London’s Olympic Stadium London’s Olympics Games are just around the corner and in the host city there’s a buzz developing that even the British composure can’t mask. As the 2012 signs and flags begin to appear in the streets, the last of the construction and makeovers are being hurriedly finished. At the Olympic Stratford site […]
Sign of the time
Changing the name For as long as any of us can remember, it’s been called Big Ben. The clock, faithfully telling the time for more than a century, high above the UK’s houses of parliament, has become one of the most iconic images of London and England more general (up there with the Spice Girls, […]
Pomp and circumstance
It was meant to be a big jubilee celebration for the Queen and her subjects. So how did so many of them get treated so badly in the chaos?
The rejuvenation of the crown
Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee It wasn’t so long ago, I recall, that the Royal Family was a bit of a joke. An entire generation of them seemed unable to keep their private lives out of the tabloids with their adulterous, gaffe-prone, toe-sucking scandals. And the response to it all from the top left the […]
Protecting the world a seed at a time
The Kew Gardens in London are much more than just a park. They’re at the centre of efforts to protect the world’s plant species.
Newcastle is changing
Above ground, the English city of Newcastle is changing. The symbols of industry have shifted from the practical to the nostalgic.
Film in the Scott family
The Tyneside Cinema is the oldest functioning newsreel theatre in the UK. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a blockbuster with your nostalgia.
This is nothing like my university dorm
It seems an odd place for a bunch of university students to live – an 11th century heritage-listed castle. But somehow it works!
Churchill’s London
With Germans bombing London, Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, went underground to plan his strategy. Now see the bunkers from where he won the war.