In anticipation of The Queen’s Jubilee Year, Country Life had the opportunity to photograph the majestic interiors of Westminster Abbey, our coronation church, amid the quiet of lockdown. In the first of two articles, John Goodall explains how, in this building, events from the deep past continue to touch our lives today. Photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library.
In the second of two articles, Clive Aslet looks at the furnishing of Campion Hall, particularly the treatment of the chapel, one of the city’s outstanding interiors. Photographs by Will Pryce.
The task of creating a Jesuit hall in Oxford in the 1930s was eagerly assumed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. In the first of two articles on Campion Hall, Oxford, Clive Aslet reveals the story of this remarkable building.
As the new reign begins, John Martin Robinson takes an exclusive look at Windsor Castle, Berkshire — an official residence of His Majesty King Charles III — and in particular the recently completed representation of the State Apartments. Photographs taken in the last few days of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
The Reform Club was made famous by Jules Verne as the home-from-home of Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days. Yet it began life, as John Goodall discovers, as an attempt to unify the Radical and Whig interests as a coherent political force, prompting work to what aimed to be the most magnificent club in London.
Fairburn Tower is the latest magnificent building saved and given a new life by The Landmark Trust. Mary Miers takes a look.
Church Cottage in Humbleton, South Yorkshire, is an 1830s schoolhouse that's been reworked to create a perfect smaller country house. John Martin Robinson admires the skill of the craftsmanship and the character of the building. Photographed by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
Inevitably hideous-looking and often mischievous, why do gargoyles and grotesques adorn some of our most solemn churches, asks Ben Lerwill.
An immense figure in British architecture, Charles Barry introduced an Italianate Renaissance style to the UK.
The sympathetic restoration of the delightful Chandler’s House — in Alton Barnes, Wiltshire — has created new, liveable and stylish interiors within potentially awkward constraints, as John Goodall discovers. Photography by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s designs shaped London as we know it — but despite his famed ‘unruffled serenity’, not all of his creations were met with rapt enthusiasm. Carla Passino takes a look.
Personable, yet naturally reserved, ‘that miracle of a youth, Mr Christopher Wren’ not only designed many of our most notable monuments, but also an artificial eye. Three centuries on from his death, Clive Aslet considers the man behind the architecture.
Jeremy Musson offers an overview of the wealth of buildings created by Winchester College from the Reformation to the present. Photographs by Paul Highman for the Country Life Picture Library.
John Goodall looks at the origins of Winchester College and the inspiration for its superb medieval buildings. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
James Fisher reports on a very 21st century addition to one of Britain's great cathedrals.
Netherby Hall, Cumbria — the home of Gerald and Margo Smith — is a house built on the site of a Roman fort, and evokes two periods of the distant past. John Martin Robinson reports on the recent revival of the building, including the award-winning restoration of its stables.
Tactfully revived, Dennis Severs’ House defies categorisation, finds Jeremy Musson.
John Morow was a formative figure in the history of Medieval Scottish architecture.
In the second of two articles looking at Fawley Hill, Buckinghamshire — the home of Lady McAlpine and the late Sir William McAlpine — Marcus Binney looks at a home filled with remarkable collections and striking interiors that reflect its creator’s enthusiasms and interests.
The astonishing assemblage of buildings, machinery and memorabilia at Fawley Hill, Buckinghamshire — the home of Lady McAlpine and the late Sir William McAlpine — is testimony to one man’s remarkable enthusiasm for the railways, as Marcus Binney discovers. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
