January/February 2021

Britain

The official magazine of Visit Britain

Britain1 min read
Editor's Letter
As we bid a firm farewell to 2020, we look ahead to a more hopeful year – one in which we’re looking forward to rediscovering some of our favourite haunts. In our two big features we celebrate parts of the country that couldn’t be more different. Fir
Britain1 min read
Britain
Editor Natasha Foges Art Editor Clare White Production Editor Jenny Rowe Group Account Director Caroline Warrick Group Advertising Manager Natasha Syed Senior Sales Executive Sachin Patel Chairman Paul Dobson Publisher Caroline Scott Group Editor S
Britain2 min read
Your Letters
At the end of 2019 I lost my wife of 52 years. We (she from California, and I from South Africa) met on a coach tour of England and Scotland, and married in London a year later, on her next trip. Since then we have made frequent trips back visiting m
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Star Letter In Praise Of Hidden Gems
We are typical tourists in some ways; visiting the biggest attractions like the Tower of London, Windsor and Castle Howard. However, we much prefer the smaller, unsung houses. In that light, I’d like to give a ringing endorsement to a house which cap
Britain4 min readCooking, Food & Wine
The BULLETIN
Though it’s one of the most recognisable landmarks in London, Tower Bridge has only been around for 126 years. A new exhibition, which will run until 4 April 2021, aims to celebrate how the people who work here today continue to make history through
Britain7 min read
King Of The Castles
For escapees from the more crowded corners of this little island, one word encapsulates the allure of Northumberland above any other: space. From the rolling moors and deep wooded valleys of Northumberland National Park to the rugged cliffs and endle
Britain1 min read
Reading Corner
Faithful Witness edited by Robert Beaken (£30, SPCK Publishing). The diaries of the king's chaplain provide a ringside view of Edward VIII's abdication, George VI's coronation and more. Lady Charlotte Guest: The Exceptional Life of a Female Industr
Britain1 min read
The Planner
Regular trains from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh stop at Newcastle-upon-Tyne (3hr), where you can rent a car, with some services also stopping at Alnmouth (for Alnwick) and Berwick-upon-Tweed. British Airways operate several flights daily from Lo
Britain5 min read
National Trust on Screen
Can we provide a top-secret military installation for the next Bond film? Do we have a spectacular ballroom for next year’s big costume drama? Have we got an Isaac Newton look-a-like who can go on camera? When the phone rings at the National Trust Fi
Britain1 min read
Favourite Filming Moments
• Watching from the sidelines when our conservation specialists worked with the film crew to ensure the safety of Kedleston Hall’s historic interior when Keira Knightley’s wig had to catch fire in The Duchess. It was a tad terrifying. • Attending a r
Britain5 min readPolitics
First AMONG EQUALS
In 1841, early in Queen Victoria’s reign, her mentor and Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne explained truthfully if opaquely to Her Majesty: “How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is difficult to trace precisely.” It’s certa
Britain5 min read
Capital Escapes
For much of the last year, we haven’t been able to travel in the way we used to, but the longing to stay somewhere new, to escape the everyday for a day or more, hasn’t abated. We’ve compiled a wishlist of special places to stay once restrictions are
Britain1 min read
Book Ahead
A historic and glamorous hotel with a staggering array of famous past guests, set in extensive National Trust parkland. www.clivedenhouse.co.uk Visitors to this stylish country-house hotel in Surrey feel like guests at one of Lord Beaverbrook’s int
Britain4 min read
Scottish Traditions
There is much dispute in the history of Highland dress, and its best-known garment, the kilt. Some say it was invented by an Englishman, others that it has a long and noble history as the uniform of the clans. Its modern history began with the Act of
Britain3 min read
Cirencester
Cirencester began life as Corinium Dobunnorum, a Roman city whose 2nd-century walls encompassed the second-largest area of any in Britain at the time. Almost 20 centuries later, the most panoramic window into its past can be found at the Corinium Mus
Britain1 min read
The Planner
Kemble is the nearest station and trains travel here directly from London taking about 1hr 15min. Bus no. 882 runs from Kemble into town about every hour, taking about 20min. Cirencester’s Civic Society lead daily town walks from April to October, or
Britain4 min readCrime
The Mystery Of Christie
She is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Her 66 murder mysteries have sold more than 2 billion copies worldwide. Her super-sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are household names. But the inimitable Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime, migh
Britain1 min readCrime
Book Ahead
Agatha Christie's Devon home is filled with her collections of ceramics, silver and books, including first editions of her novels. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway You can also visit Burgh Island, either on foot at low tide or via the sea tractor,
Britain5 min read
Shear Delight
Spend a long weekend in a certain patch of southern Suffolk, nestled along the River Stour and its tributaries, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you had slipped back in time. The five towns of Sudbury, Lavenham, Long Melford, Clare and Hadleigh see
Britain1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
The Planner
Greater Anglia trains run from London Liverpool Street to Sudbury via Marks Tey (1hr 20min). There are good local bus services connecting the main towns. www.greateranglia.co.uk; www.suffolkonboard.com The Swan at Lavenham is a well-established favo
Britain4 min read
Top 10 Liverpool
In 1886, the Illustrated London News proclaimed, “It is the New York of Europe, a world-city”. The city in question was Liverpool – the place that, according to Disraeli, was the “second city of the Empire”. Yet he was referring to somewhere that in
Britain1 min read
The Planner
There’s a fast train service from London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street, which takes 2hr 15min. www.thetrainline.com Titanic Hotel in the Stanley Dock conservation area is housed in a renovated warehouse, with each bedroom retaining its original wi
Britain2 min read
Hall
Somerleyton Hall hunkers handsomely in 12 acres of ornamental gardens amid the broad, flat landscape of East Anglia. A Jacobean manor built in 1610, it was elaborately remodelled as an Italianate mansion by the Victorian entrepreneur Sir Samuel Morto

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