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.
Country Life's John Goodall managed to get hold of a ticket to one of the most eagerly-anticipated art exhibitions in years: Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
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.
Country Life's architectural editor John Goodall is appalled at the lackadaisical approach of conservation authorities to Ruperra Castle, a Welsh gem in Caerphilly.
John Goodall looks at the origins of Winchester College and the inspiration for its superb medieval buildings. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
Over the past year our architecture editor John Goodall has illustrated a period in the development of the English great house. In this final article in this 12-part series, John looks at the Country House since the outbreak of the Second World War.
On the 950th anniversary of the royal transfer of The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin, Lincoln, John Goodall looks at the medieval development of what is without doubt one of Europe’s most brilliantly conceived cathedrals. Photographs by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
A restoration project revives the spectacular interior of one of Draper's Hall, one of London’s finest Livery Halls. John Goodall looks at the origins and history of the body that created it. Photographs by Will Pryce.
In our 125th anniversary year, Country Life has been taking a look at the development of the English home. This week, John Goodall looks at the architecture of Victorian Houses from 1837–1890.
In the second of two articles, John Goodall examines the architectural development of Lincoln’s Inn from the late 17th century to the present day.
This year, Lincoln’s Inn celebrates a remarkable 600th anniversary. In the first of two articles, John Goodall examines the origins of this celebrated society of lawyers. Photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
John Goodall looks at developments in the English house during the Regency period.
The Queen was the best-travelled monarch in British history. John Goodall looks at the story of the Royal Yacht Britannia, now permanently moored in Leith, Edinburgh. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
What are the origins of our national anthem? John Goodall investigates the extraordinary story behind both the tune and the words, as well as their influence on other nations.
In the second of two articles, John Goodall revisits Holkham Hall — the seat of the Earl of Leicester — to tell the story of its creation in the mid 18th century by the Earl of Leicester and his widow.
The new National Trust chairman René Olivieri on an unexpected past and hopes for the future.
John Goodall revisits the splendours of Holkham Hall in Norfolk, a celebrated house — and the seat of the Earl of Leicester — created in the mid 18th century by Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester.
After nearly 60 years as a hotel, this former home of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson has been triumphantly restored as a house museum. John Goodall reports; photography by Paul Highnam.
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. The house, so well known to The Duchess in her childhood, was specially chosen by her for coverage in her guest-edited issue of Country Life. It is revealed in a new light by fresh documentary research, as John Goodall reports. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
John Goodall looks at the English home in the aftermath of the ‘Glorious Revolution’, in the latest in his series about the development of the great house on these shores.
