Outside Georgia’s parliament building in Tbilisi a handful of protesters sit in small tents planning their next move. “We will not surrender,” reads a placard written in English nearby. Faced with what they perceive as aggression from Russia, the protesters in the Georgian capital were standing their ground […]
Lisbon was one of the wealthiest cities in the world in the early 16th century thanks to trade. But today the traces of the place known to contemporary explorers and merchants have all but vanished from the main streets of Portugal’s capital. The city was virtually wiped out […]
In the cramped courtyards and cobbled narrow streets winding down from Lisbon’s castle to the city’s cathedral, residents are gearing up for a month long party that is the Fiesta de Santo Antonio. Outdoor pop-up bars clad with lager taps are built, the colourful bunting is up and […]
When Erasmus Darwin – grandfather of Charles – set out on the road to see his patients, he left nothing to chance. One witnessed in 1788 “a pile of books reaching from the floor to nearly the front window of the carriage and also a writing case and […]
For someone so closely associated with London, the fact that references to Samuel Johnson abound in Lichfield – a city some 20 miles from Birmingham – may come as somewhat of a surprise. From a community hospital taking his name to a statue in the market square and […]
By Oliver Clark Lichfield Cathedral is today a place of quiet and contemplation, an impressive example of Gothic architectural splendour that dominates the skyline of the city that shares its name. But its sandstone edifice still bears the scars of the three violent sieges it endured during the […]
Where patients would once have convalesced, diners today enjoy alfresco meals on the covered terrace overlooking Galle’s beautiful natural harbour. Just a few metres away from the waves crush on the rocks, the restaurants and bars that can be found in the old Dutch Hospital complex are perhaps […]
Five hours drive from the capital in Sri Lanka’s central highlands, it doesn’t take long to realise why Nuwara Eliya is known as Little England. Visitors today find colonial-era-bungalows and Tudor-style hotels set in front of sweeping lawns and pretty flower gardens. In Nuwara Eliya, there are plenty […]
When travellers arrived by ocean liner in Colombo they didn’t have very far to go to find a pleasant place to stay. Opposite the city’s main port, the Grand Oriental Hotel was advertised in the 19th century as “the best equipped hotel in the East” with the “best […]
As far as London guide books go, Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies has to be one of the more usual. While most focus on popular tourist attractions such as St Paul’s Cathedral, London Zoo and the Science Museum, this one takes a different subject altogether. It was […]
Past In The Present 