museum and gift shop

The Insider
Brenda Cook is a woman with
the inside scoop. She tours the UK
and asks… did you know?

BREAKING THE MOULD
Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein… Britain has
shaped the careers of a long line of great sculptors. But did you
know that a short drive from London, amid the rolling Surrey
Hills, the appreciative can visit the Sculpture Park, which
showcases the work of some 300 renowned and emerging artists
from the 20th and 21st centuries across 10 acres? Clap eyes on
an eclectic collection of artwork, all displayed among heathland,
woodland and wildlife.
www.thesculpturepark.com

Dukes Hotel in St James’s is one of the London cognoscenti’s
most stylish sanctuaries. Exclusive and quietly tucked away, it
first opened its doors in 1908, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that
it earned its status as a London legend. For it was then that Ian
Fleming began to frequent its bar, which was staffed exclusively
by Italians who knew a thing
or two about how to make
a martini, the likes of which
were little known in the capital
then. But did you know that
Dukes is where Fleming’s
timeless character picked up his
most famous phrase, “shaken,
not stirred”? It originated
from the instructions of the
knowledgeable bar staff
(previously, stirring a martini
was accepted practice, but those
in the know said it “bruised” the
gin). Do try the Classic Vesper,
still on the menu today, which
follows the recipe from the first
Bond book, Casino Royale.
www.dukeshotel.com

50 discoverbritainmag.com

FOOT TRAILS; ANYKA/ALAMY

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED

London

LIFE’S A BEACH
Edinburgh tops every must-see list for first-time visitors
to Britain and, consequently, the city is perennially
abuzz with tourists keen to see its many historic
treasures. But did you know that Scotland also abounds
with many spots where you can get away from it all?
More specifically, its wealth of deserted, picture
postcard-worthy beach hideaways prove you don’t need

to schlep all the way to the Maldives for your hit of white
sand and turquoise waters. The Outer Hebrides have a
population of just 26,000 people – and, as such, their
resplendent jewel, Luskentyre Sands, on the west coast of
the Isle of Harris is almost always empty (the nearest road
is some two miles away, after all).
www.visitscotland.com

BEST FOOT FORWARD
England’s green and pleasant land presents
a joy for ramblers and amblers keen to tread
its landscapes. But, in the pursuit of escaping
the hordes, the hiking connoisseur may find
themselves among unwelcome company:
some of the national trails, lovely as they are,
attract up to a million visitors a year. But did
you know that you can escape the throngs
with just a little inside knowledge? Which is
where Foot Trails comes in, a company run
by husband-and-wife duo Alison and David
Howell, who lead a variety of walks across
the land that are varied, impassioned and
always off the tourist trail. It’s the ultimate
way to explore villages, historic sites and rural
England on two feet.
www.foottrails.co.uk

discoverbritainmag.com 51

The Insider

MUSIC TO OUR EARS

ALAMY/ LONDONSTILLS.COM; HOLMES GARDEN PHOTOS; CHRIS LAWRENCE

The Royal Academy of Music in Marylebone is the UK’s oldest conservatoire. But did you know
that, as well as chancing to hear beautiful phrases of classical music as you wander by, it also houses
its own museum? Here, visitors can explore unique instruments, manuscripts and art, and discover
the behind-the-scenes stories. Clap eyes on the “Viotti ex-Bruce” 1709 violin by Antonio Stradivari,
once played to Marie Antoinette, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s original score for The Mikado, or learn
how the academy’s alumni have influenced musical development for nearly 200 years. The museum
also holds free public musical and lecture events, museum tours, and offers children’s trails.
www.ram.ac.uk/museum

52 discoverbritainmag.com

ORDER!
London’s multi-layered history is all part of the charm
of the city, even if parts of it continue to exist only as
museum pieces. But did you know you can step back in
time to a working environment courtesy of the ancient
Inns of Court? The Inner and Middle Temple, Lincoln’s
Inn, and Gray’s Inn are all far less crowded than many of
the city’s other attractions, yet tourists can freely wander
through the outdoor areas on weekdays and observe
barristers at work. Don’t neglect to visit Temple Church
while you’re there, built by the Knights Templar in the
12th century.
www.templechurch.com

POTTY
ABOUT POTS

EVERYDAY
HEROES
St Paul’s Cathedral features on every
tourist trail. But did you know a
short walk north of Sir Christopher
Wren’s awe-inspiring masterpiece,
you can escape the crowds and find
a spot for solace and reflection?
Postman’s Park, so-called because
lunching postmen from the nearby
former General Post Office favoured
it for their break, is a little-known
gem. It opened in 1880 on burial
ground once belonging to the St
Botolph’s Aldersgate church and
later incorporating the neighbouring
burial grounds of Christ Church
Greyfriars and St Leonard, Foster
Lane. The most moving aspect of the
park is the Watts Memorial to Heroic
Self-Sacrifice, which commemorates
54 men, women and children who
lost their lives while attempting to
save another.
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

From the mid-17th century,
the abundance of coal and
clay around Stoke-on-Trent
led to the beginnings of
the pottery industry in the
area. With the development
of ceramic manufacturing
techniques by master potters,
the industry boomed – did
you know the area has been
dubbed “the Potteries”? This
year, the Edwards family,
owners of Moorcroft Pottery
in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent,
celebrate 30 years at the
helm of the company with a
special collection launched
in their town of origin –
Evesham. Another red-letter
day in 2016 for a company
whose founder, William
Moorcroft, was appointed
Potter to Queen Mary in
1928, is HM The Queen’s
90th birthday, which
has been marked – how
else? – with the creation
of a beautiful vase, the
Buckingham Orchid.
www.moorcroft.com

discoverbritainmag.com 53

London

54 discoverbritainmag.com

Dreaming spires
ILLUSTRATION BY LISA HELLIER; CORBIS/JASON HAWKES

Oxford University is the oldest in the English-speaking
world. Alumnus Alexander Larman revisits his alma mater
to tour the most historic colleges open to the public

T

he oldest and most famous university in the
English-speaking world (sorry, Cambridge),
Oxford enjoys a quirk that may come as
a surprise to first-time visitors. There is no
such thing as “the main campus”, barring the Bodleian
Library and a few historic buildings such as the
Sheldonian Theatre; instead the university is made up of
its 30-odd colleges, each of which is an autonomous and
self-governing institution. These vary in size and wealth,

but the best known among their number are united in one
crucial detail: each is richly historic and
of infinite interest to the architectural enthusiast.
Happily, the most remarkable are open to the public,
meaning that the curious can spend a rewarding couple
of days wandering about, adopting a donnish air or simply
observing the brightest and best in their natural habitat. If
you’ve only got time to visit a small selection of colleges,
➤
these are our favourites...

discoverbritainmag.com 55

Oxford

St John’s College
Begin a meander around Oxford on St Giles, the city’s
busiest main road and home to the historic Martyrs’
Memorial, commemorating the deaths of the heretic
Protestants Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas
Cranmer. Nearby is St John’s College, which was founded
in 1555 by the merchant Sir Thomas White. It is the
university’s wealthiest college, thanks to some canny
investment in property in the 19th century – a detail
that gave rise to the probably apocryphal story that you
can walk from St John’s, Oxford to St John’s, Cambridge
entirely on land owned by one or other of the colleges.
The main historic interest in the college lies in the
oldest 16th century parts of the building: namely the front
quad, the chapel and the striking Italian Renaissancestyled Canterbury Quad, which contains the college’s
library and an impressive selection of literature by some
of its distinguished alumni. These include the poets Philip
Larkin and Robert Graves and the novelist Kingsley
Amis. (Others ranking among that notable number are
Tony Blair and the classicist AE Housman). Entry to the
college is free of charge and visitors are welcome from
1pm until dusk (or 5pm in summer) except on Christmas
and Boxing Day and during special functions.

56 discoverbritainmag.com

Previous page: An aerial view of Oxford’s historic colleges
Left and far left: St John’s College is Oxford’s wealthiest and alumni
include Tony Blair and Kingsley Amis This page, top: Merton College
Bottom: East window, circa 1295, at Merton College Chapel

Merton College

ALAMY/OXFORD PICTURE LIBRARY; ZOONAR GMBH; ROBERT STAINFORTH; PETER BARRITT

If you fancy a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle
of the city centre, take a walk through Christ Church
Meadow, admiring the cows on the way, and then
head back along the peaceful Merton Street, where the
eponymous college is located. With a fearsome academic
reputation for only admitting the very brightest students,
it habitually ranks at the top of the Norrington Table, the
university-wide ranking system of colleges.
Dating from 1264, it has a range of interesting
buildings, including a chapel whose quire goes back to
the 13th century, the 17th century Fellows’ Quadrangle
and St Alban’s Quad. Visitors can wander round these
buildings from 2pm until 5pm in the week, or 10am until
5pm at weekends, upon payment of £3 per person.
The college is proud of its almost formidably
distinguished alumni, including JRR Tolkien, who was
an English professor there for 14 years, and TS Eliot,
who studied philosophy from 1914 to 1915. Although
the latter apparently loathed his time there, he has been
celebrated with the recent opening of the TS Eliot lecture
theatre, as well as with a collection of rare first-editions
and memorabilia, including a bust of him by the sculptor
Jacob Epstein on public view.
➤

discoverbritainmag.com 57

CJ_DiscoverBritain_12.11.15_Layout 1 12/11/15 1:41 PM Page 1

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Oxford
Christ Church

ALAMY/ROBERT HARDING PICTURE LIBRARY LTD; JEFF GILBERT

Persevere down the less-than-pleasant main shopping
street, Cornmarket, and you will be rewarded with a
sighting of the iconic Sir Christopher Wren designed Tom
Tower, which sits at the front of Oxford’s most famous
college, Christ Church. The seven-tonne bell in the tower
chimes 101 times each night at 9:05pm, the time when the
original 101 students were called back for curfew.
With the initial steps taken in 1524 by Cardinal
Wolsey, then Henry VIII’s chief advisor, Christ Church
was re-founded in 1546 by the king himself. The college
is synonymous with many great works of literature,
including Alice In Wonderland (Charles Dodgson, aka
Lewis Carroll, was a lecturer at the college and based
Alice on the daughter of the dean). Brideshead Revisited
(Christ Church is where Sebastian Flyte studies) and,
more recently, Harry Potter; although the books were not
set there, the Great Hall was used as a filming location for
Hogwarts, and is featured on a walking tour.
Adult tickets can cost as much as £7, or £14 for a
family ticket. But in return, there’s a feast of historic and
architectural significance that includes Oxford’s cathedral
– the smallest in the country – the beautiful 18th century
Peckwater Quad, a world-class art gallery and, of course,
the main quadrangle, “Tom Quad”, which features the
famous statue of Mercury in a pond in its centre.
So-called “hearty” rugby players used to throw more
aesthetic students in; Waugh made fun of this tradition in
Brideshead, with the foppish Anthony Blanche describing
his dunking as “really most refreshing… I sported there
a little and struck some attitudes, until they turned about
and walked sulkily home.”
➤

Top: Tom Tower, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, sits at the entrance
to Christ Church, which was so named in 1546 by King Henry VIII
Bottom: Students dine in splendour at the Great Hall, Christ Church

discoverbritainmag.com 59

Oxford
Right: Balliol College, founded in 1263, which has produced three
Prime Ministers: Edward Heath, Harold Macmillan and HH Asquith
Below: The front quad and gate tower at Balliol College

Balliol College

OXFORD
HIGHLIGHTS
Visit
No visit to the city is complete
without heading to the outstanding
Ashmolean museum (www.
ashmolean.org), founded in
1683 and now, after a substantial
renovation, firmly established in the
top level of world-class collections.
The great university buildings of
the Sheldonian Theatre and the
Bodleian are well worth seeing –

60 discoverbritainmag.com

HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES/NEWSTEAM.CO.UK; SHAUN FELLOWS; ROBIN FORSTER;
PHILIP MOULD LTD; STEVE VIDLER/ALAMY; NICK WILKINSON

Heading back to St Giles, you’ll come to Oxford’s most
famous thoroughfare, Broad Street, where the Sheldonian
and the Bodleian are located. Before visiting them,
though, do stop by to see one of the university’s oldest
and wealthiest colleges, Balliol.
Founded in 1263 by the aristocrat John de Balliol, it
revels in its reputation for intellectual superiority, which
has seen it produce three British Prime Ministers (Edward
Heath, Harold Macmillan and HH Asquith). Also, Nobel
laureates, writers and London mayor, Boris Johnson. The
jealous have been known to mutter: “You can always tell
a Balliol man, but you can’t tell him much.”
Entry to the college is £2 per person and in return,
visitors get the chance to wander around from 10am to
5pm. Places of special interest include the 19th century
chapel, designed by the architect William Butterfield, and
the old library, which dates back as far as the early 15th
century, thereby making it one of the most historically
interesting libraries in the world. (For comparison’s sake,
the Bodleian was founded in 1602). The college also has a
long-running rivalry with neighbouring Trinity, and both
institutions seek to outdo one another with good-natured
and often highly innovative pranks.
➤

normally via a guided tour – and the
legendary Blackwell’s bookshop on
Broad Street is a fine place to pick up
a souvenir, especially those penned
by any number of the university’s
famous and well-published alumni.
Eat and drink
Oxford has an embarrassment
of riches when it comes to historic
pubs. Particularly notable are
the Eagle and Child on St Giles
(where CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien
founded discussion group, the
Inklings). The Turf is a medieval

tavern located off Broad Street
and accessed through a pleasingly
narrow ancient alleyway, with the
King’s Arms, a favourite student
haunt, nearby. None offer especially
inspiring food, however, so if
you’re after a decent meal try the
much-loved Cherwell Boathouse
(www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk)
slightly outside the main centre,
or head to the bohemian north
Oxford suburb of Jericho, where
the ever-popular Italian restaurant
Branca (www.branca.co.uk) offers
a very good set lunch menu.

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OXFORD PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY

Oxford

Magdalen College
If you walk down the High Street, past the imposing Exam
Schools, you will eventually reach what is surely Oxford’s
most beautiful college: Magdalen. Pronounced “maud-lin”,
it has a deceptively tranquil atmosphere engendered by
the spacious grounds, including the sequestered Addison’s
Walk, which former Magdalen fellow CS Lewis would
frequent with his friend JRR Tolkien.
However, any college whose alumni includes Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman and the
current Chancellor, George Osborne, is not merely the
academic equivalent of a pretty face. Its results testify to
its intellectual prowess; it perennially vies with Merton to
top the Norrington Table. At £5 per visit, it’s well worth it

62 discoverbritainmag.com

to enjoy the gorgeous architecture, such as the medieval
chapel and the grand 18th century New Building. The
Hall and Old Kitchen Bar are also open to the public.
The chapel is home to the famous Magdalen College
Choir, who perform every weekday at 6pm and on
Sundays at 11am. They also, famously, sing every year on
1 May at 6am to a mix of early risers and late partygoers.
One of the college’s quirkier features is that it has its own
deer park; it is widely rumoured that the fellows of the
college are often served the finest venison on high table. n
Visit www.discoverbritainmag.com for a tour of
Cambridge’s most historic colleges

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English eccentrics

Mad, bad and
dangerous to know
Dinner guests of the notorious John “Mad Jack” Mytton took their lives into their own hands – as did
his children, who were regularly pelted with oranges

J

ohn Mytton’s sobriquet, “Mad Jack”, would have
been explicable by dint of just one in his catalogue of
misdemeanours. But for any biographer of this Shropshire
lad, there are just too many to mention. Born in 1796,
he was the son of a squire and attended Westminster School
– which is where any semblance of respectability ends.
Expelled from his alma mater for fighting, he
was moved to Harrow School, where his reign of
terror lasted just three days before being given the
boot once more. Thereafter, he trained his mischiefmaking upon a series of tutors (he left a horse in
one unfortunate would-be mentor’s room).
He had started as he intended to go on. Going up to
Cambridge, his personal effects included 2,000 bottles
of port, the effects of which, needless to say, had the
predictable consequence of his leaving minus a degree.
Not that such trivialities mattered. After all, at 21, Mytton
came into his vast inheritance. Which is when it becomes clear
that, hitherto, his offences were a mere warm-up act. An inveterate
gambler, cash was easy-come, easy-go for Mad Jack; deciding to stand
for Parliament, he secured a seat by bribing voters with £10 each.
He then attended Parliament just once. For half an hour. And little
wonder, for he had much to occupy his time. Continuing the theme

of his youth, he was never idle, instead filling his hours
by honouring his side of various outrageous wagers.
There was the time he rode a horse up the grand staircase at the
Bedford Hotel, and then jumped from the balcony to terrorise the
diners below. He would fox hunt in the nude. He rode a bear into
a dinner party at his Halston Hall home, which subsequently bit him
and then killed a servant. He kept 2,000 dogs as pets.
He pelted his own children with oranges. And he
once invited a parson and a doctor to dine, only to
dress up as a highwayman and hold them at gunpoint
for kicks, shouting: “Stand and deliver!” He was a
terror when it came to carriage riding, making straight
for other vehicles, just to see if they might tip over.
His antics were, unsurprisingly, well lubricated
courtesy of his breakfast, which would consist
of several bottles of port. If he was out of port? Eau
de cologne did the job admirably. The habit often occasioned bouts
of hiccups, though these were no problem for Mad Jack, whose
home-remedy cure was to set his own shirt on fire.
It was an expensive life, so it comes as scant surprise that Mytton
died penniless at the age of 38 (it’s a wonder he lasted that long).
Still, he remained loved; 3,000 people attended the funeral of the
most rock ’n’ roll eccentric ever to burn out in a blaze of glory. n

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY 2015

“He rode a bear
into a dinner
party, which
subsequently bit
him and then
killed a servant”

discoverbritainmag.com 65

Games

➤

66 discoverbritainmag.com

THE ARCHITECTS
WHO BUILT
BRITAIN
Alexander Larman considers those great British
architects through history whose legacies have
come to define the country’s built heritage

The astonishing Peter Paul Rubens
frescoes at Banqueting House, Whitehall,
London, which was designed by
Inigo Jones in 1622. The ceiling was
commissioned by King Charles I, who was
later executed outside in 1649

Great British Architects

Inigo Jones (1573 – 1652)
The first man to make a living from
architecture in England, Inigo Jones was
heavily influenced by classical ideas of
symmetry in his buildings, many of which
were commissioned by Kings James I and
Charles I. His best-known work is the
lavish Banqueting House (previous page
and below), which has a no-expense-spared
quality that encompasses a ceiling painted
by Peter Paul Rubens. It is ironic that 27
years after its completion in 1622, Charles I
was executed on a scaffold outside it.
His other great work was to construct
St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden,
a commission from the Earl of Bedford,
known today as “the actor’s church”.
Bedford reputedly asked for a simple
church “not much better than a barn”.
Jones’ riposte? “Then you shall have the
handsomest barn in England.”
A now lost project he was involved in was
the reconstruction of St Paul’s Cathedral
between 1634 and 1642. It was in desperate
need of reconstruction, so Jones designed a
giant Corinthian portico for its west front, in
the style of a great Roman palace; sadly, like
the rest of St Paul’s, it was destroyed by the
Great Fire of London in 1666.

68 discoverbritainmag.com

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY 2015; AMORET TANNER /ALAMY

Arguably England’s
greatest architect, Wren was
also among the first to practise
professionally. After studying at Oxford,
where he was later appointed professor
of astronomy, Wren became a founding
member of the Royal Society and was
invited to redesign St Paul’s Cathedral (left)
after the Great Fire destroyed the original.
The process took over 30 years, with the
cathedral finally rebuilt and reopened in
1697, still in Wren’s lifetime. Its Italianate
influences divided commentators, with
one remarking disdainfully on its “air of
Popery” and “un-English” quality.
This was, of course, Wren’s whole idea.
Working within the English Baroque style
and at the then huge cost of £1.1 million, he
created a strikingly unusual building
that could stand comparison with other
great ecclesiastical structures, such as
St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Wren designed many other notable
buildings, including the Sheldonian Theatre
in Oxford, but is perhaps most associated
with the 51 other London churches he
rebuilt after the Great Fire, of which 23 still
exist, albeit often in altered form. When he
died in 1723, he knew he had inspired
a generation of architects; perhaps less
clear was just how many future generations
would deem him the greatest of all time. ➤

➤

discoverbritainmag.com 69

HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES/MILES WILLIS; ALAMY/CLASSIC IMAGE; INTERFOTO; ALEX SEGRE; WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE

Christopher
Wren
(1632 – 1723)

Great British Architects
John Wood (Snr & Jnr)
(1704 – 1754/1728 – 1782)
Bath’s unparalleled and resplendent
Georgian architecture is, for the most
part, thanks to the great creativity and
endeavours of John Wood. He believed it
deserved to be elevated to the height of a
major world city, and that the best means
of achieving such an apex was by creating
beautiful buildings.
Some of his finest work there includes
the iconic Circus, where the painter
Thomas Gainsborough lived, and nearby
Queen Square. Not even German bombs
in 1942 could destroy his plans; the
damaged buildings were meticulously and
finely reconstructed in original Bath stone.
However, Wood Senior’s early demise
in 1754 meant that his greatest plan, the
Royal Crescent, had to be realised by his
son, John Wood the Younger. Unlike his
father, who had a keen interest in druidism
and freemasonry, Wood harboured no
hidden agenda when it came to building
the city, but instead wished for a dialogue
between nature and architecture. As
such, he designed the buildings within
the Crescent so that each would have an
unobstructed view of the countryside
beyond. Even today, with the inevitable
encroachment of planning and further
building, it is possible to stand in the
Crescent and understand completely what
Wood intended, and to admire some
of the finest and most-loved Georgian
➤
architecture in the country.

Most architects of note have held a burning desire to design buildings for
as long as they can remember. Vanbrugh, conversely, began his career as
a successful playwright, writing such much-loved comedies as The
Relapse and The Provok’d Wife. It is possible to draw parallels between
his ingenious construction of plot and what would become an equally, if
not more, successful career in architecture, which he began as a protégé
to the great Nicholas Hawksmoor at the end of the 17th century.
His two most famous buildings, Castle Howard and Blenheim
Palace (above), both occupy an exalted position in the English
imagination; the first served as both model and filming location
for Brideshead Revisited, while the second dominates the
Cotswold town of Woodstock. While the construction of Castle
Howard was trouble-free, with its European ornamentation
and use of Corinthian columns attracting much praise, he fell
out with the wife of his patron, the Duke of Marlborough, and
was dismissed from the project, leaving it to be completed by
Hawksmoor. His only other major building, Seaton Delaval Hall,
was acquired by the National Trust in 2009.
70 discoverbritainmag.com

ARCHITECTURE UK/ALAMY; MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY; TRAVEL PICTURES LTD

John Vanbrugh (1664 – 1726)

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Great British Architects

The Scottish architect Robert Adam managed
to give his name to an entire style of architecture
– which is considerably more than any of his
contemporaries managed. The so-called “Adam
Style” of building drew on the work of his
predecessors such as Wren and Jones (even if
he criticised Jones’ work as “ponderous”), but
with a greater degree of fame and authority.
He occupied the prestigious position of
Architect of the King’s Works from 1761 to 1769,
and, after establishing himself as one of the major
urban designers responsible for the 18th century
reconstruction of Edinburgh, headed down to
England to build such famous buildings as Bath’s
Pulteney Bridge and the resplendent Osterley
72 discoverbritainmag.com

Park in west London. Arguably his masterpiece,
Syon House shows the full array of his eclectic and
inclusive range of influences that encompass the
Baroque, the Gothic and the Romanesque.
Another iconic project that Adam has strong
associations with is Stowe in Buckingham (above).
A diverse range of architects collaborated on
this, including Vanbrugh and Sir John Soane
(it also boasts a Capability Brown-designed
garden). Adam’s major contribution was to
design the south façade, which overlooks the
expansive gardens, a stunning piece of neoclassical
architecture that has deservedly been recognised
as one of the major achievements of his – or
anyone else’s – architectural career.
➤

ALAMY/HILARY MORGAN; FUNKYFOOD LONDON/PAUL WILLIAMS

Robert Adam (1728 – 1792)

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Great British Architects

Anyone visiting the Houses of Parliament
(also known as the Palace of Westminster)
is likely to be impressed by its vast Gothic
Revival exterior, crowned by the iconic
Clock Tower that contains Big Ben. As with
St Paul’s Cathedral, its reconstruction came
about through necessity.
After a fire destroyed the original building
in October 1834, a public competition was
held for an architect to come up with a
successful new design; Gothic or Elizabethan
were the favoured styles. It was the popular
contemporary architect Charles Barry
who submitted what would become the
ultimate winning design, following on from
his acclaimed work remodelling Highclere
Castle (Downton Abbey, if you prefer) and
Cliveden, both in Berkshire.
Barry’s work at the Houses of Parliament
would scarcely have proved the triumph it is
without the efforts of his colleague, Augustus
Pugin. The two men had successfully
collaborated on King Edward’s School in
Birmingham and, as a consequence, Pugin
was charged with the interior design of the
building; the Gothic interiors and furnishings
were entirely Pugin’s idea. The collaboration
was a tiring but happy one; Pugin remarked
that: “I never worked so hard in my life as
for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the
designs for finishing the bell tower, and it
is beautiful.” Subsequent generations have
agreed – and continue to agree – with him. n
74 discoverbritainmag.com

ARCAID IMAGES/ALAMY

Charles Barry (1795 –
1860) & Augustus
Pugin (1812 – 1852)

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Castle Howard

Visiting the annual Robin Hood Festival
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Ightham Mote

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King’s College Chapel

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YORKSHIRE

76 discoverbritainmag.com

dslkjf

NORTHERN
SOUL
It is the landscape that abounds with natural wonders and
wild moorland. Nancy Alsop roams the county that raised the
Brontë sisters to channel the spirit of Heathcliff and Cathy

discoverbritainmag.com 77

DO
HAWORTH
PARSONAGE
The Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and
Anne – were three of the most astonishing 19th
century contributors to the English literary
canon. Charlotte and Emily, in particular,
penned extraordinary Gothic tales of
high drama and visceral passions
through the pages of Jane Eyre and
Wuthering Heights. It’s hard to
reconcile these subversives, whose
stories highlighted the social
injustice and religious hypocrisy
of the time to outraged reviews,
with the women who, from
1820, lived quietly at Haworth
Parsonage, in the then-industrial
village on the edge of the Pennine
moors in West Yorkshire, and went
on to die young. Guests can visit
the parsonage where they wrote
their novels, published under the
pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and
Acton Bell, and later explore
the quaint village itself, as well
as the surrounding dramatic
moors, upon which it takes
no imaginative leap to conjure
a wild Heathcliff roaming.
www.bronte.org.uk

WENTWORTH CASTLE
Laying claim to the only Grade I-listed landscape in South
Yorkshire, the story of Wentworth Castle is as fascinating as its
Baroque architecture. It all started when, in 1695, the 2nd Earl
of Strafford died without a son. The heir expectant, Thomas
Wentworth, was disappointed when the family’s landed estate,
Wentworth Woodhouse, went to a cousin, Thomas Watson.
Undeterred, Wentworth soldiered on in the diplomatic service of
King William III and Queen Anne and when, in 1708, he bought
up nearby Stainborough Hall and transformed it into a mock
castle in the Baroque style, Anne duly created a new title for
him: the first Earl of Strafford of the second creation. Do note the
Capability Brown gardens and the addition of a Palladian wing.
www.wentworthcastle.org
78 discoverbritainmag.com

Yorkshire

CASTLE HOWARD
The John Vanbrugh design for Castle Howard (not, in fact, technically
a castle, but built on the site of a former fortress) was conceived in 1699,
commissioned by the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. It would take a further 100
years and the lifespan of three earls to complete. Lived in ever since by
the Howard family, barring a brief interlude as a girls’ school in World War
II, it has been open to the public since 1952. But it was post 1981 that its
popularity surged, after it was used as the eponymous Brideshead, seat
of the Marchmain family, in the Granada Television adaptation of Evelyn
Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Do ensure a visit to the 18th century chapel
– made much of by Waugh – which was, curiously, intended as a dining
room originally. And finally, do, upon leaving, utter the words: “I had been
there before; I knew all about it” in your best Jeremy Irons gravelly tones.

WHITBY ABBEY
Whitby, on the north-east coast of Yorkshire,
is home to one of the most dramatic sights in the
county: that of the ruins of Whitby Abbey, founded
in AD 657, and at the time one of the most significant
monasteries in the Anglo-Saxon world. Built by
King Oswy of Northumbria, it was ruled by Abbess
Hilda, an impressive woman who presided over
men and women alike and whose wisdom was
often sought by royalty. Standing above the seaside
town, the energetic can climb the 199 steps from the
town to the ruin, where it’s easy to see how Bram
Stoker gained inspiration for Dracula, his Gothic
tale, from both the site and the wider Whitby.
www.english-heritage.org.uk

discoverbritainmag.com 79

ALAMY/LOOP IMAGES LTD; BALL MIWAKO; LISE PEARSON; FUNKYFOOD LONDON/PAUL WILLIAMS;
GL ARCHIVE; VISITENGLAND/WENTWORTH CASTLE GARDENS; MIKE KIPLING PHOTOGRAPHY

www.castlehoward.co.uk

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GREAT
OUTDOORS

CLEVELAND WAY TRAIL
The serious walker will relish the Cleveland Way,
which begins in Helmsley on the western edge of the
North York Moors, and finally delivers its followers at
Filey on the east coast, 110 miles later. The less intrepid
can simply elect to experience its highlights, of which
there are many. After all, three out of four of the topvoted best views in the county are to be found along
the trail: Sutton Bank across the Vale of Mowbray; the
view of Whitby Harbour from the 199 steps; and the
sight of Robin Hood’s Bay from Ravenscar.
www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way

YORKSHIRE DALES
NATIONAL PARK
Rivers, moorlands, waterfalls, bridleways, limestone
pavements, ancient villages and dry-stone walls… the
Yorkshire Dales National Park in the north-western
corner of the county offers hikers, strollers, cyclists and
climbers some 680 square miles of ravishing scenery
and wildlife (think rare breeds of sheep and butterflies).
Do endeavour to catch a glimpse of the limestone cliffs
at Malham Cove (right) and the fascinating formations
at Brimham Rocks. Meanwhile, for a more leisurely
exploration, hop on a steam train across the Dales
(featured in screen adaptations of both Harry Potter
and The Railway Children).
www.yorkshiredales.org.uk

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JOE CORNISH

SWINTON
PARK

SLEEP

For those in search of serious grandeur,
you’d be hard-pressed to beat Swinton
Park in North Yorkshire’s Dales. In
the heart of the 20,000-acre estate sits
a 17th century castle, with extensive
Victorian additions (flourishes added by
the 19th century mill magnate, Samuel
Cunliffe-Lister). Rooms come in both
capacious and cosy varieties and the
Georgian drawing room is nothing short
of exemplary. Golfers will rejoice in its
nine-hole course, while others will enjoy
the grounds, which abound with lakes,
farmland and moorland.
www.swintonpark.com

discoverbritainmag.com 81

Yorkshire

THE LAKE HOUSE

MIDDLETHORPE HALL AND SPA

For secluded luxury, little comes close to the Lake House,
a private holiday rental with six bedrooms on the coast near
Sandsend Beach, and – a little further south – the seaside town
of Whitby. If guests so wish, the services of a private chef and
butler can be called upon, while even the family pet can
de-stress courtesy of an on-site dog spa (what else?).

Situated next door to York’s racecourse, Middlethorpe Hall and
Spa was built in 1699, its Queen Anne style influenced by the great
Sir Christopher Wren. These days it operates under the auspices
of the National Trust, which runs it as the luxury hotel in the city.
Think old-fashioned luxury (dinner is served by candlelight in a
wood-panelled dining room), impeccable service and comfort.

www.bluechipholidays.co.uk/north-yorkshire/whitby/the-lake-house

www.middlethorpe.com

VISIT
Grand Victorian façades, cobbled streets, renovated
arcades and riverside walks… Leeds’ mainly
pedestrianised city centre makes it a joy to wander.
For a hit of culture, don’t miss the Leeds City Art
Gallery (its collection includes work by JMW Turner,
John Constable and Barbara Hepworth). Meanwhile
shoppers will be rewarded by the Corn Exchange,
a shopping-centre housed in a 1864 Grade I-listed
building and the historic Victoria Quarter luxury
shopping arcade (left). Known as “the Knightsbridge
of the North”, Leeds has gone from down-at-heel
mill town to a picture of 21st century prosperity,
complete with skyscrapers, waterfront luxury
developments – and a Harvey Nichols.
www.visitleeds.co.uk

82 discoverbritainmag.com

VISITENGLAND/THOMAS HEATON

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Yorkshire
STAITHES
AND RAVENSCAR
With higgledy-piggledy streets and quaint
cottages galore, Staithes is an ideal base for
exploring the coastal paths and cliffs along
the Cleveland Way – while getting a hit
of picturesque, quintessential Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, in the continuing pursuit of
old-world charm, drive down the coastline
to Ravenscar, a would-be upmarket tourist
resort that never quite was. Despite
19th century plans for it to be so, it was
ultimately left unfinished. These days, it is
under the care of the National Trust, which
has a visitors’ centre for more information.
www.staithes-town.info
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/yorkshire-coast

HARROGATE
This civilised Victorian spa town attracts tourists keen for some repose
amidst genteel surrounds. There is an annual flower show; the Harlow Carr
Botanical Gardens are amongst the most beautiful in the country; and there
is a Royal Pump Room, built in 1842 (now a museum), where visitors can
learn about the town’s healing waters and sulphurous springs. It has literary
links too; Agatha Christie escaped her broken marriage here in 1926, and
Charles Dickens called it “the queerest place, with the strangest people in it,
leading the oddest lives of dancing, newspaper reading and dining”. Make
sure you go to Betty’s Café Tea Room and try a famous “Fat Rascal” scone.
www.visitharrogate.co.uk

York famously claims to have more
attractions per square mile than any other
UK city. It’s no idle boast. Just for starters,
there is the remarkable York Minster (left),
the city’s awe-inspiring Gothic cathedral;
the Jorvik Viking Centre – a multimedia,
multi-sensory display which recreates the
city’s Viking settlement in the city; and the
Shambles, one of the prettiest streets in the
country, lined with 15th century buildings.
Don’t miss the City Walls, along the line
of the Roman originals; or the National
Railway Museum, where you can spy silklined carriages of the royal trains used by
Queen Victoria. And there’s plenty more…
nowhere exudes medieval charm like York.
www.visityork.org

84 discoverbritainmag.com

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JOE CORNISH; VISITENGLAND/DIANA JARVIS; RICHARD J JONES

YORK

PROMOTION

Castle Howard is one
of the country’s finest
stately homes
Below: Whitby Abbey,
a ruined Benedictine
abbey, is on the coast

It’s great up north
For a comprehensive taste of the region’s sweeping beauty and unforgettable sights,
the Yorkshire Tour Company offers the Great Yorkshire Tour

MIKE KIPLING PHOTOGRAPHY; ZINCAT

W

ith romantic ruins and its
majestic moors, Yorkshire’s
wild beauty casts a spell on
all who visit – and with the legendary
friendliness of its people, you can
guarantee a warm welcome will
await you too. Be warned, though:
you many never return back home.
Londoner Jill Chinnery, founder and
managing director of the Yorkshire
Tour Company, first visited the region
many moons ago, and her trip was
a revelation. “I just never knew there
was such loveliness ‘up north’,” she
says. “I fell in love with Yorkshire and
the quality of life it offers and am driven to
share that experience with others.”
Now a local of some 20 years, Jill is joined
on her mission by marketing director, Sharron
Cooney, who lives in a beautiful Yorkshire
village on the edge of the Dales. A keen cyclist
who rode the Grand Départ route (part of the
Tour de France in 2014) through the Dales last
year, Sharron has a wealth of local knowledge
she is passionate about sharing.

The Yorkshire Tour Company specialises
in luxury tours and covers a wide range of
packages including 4 Abbeys and A Minster, the
Dales Taster, Moors and Coast, Hidden Gems
and Magical Secrets, and York and the Historic
North. However, its signature – and most
popular – trip is the Great Yorkshire Tour, which
runs twice a month throughout summer.
Offering a comprehensive taste of exceptional
regional treasures and award-winning venues,

the five-day tour starts at York Minster
and takes in unmissable sights such as
Castle Howard, the Brontës’ Haworth
and the Yorkshire Dales.
The Yorkshire Tour Company
promises breathtaking scenery and
dramatic windswept coastlines, as
well as historic abbeys and castles
galore. Clients, who can book on
group tours or request bespoke
packages, will stay in Yorkshire’s
finest inns and hand-picked hotels
that deliver exceptional service.
Sharron Cooney says: “I welcome the
opportunity to share some of our
great heritage with you and the warm, friendly
Yorkshire welcome for which we are famed.”
For more information, call
+44 (0) 845 8900 499, email enquiry@
theyorkshiretourcompany.com or visit
www.theyorkshiretourcompany.com

discoverbritainmag.com 85

Scotland

86 discoverbritainmag.com

Xxx

WHISKY

business

Along with tartan, haggis and Robert Burns, whisky is one
of Scotland’s most famous exports. Stuart Peskett

embarks on a whistlestop tasting tour

discoverbritainmag.com 87

Scotland

S

cotland: if you love whisky, you’ve
come to the right place. There are
more than 100 whisky distilleries
here, with more than half open
to the public, offering all manner of treats,
tours and tastings, and even the chance to
blend and bottle your own tipple.
A great starting place is Inverness, the
northernmost city in the UK, the capital
of the Highlands and the “happiest place
in Scotland” according to a survey. After
admiring the red sandstone castle, which
sits on a cliff overlooking the River Ness,
head north across the Moray Firth and in
20 miles you’ll reach our first destination:
Dalmore, famous for its stag-branded bottles.
The Dalmore style is rich and sweet, and
the rarest bottles change hands for huge
sums of money. A 62-year-old bottle was
sold in Asia for £125,000, but you might

88 discoverbritainmag.com

like to start with something a little younger
(and cheaper). The 18-year-old costs
under £100 and offers tempting notes of
gingerbread, sultanas and toasty oak.

Famous names
From Dalmore it’s a short drive north along
the A9 to Glenmorangie, one of whisky’s
most famous names thanks to its elegant,
honeyed drams. There are three tours to
try – Original, Signet and Heritage – and it’s
possible to stay at Glenmorangie House, a
beautiful six-bedroom property with cosy
rooms, a walled kitchen garden and even a
private beach. Don’t get too comfortable,
though, as your next stop is Balblair
distillery, just a few miles west.
Established in 1790, Balblair is unique
among Scottish distilleries in that it only
releases single-vintage bottlings. Most

distilleries will release age-statement
bottles, with the age referring to the
youngest whisky in the bottle, but Balblair’s
whiskies are the product of just one year –
perfect if you’re looking for a gift to mark
a special birthday or anniversary. The
Balblair style is clean and fruity, with notes
of apple, orange and lemon, making it an
ideal aperitif. And if you visit the distillery,
you get to bottle your own whisky straight
from the cask.
Next up, heading south, is the most
famous whisky region of them all: Speyside.
Home to more than 50 distilleries, it is
paradise for Scotch whisky fans. Head for
the centre and stay in either Craigellachie
or Aberlour – from either town, you have
plenty of great distilleries within easy
reach. The Craigellachie Hotel has had
a makeover and its Quaich Bar boasts

Left to right: The Lagavulin Distillery on Islay; Glenfinnan in the Lochaber area of the
Highlands; Strathisla Distillery, built in 1786 on Speyside, is one of the oldest in Scotland
Previous page: Glencoe, looking towards Rannoch Moor; (inset) Glenmorangie barrels

ALAMY/DEREK CROUCHER; FRANK SIEDLOK; BON APPETIT;
GRAEME PEACOCK; VISITBRITAIN/JOE CORNISH

no fewer than 700 single malts, while
Aberlour’s Mash Tun is a great spot, with
delicious food and an excellent whisky list.
If you are staying in Aberlour, don’t forget
to visit the Walkers Shortbread shop. They
don’t do tours, but they do sell huge bags of
delicious shortbread – just try not to eat it
all before you get home…

Classic tastes
Our first stop in Speyside is Glenfiddich,
one of the most popular Scotch whiskies
on the planet. The standard bottling, the
12-year-old, is a classic of the region:
light, floral and grassy, but if you visit the
distillery you’ll have the chance to blend
your own version of the 15-year-old and to
take a sample of your blend home with you.
Next up is the Macallan, a sherried
whisky prized among aficionados and

investors. The distillery itself is a thing of
beauty, located close to the River Spey, and
with “curiously small stills” that produce
a rich, fruity spirit. The tours are great and
you even get the chance to taste some
“new-make” spirit straight off the still.
A few miles south-west along the A95
leads you to Glenfarclas, one of the few
family-owned distilleries remaining in
Scotland, and one of the first to open
to visitors. Here you can enjoy the Five
Decades Tour, with the chance to taste
the Glenfarclas Family Cask samples
from the 1950s to the 1990s – a real
treat. Glenfarclas whiskies are like liquid
Christmas cake and are perfect after dinner
or with chocolate-based desserts.
Heading south-west through the beautiful
Cairngorms National Park, follow the River
Spey (an excellent place for a spot of fly

fishing) through Aviemore and Kingussie
and towards Fort William on Scotland’s
west coast. From there, you can visit Ben
Nevis Distillery, which promises a tour from
a mythical giant named Hector McDram.
While you’re here, it’s worth a short detour
east to Glencoe, which made a dramatic
appearance in the James Bond film Skyfall.

Island-hopping
Hug the coastal road south until you reach
Oban, with some stunning views along
the way. Oban Distillery is in the centre of
town, and holds child-friendly “flavourfinding” tours, as well as tours for adults
with plenty of drams to share, including
the ever-popular 14-year-old, with its rich
aromas of honey, heather and smoke. A
short walk from the distillery is the ferry
port, if you wish to do some island-hopping.

discoverbritainmag.com 89

➤

Scotland

From Oban you can take a ferry to Mull,
home to Tobermory Distillery, or you can
drive 90 minutes south into Campbeltown,
known as the “whisky capital of the
world” in the 1800s, with more than 30
distilleries. These days, there are just three:
Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle. All
offer tours, and at Springbank you can even
have a personal tour from Frank McHardy,
a legend of the industry with more than
50 years of experience. Campbeltown
malts are rugged and coastal, with a salty
sea-spray tang – try the rich, full-bodied
15-year-old Springbank or the more elegant
Glen Scotia Victoriana.
Our tour finishes in a world-famous
destination for whisky fans: Islay
(pronounced “eye-la”). The tiny island,
which has a population of just 3,000, is
home to some iconic whisky distilleries,

90 discoverbritainmag.com

including Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig
– all three are on the south coast, just a mile
apart, and all do tours.

Breathtaking landscapes
To reach Islay, you can catch a ferry from
Kennacraig in Campbeltown or fly direct
from Glasgow. Islay malts are hard-hitting
and peaty, with robust notes of tar and
smoked fish. If you’re hungry, head to
Ardbeg’s Old Kiln Café for some delicious
home-cooked food – when I last visited,
they served bread made with leftover grain
that had Ardbeg’s trademark smokiness.
Lagavulin is just a 20-minute stroll away,
and the 16-year-old, with its smoky, tarry
aroma, has won over many whisky fans,
including Johnny Depp. Head to nearby
Laphroaig and you can even have a go
at peat-cutting – you get a dram at the

end for all your hard work. For many, the
Laphroaig 10-year-old is the quintessential
Islay malt, but try before you buy – its
full-throttle flavour is not for everyone.
If peat doesn’t do it for you, head to
Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain – their
whiskies are cleaner and fruitier.
Wherever you decide to take your whisky
tour, you’ll meet some knowledgeable
people, see some breathtaking landscape
and taste some truly memorable whiskies.
And every time you taste a whisky from
a distillery you’ve visited personally, I can
promise that those memories will come
flooding back. n
For more beautiful photographs of
Scotland’s whisky-making regions, as well
as links to its most famous distilleries, see
www.discoverbritain.mag/whisky

ALAMY/NAGELESTOCK.COM; MAR PHOTOGRAPHICS; VISITBRITAIN/BRITAIN ON VIEW

Clockwise, from below: Beautiful Ballindalloch Castle on
Speyside; the Mar Estate in the Cairngorms National Park;
enjoy the vast wealth of whiskies on offer in Scotland

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Xxx
1

1: Bovey Castle was built by Viscount
Hambleden 2: Amberley Castle is 900
years old, and was once used by the
bishops of Chichester 3: King John
visited Cawood Castle 4: Woodsford
Castle in Hardy country 5: Hever Castle,
former home of two wives of Henry VIII

King of
the Castle
Jemima Coxshaw goes in search
of fortresses big and small, where
you can slumber like royalty

4

92 discoverbritainmag.com

2

1

2

Although the newest of all our fortresses,
Bovey Castle’s setting, all 400 acres within
Dartmoor National Park, is enough to have
us weak at the knees. Its story begins with
William Henry Smith (of the stationer
WH Smith, which made its fortune in the
Industrial Revolution’s railway stations) and
later to become Viscount Hambleden. He
bought 5,000 acres of land in 1890, with
the intention of establishing himself as a
country squire. But it was his son, Frederick
Smith, who completed the neo-Jacobean
manor house in 1907, which acted as a
symbol of family wealth. After Frederick’s
death, the house came, fittingly, under the
ownership of the Great Western Railway
Company, which built a golf course and
opened it as a hotel, setting it up as a
southern rival to Gleneagles in Scotland.

For the dedicated Anglophile, Amberley
Castle is about as gratifyingly boxticking as it gets. The downland village
of Amberley in West Sussex is peppered
with chocolate-box perfect cottages, and
is framed by the South Downs Way on its
east side and the River Arun on the south
and west sides. Presiding over it all is
Amberley Castle, the 900-year-old fortress
that now doubles as a luxury hotel. Once
used by the bishops of Chichester, it was
part destroyed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders
during the Civil War owing to its Royalist
tenant, as a result of which its Great Hall
was demolished. From war to a blissfully
peaceful retreat, visitors who pass through
its 60-foot-high curtain wall will find its
rooms resplendent, its food sumptuous and
its service simply sublime.

www.boveycastle.com

www.amberleycastle.co.uk

Bovey Castle

Devon

Amberley Castle

West Sussex

Xxx

DAVID GRIFFEN PHOTOGRAPHY; PAUL GRUNDY; SCOTT WRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

3

3 Cawood Castle

4 Woodsford Castle

5 Hever Castle

North Yorkshire

Dorset

Kent

Once upon a time, Cawood Castle was
the medieval stronghold of the archbishops
of York and played host to a long line of
royal visitors, including King John. In 1465,
it provided the setting for the “Great Feast
of Cawood” to celebrate the accession of
George Neville to Archbishop of York,
which rivalled the king’s coronation
festivities. Cardinal Wolsey was arrested
at Cawood in 1530 and turned back
south, where he died shortly after. Much
of the castle was dismantled during the
17th century English Civil War, when it
fell into the hands of Parliamentarians in
1646. Today the gatehouse and banqueting
hall remain, and guests can stay via the
Landmark Trust, which restores buildings
of historical significance for holiday lets.

Set in deepest Hardy country, up to eight
guests can stay in the remaining part of
the 14th century Woodsford Castle. The
fortress dates back to 1370, when it was
most likely built as part of a wider group
of buildings. It was later bought by Sir Guy
de Bryan, a close friend of King Edward
III, who was remembered, during Queen
Elizabeth I’s reign some 200 years later,
as a great warrior by historian William
Camden – who describes the Woodsford
building as being where Sir Guy had
“a little castle of his own”. It has passed
through many aristocratic hands, and
in 1850 John Hicks of Dorchester
commissioned its restoration to a Mr Hardy
– father of the writer Thomas. It is now let
for holidays by the Landmark Trust.

Originally built in 1270, Hever Castle is,
curiously, most closely associated with two
of the famous wives of King Henry VIII.
In the 16th century, it was the childhood
home of Anne Boleyn, for whom Henry’s
passion was so fervent that he not only
married her, as opposed to just keeping
her as his mistress, but also renounced the
national Catholic faith of the entire nation.
It was later home to another of his wives,
Anne of Cleves, who apparently lived there
unperturbed by the ultimate unfortunate
fate of her predecessor. Centuries later,
in 1903, the historic gem was restored
to lavish effect by America’s wealthiest
man, William Waldorf Astor, and today
guests can stay in splendid luxury in
a designated wing of the castle.

www.landmarktrust.org.uk

www.landmarktrust.org.uk

www.hevercastle.co.uk

5

discoverbritainmag.com 93

ACCOMMODATION GUIDE – places to stay in Britain

SCOTLAND FARM
At Scotland Farm you will check in as guests but check out as friends. In the
heart of Jane Austin country this little gem of a B&B offers a treat like no
other. On the working farm you will be welcomed as part of the family and
Jessica and her friendly dogs will be more than happy to show you how its
all done. The 3 luxury King size rooms (all ensuite with wifi) are fitted out
with Jessica’s famous Southdown Duvets range of wool quilts, pillows and
mattress toppers ensuring a glorious healthy nights’ sleep. During the day
you can meet the sheep who provide the wool for this exceptional bedding,
walk among the Southdown flock grazing in the 100 acres of green fields,
soak up stunning views of the Southdown National Park and enjoy Jessica’s
home cooked breakfast of locally sourced produce, Scotland Farm eggs

and lamb sausages, home made preserves and home grown vegetables. Ask
Jessica about Scotland Farm and she will laugh saying its where the inmates
run the asylum but she is hugely proud of her 100% excellent trip advisor
ratings.
Keep a look out for a fantastic combination of accommodation and
bedding offers throughout 2016 or call Jessica for more details

Upland Lane, Hawkley, Liss, Hampshire GU33 6NH
Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 (0)1730 827 418
www.scotlandfarm.com

BUSH NOOK GUEST HOUSE
Bush Nook is set on the slopes of North Pennines, a half mile off the A69
at Gilsland, within the rolling and open countryside of North East Cumbria.
The Guest House has been restored to retain and enhance many features
of the original property. There are a mix of single, double and twin bed and
breakfast guest rooms, each with individual design and character.
All bedrooms are ensuite and comfortably furnished, complete with crisp
white cotton bedding, Freeview digital television, hair dryer and hot drink
making facilities, as well as a supply of toiletries and fluffy towels for your
personal use.
If you wish to treat yourself to something a little special, our ground
floor B&B holiday cottage offers more space and comfort, with your own

private lounge, charming double bedroom, oak panelled floors, separate full
bathroom with bath and overhead shower and kitchen facilities.
There is a dedicated guest area to relax in with a lounge and a delightful
conservatory, where in an evening you can rest, watch the birds, take in the
stunning views, maybe have a drink in the Nook Bar or on a morning watch
the sun rise as you breakfast.
Visitors can also have complimentary use of the garden hot tub with
stunning views across Northumberland and Hadrian’s Wall Country.
Bush Nook, Upper Denton, Gilsland, Cumbria, CA8 7AF
Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 (0)1697747194
www.bushnook.co.uk

The perfect
Cornish holiday destina

THORNBURY CASTLE HOTEL

PORTHLEVEN HOLIDAY COTTAGES

Step back in time in this extraordinary Tudor castle on the edge of the
Cotswolds. This hotel offers the perfect luxurious retreat – combining
500-year-old architecture with sumptuous facilities. Thornbury Castle
is a place to de-stress – take a stroll around the manicured lawns and
landscaped grounds, book a massage in your own bedchamber and relax
over a delicious meal in our exclusive 2 rosette restaurant. Each of the 26
bedchambers is unique, most with coronet or four-poster beds, and the
bathrooms are both opulent and well-appointed.
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire BS35 1HH
Email: reception@ thornburycastle.co.uk | Tel: +44 (0)1454 281182
www.thornburycastle.co.uk

The most southerly port in Britain, Porthleven is the quintessential Cornish
harbour village. Set in the sweep of Mounts Bay with the Lizard Peninsular
to the east, Penwith to the west and the Atlantic to the south, it’s the perfect
location to explore the area or just take it easy and watch the world go by.
With 30 beautiful properties to choose from there is something for everyone
from large family houses and stylish apartments to romantic traditional
cottages and cosy converted net lofts. With our office located in the heart of
the village we are always on hand to help make your holiday perfect.
Celtic House Harbour Head Porthleven Helston Cornwall TR13 9JY
Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 (0)1326 574270
www.porthlevenholidaycottages.co.uk

30 gorgeous properties many w
sea and harbour views

Call to book +44 (0)1326 574270 or v
www.porthlevenholidaycottages.co.

RUTHIN CASTLE HOTEL & SPA
Ruthin Castle Hotel & Spa is a beautiful retreat; steeped in history and nestled
in acres of parkland beside the Clwydian Range in North Wales. Here you can
indulge yourself with exquisite dining, unwind in our distinctive spa or revel in
one of our renowned Medieval Feasts before sinking into a luxurious bed for a
sleep worthy of a Prince or Princess.
The Castle offers four room styles across 58 bedrooms. These are:
The Princes of Wales Suite, Castle Suites - unusually themed and extravagantly
furnished guest rooms, Castle Deluxe King or Twin, Castle Luxury King or Twin.
All of our guest rooms blend the original era of The Castle with modern comfort
In our Moat Spa, which rests beside the rustic woodland grounds of
The Castle’s original moat, you can leave the world behind you with

beauty treatments and health club that will help relax your mind and revive
your spirit.
Ruthin Castle Hotel & Spa is a royal gem just waiting to be explored.
Legendary Ruthin Castle has been welcoming guests – including Kings &
Queens and noted members of society for several hundred years and today,
that long history of delivering warm hospitality and comfort to guests continues,
having received a Visit Wales Gold Award which rewards outstanding quality,
exceptional comfort and hospitality.
Castle Street, Ruthin LL15 2NU, North Wales, UK
Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 (0)1824 702664
www.ruthincastle.co.uk

COMMEMORATIVE GUERNSEY & ALDERNEY STAMPS
Guernsey Post has issued its own stamps
since 1969 and during this time we have
produced many unusual and innovative
designs. The beautiful Bailiwick of Guernsey
continually provides inspiration for creating
memorable and collectable stamp issues.
We occasionally produce more unusual
items for collectors - if you are looking for
something different, then look no further!
For a full list of our collectables why not
browse our website, go online today!
Year of the Monkey 2016

Set of six stamps: £3.62

Endangered Species: Philippine Eagle
NEW ISSUE: Miniature Sheet: £3.00 Issue date: 17th February 2016

PREORD
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Alderney: Longis Nature Reserve
NEW ISSUE: Set of six stamps: £3.62 Issue date: 17th February 2016

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Quiz
Crossword no 189
SAY WHAT?
Can you identify which great Briton uttered these
words of wisdom?

ADVANCE FEATURES; THE NATIONAL TRUST PHOTOLIBRARY/ALAMY

A

Across
1 A race between boats each with a
single pair of oars (6)
5 Humorous verse form popularised
by 13 down (8)
9 York-based architect who did
work at Buxton Crescent and
Harewood House (4,4)
10 — Hill House, Palladian villa on
the River Thames between Richmond
and Twickenham (6)
11 Nickname of Sir Henry Percy
(1364 – 1403) (7)
12 Staffordshire market town — or
Welsh national emblem (4)
14 Shoreham-by-Sea is at the mouth
of this river (4)
15 Container for Earl Grey,
perhaps (3,5)
18 Leader of the Peasants’ Revolt
of 1381 (3,5)
19 Game played on horseback (4)
21 River that flows through Carlisle (4)
23 Historic market town in Surrey,
at the foot of the North Downs (7)
25 River that runs through Worcester
and Gloucester (6)
26 Hampshire village associated with
renowned naturalist Gilbert White (8)
27 Foliage (8)

28 — and Cleopatra, a play by George
Bernard Shaw (6)

Down
2 A shoe with a thick wooden sole (4)
3 Tourist centre in the New Forest (9)
4 A rhythmical song sung by sailors
while working (6)
5 Fictional detective created by
Dorothy L Sayers (4,5,6)
6 A structure erected to commemorate
persons or events (8)
7 Of or relating to the countryside (5)
8 Area of West Yorkshire, including
the towns of Sowerby Bridge and
Hebden Bridge (10)
13 19th century artist and
humorist, author of The Owl
and the Pussy Cat (6,4)
16 Sailing resort at the mouth of the
River Torridge in North Devon (9)
17 Duke reputedly put to death in 1478
“in a butt of Malmsey” (8)
20 Language of the Celts (6)
22 Relationship of Queen Victoria
to her predecessor William IV (5)
24 — Sewell, the author of
Black Beauty (4)
Visit discoverbritainmag.com for answers

“I would rather be a beggar and single than
a queen and married”
B

“I love fools’ experiments. I am always
making them”
C

“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us,
but what we do”
D

“Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound”
E

“Difficulties are just things to overcome,
after all”
Turn to page 98 for the answers

Solution to crossword 188
Across: 1 Mutual, 4 Chancel, 9 Linklater, 10 Psalm,
11 Earls, 12 Lymington, 13 Newquay, 15 Limpet, 17
Jekyll, 19 Douglas, 22 Linden Lea, 24 Elgin, 26 Teifi, 27
Ashbourne, 28 Emerald, 29 Levels
Down: 1 Malvern, 2 Tenor, 3 Aylesbury, 4 Cartmel,
5 Aspen, 6 Chartwell, 7 Lympne, 8 Stalky, 14
Whernside, 16 Mousehole, 18 Lollard, 19 Drachm,
20 Sonnets, 21 Blithe, 23 Eliza, 25 Gorge
discoverbritainmag.com 97

Agony aunt
“When drinking tea, never
ever raise your little finger.
It is not, as the misguided
believe, elegant”
Dear Abashed,
Banish your bashfulness and ditch your
discomfort. The best way to circumnavigate
embarrassment is to realise that you need
not refer to or make a song and dance about
the call of nature. If you slip off without
fuss, the chances are that little fuss will
be made in return. However, there are
certain rules amid polite society. “Loo”
is the accepted term, while also tolerable
are “lavatory”, “ladies” or “gents” (the
latter two only if you are out in public
– never in someone’s home). “Toilet” is
best avoided, certainly amongst the upper
crust, but worse still are coy weasel words:
never refer to the “little girl’s room”,
“conveniences” or – gulp – the “bog”.

Dear Confused,
The first rule of office life is to remember
who is boss. And as your experience has
shown you, blurring the boundaries can
make it unnecessarily hard for all. The
good news is that it sounds like you have
an overall happy working life, and by no
means do I suggest that one should behave
like an automaton in the workplace. There
is plenty of room for personal pleasantries.
Do, for example, ask after her children,
or whether she enjoyed her holiday. But do
not pry or push for information. Remember,
even if she overshares, it’s her prerogative
to resume professional distance at will,
so make sure you do not tell her details
of your life that you would usually only
share with good friends. Remain polite,
professional and keep the boundaries clear.
And when you have a work crisis, do your
best to solve it before bothering her. No one
prefers a problem to a solution.
Dear Miss Manners,
To dunk, or not to dunk,
that is the question…
Yours, Soggy Digestive fan
Dear Soggy Digestive fan,
If, as I presume, you are talking about
the habit of submerging biscuits in your
afternoon tea, the answer is emphatically
not to dunk if you are in anything other
than a completely informal setting (no
one will judge you for dipping a Rich Tea
in your Earl Grey in the comfort of your
sitting room). But I’m glad you ask, because
I get a lot of letters about the etiquette
surrounding the serving and drinking of
tea. Let’s clear some of them up. If you are
serving tea to a group, opt for loose leaf

Modern
manners
Miss Manners answers your
questions of etiquette
and do make a pot – alongside a second pot
of hot water (no one likes over-brewed tea).
Do nominate either yourself or someone
else to “be mother” and pour the tea – it
avoids people either hanging back or being
overbearing. Hand each cup out as you
go, rather than pouring several and then
dispensing them to the group. Stir with the
spoon provided, but do not clink it against
the cup. Ensure you hold your cup by the
handle (leaving the saucer on the table) and
never ever raise your little finger. It is not,
as the misguided believe, elegant.
Dear Miss Manners,
When nature calls, how should one
refer to the “bathroom” (which always
seems such an odd term to me, since
the convenience one is referring to
usually does not contain a bath)?
Yours, Abashed

Dear Miss Manners,
I recently became engaged to be married
and my husband-to-be’s family is very keen
that we hold an engagement party. I have
always thought them unnecessary, but I
don’t want to be rude. If we go ahead, what
considerations should I take into account?
Yours, Betrothed
Dear Betrothed,
Congratulations on your happy news.
While the engagement party is by no means
essential to the wedding whirl, it can be
both good fun and a great place to get
some event-planning practice in ahead of
the main event. If you do go ahead, ensure
the party takes place within two months
of announcing the engagement. Also, do
beware of hosting a big party ahead of a
small wedding – those who are invited will
naturally expect to be asked to the day.
Do also ensure that you are meticulous
about introducing people – it may be the
first time family members and friends have
met, so make them feel comfortable (this
will pay off on the big day). If you can,
serving champagne and canapés is the
stylish thing to do. Should you be given
presents, make sure you write a thank you
letter. Polite guests will also write notes to
the host after the event. And you’re right
– if your soon-to-be in-laws would like to
host a party for you, the gracious thing is to
accept, relax and enjoy the party. n

ANSWERS TO SAY WHAT? A QUEEN ELIZABETH I B CHARLES DARWIN C JANE AUSTEN D SIR THOMAS MORE E ERNEST SHACKLETON

98 discoverbritainmag.com

ILLUSTRATION BY VINCE MCINDOE/DÉBUT ART

ear Miss Manners,
My boss and I get on really well. We are
the same age, we share interests and a sense
of humour, and I would say we’re almost
friends. But occasionally it can be hard
to adjust when her manner becomes more
businesslike. I can end up feeling offended
when she talks to me like I’m a subordinate.
How should I handle the situation?
Yours, Confused

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