Country Life's 10 best architecture stories of 2022
A 'heaven on earth in the Cotswolds' and the library of your dreams are among the best this year.

Hall Place, Hampshire: The fabulous house where the Duchess of Cornwall spent her idyllic childhood summers
Hall Place in West Meon, Hampshire, is currently the home of Michael and Claudia Langdon. Yet for many years it was owned by the grandparents of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, and was specially chosen by her for coverage in her guest-edited issue of Country Life.
Inside Kelmscott Manor, William Morris’s ‘heaven on earth’ in the Cotswolds
Jeremy Musson visited a house that was beloved of William Morris, the poet, designer and founding father of the conservation movement.
The best country house architects in Britain
Back in March we published our updated list of the finest architects in Britain — the people you need to go to for serious work on a country house.
Mapperton House: Still the nation’s finest manor house?
In June, Timothy Connor explained more about the home of the Viscount and Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, the Dorset home that is one of our most celebrated manor houses.
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The Royal Yacht Britannia: How The Queen created a floating home and theatre of state
We don't have a yachts editor — perhaps next year — but architecture editor John Goodall was more than happy to go aboard HMY Britannia to tell its unique story.
Longstowe Hall: The superb country house that makes you feel like you’ve ‘stepped into a 17th-century Dutch painting’
Incredible stuff in the form of an Elizabethan house that was remodelled by an Edwardian industrialist who created superb interiors in the aesthetic of the Dutch Masters.
Beeleigh Abbey: An incredible medieval house that’s barely altered since Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the monasteries
Just last month we looked at the house — including the sumptuous library — of a building whose survival is an extraodrinary quirk of history when so many similar places were razed to the ground.
Fulbeck House: A wonderful home ‘that arrests the eye as an ideal of English country living’
Nowhere lost more great country houses that Lincolnshire during the 20th century — but this one remains, and is in splendid shape.
London’s lost masterpieces: The palaces and Georgian gems torn down in 30 years of 20th century madness
London would look very different had it not been for the widespread demolition of Georgian architecture in the 20th century. John Martin Robinson took a look back at what was lost and what was fortunately saved.
Balmoral: A Highland paradise, and the much-loved royal family summer escape since 1848
After Her Majesty passed away at Balmoral in September 2022, we revisited Mary Miers' fascinating piece from a decade previously about this true home-from-home for the royal family.
Blenheim Palace: The story of the English answer to Versailles
Quite simply one of the outstanding palaces of Baroque Europe, planned as both a residence and national monument, was the subject of John Goodall's piece in the summer.
See Country Life's top 10s of 2022
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.
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How to disconnect from reality and feel like a new person in under 72 hours
Our round-up of the best British retreats that work wellness wonders in under 72 hours.
By Jennifer George Published
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Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'
When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
By Tiffany Daneff Published
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Cath Harries — The photographer on a 15-year quest to find the most incredible doors in London
By Toby Keel Published
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The extraordinary Egyptian-style Leeds landmark hoping to become a second British Library — and they used to let sheep graze on the roof
The project has been awarded £10million from the Government, but will cost £70million in total.
By Annunciata Elwes Published
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Art, architecture and plastic bricks at Lego House: 'It's as if the National Gallery set up easels and paints next to the masterpieces and invited you try your hand at creating a Van Gogh'
The rural Danish town where Lego was created is dominated by the iconic toy — and at Lego House, it has a fittingly joyful site of pilgrimage. Toby Keel paid a visit.
By Toby Keel Published
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Restoration House: The house in the heart of historic Rochester that housed Charles II and inspired Charles Dickens
John Goodall looks at Restoration House in Rochester, Kent — home of Robert Tucker and Jonathan Wilmot — and tells the tale of its remarkable salvation.
By John Goodall Published
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'A glimpse of the sublime': Inside the drawing room of the 'grandest Palladian house in Ireland'
The redecoration of the drawing room at Russborough House in Co Wicklow, Ireland, offers a fascinating insight into the aesthetic preoccupations of Grand Tourism in the mid 18th century. John Goodall explains; photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
By John Goodall Published
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The ideal of the Scottish castle: Aldourie's joyful fantasy of turrets, invention and recreation
The process of stitching together the architectural fabric of the Aldourie estate in Inverness-shire has created an outstanding group of new and restored buildings. John Goodall explains more; photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
By John Goodall Published
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Brutalism and the Bauhaus in Britain
Adrien Brody won the Best Actor award for his turn in ‘The Brutalist’, playing the role of Lazslo Toth, one of the key movers in the architectural movement. Will Hosie takes a look at the legacy of Brutalism in Britain, looking at the best buildings both of Brutalism and the Bauhaus Movement which preceded it.
By Will Hosie Last updated
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Nature and nurture in the gardens of Bramham Park
Tim Richardson looks at the innovative and superbly maintained 18th-century landscape garden of Bramham Park in West Yorkshire, home of Nick and Rachel Lane Fox. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
By Tim Richardson Published